Speculation: Minor League Affiliates (Hershey Bears, SC Stingrays) - summer 2018 to summer 2019

[hb12xchamps]

The Bears are not a good hockey team. Injuries and call ups and depleted the blueline to the point where they are icing 3-4 ECHL defensemen per game. LuJo and Bindulis have long term injuries, Geisser left to join Switzerland at the WJC, Hobbs is now banged up, Williams has been in and out of the lineup with injuries, Siegenthaler more likely than not won't be back in Hershey for a good amount of time and Lewington was recalled to Washington. Hershey's lineup last night was

O'Brien-Sgarbossa-Barber
Walker-Megna-Whitney
Malenstyn-Pilon-Besse
Mitchell-Gustafsson-Ikonen

Ciff Watson-Ness
Steve Johnson-Ryan Sproul
Joey Leach-Williams

Samsonov
Vanecek

The forwards are providing little scoring for the goaltenders (unless they play WBS for whatever reason they have done really well against them) and losing Gersich and Pinho to injuries hasn't helped. Plus Bau has yet to come back from the spleen? injury he suffered at the world championships last year. Steve Whitney stinks and has no business being on the team, let alone in the top 6 forward grouping. His playing time should be given to Kammerer who at least is considered a "prospect" and not an "AHL Journeyman" like Richmond commented earlier in the offseason. Megna has been super disappointing and is basically forced to play center since our organizational center depth isn't great. I'd say they should make some sort of move to try and right the ship but don't see that happening at this point with this team being as bad as they are.

This team isn't going to make the playoffs (they're the second worst team in the AHL by win percentage) but at least give all the young kids playing time since that's the route that was chosen in the offseason. I don't want to continue to beat a dead horse but I've said from the beginning that it was a bad decision to go with pretty much all youth and I think the dumpster fire of a season Hershey is having is enough proof of that. Most of the top teams around the AHL have surrounded their younger guys with multiple veteran forwards and defensemen, just like Hershey used to do.

 

[Chockey Hockey]

Good post on the Bears. One thing you did not point out is that this coaching staff seems lost and clueless. Of the Cap's prospects, I've need little to no improvement over the first 30 games. When you look back, Troy Mann did develop players and I still think he got a raw deal.
I heard that there were a lot of fans that sent e-mails to the front office saying they would not renew season tickets if he was back as coach although he had a terrible roster to work with last year.
As they say, "be careful what you wish for". I hear many folks around me this season saying they are done with season tickets at seasons end.

 

[Sam Spade]

I heard that there were a lot of fans that sent e-mails to the front office saying they would not renew season tickets if he was back as coach although he had a terrible roster to work with last year.
As they say, "be careful what you wish for". I hear many folks around me this season saying they are done with season tickets at seasons end.

Fans that follow minor league teams and expect a ton of success aren't incredibly knowledgeable about the process of an NHL organization.

 

[AtNightWeFly]

I haven't watched the WJC seriously in about 2 years but I'm all in this year. Go Alex Alex!!!

 

[Cush]

Just Fehérváry and Alexeyev?

Edit: Looks like Geisser as well

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

The Bears are not a good hockey team. Injuries and call ups and depleted the blueline to the point where they are icing 3-4 ECHL defensemen per game. LuJo and Bindulis have long term injuries, Geisser left to join Switzerland at the WJC, Hobbs is now banged up, Williams has been in and out of the lineup with injuries, Siegenthaler more likely than not won't be back in Hershey for a good amount of time and Lewington was recalled to Washington. Hershey's lineup last night was

O'Brien-Sgarbossa-Barber
Walker-Megna-Whitney
Malenstyn-Pilon-Besse
Mitchell-Gustafsson-Ikonen

Ciff Watson-Ness
Steve Johnson-Ryan Sproul
Joey Leach-Williams

Samsonov
Vanecek

The forwards are providing little scoring for the goaltenders (unless they play WBS for whatever reason they have done really well against them) and losing Gersich and Pinho to injuries hasn't helped. Plus Bau has yet to come back from the spleen? injury he suffered at the world championships last year. Steve Whitney stinks and has no business being on the team, let alone in the top 6 forward grouping. His playing time should be given to Kammerer who at least is considered a "prospect" and not an "AHL Journeyman" like Richmond commented earlier in the offseason. Megna has been super disappointing and is basically forced to play center since our organizational center depth isn't great. I'd say they should make some sort of move to try and right the ship but don't see that happening at this point with this team being as bad as they are.

This team isn't going to make the playoffs (they're the second worst team in the AHL by win percentage) but at least give all the young kids playing time since that's the route that was chosen in the offseason. I don't want to continue to beat a dead horse but I've said from the beginning that it was a bad decision to go with pretty much all youth and I think the dumpster fire of a season Hershey is having is enough proof of that. Most of the top teams around the AHL have surrounded their younger guys with multiple veteran forwards and defensemen, just like Hershey used to do.

Curious... how much blame do you put on the Caps vs on Hershey's (mis)management? It's obviously tough for Hershey that the Caps haven't drafted any elite offensive talent since Burakovsky and Vrana but what about not signing any veterans?

 

[Hivemind]

Caps AGM has more direct power in Hershey than they used to. I also assume the wave of “older” prospects like Barber, Gersich, OBrien, Pinho, and Walker (plus maybe Boyd) were seen as candidates to take important roster spots and leadership roles.

The Caps over reliance on NCAA development of their forward ranks has really hurt Hershey. They’re getting fewer high end talents, and the ones they do get are already 22.

 

[Melkor]

They need to draft more from Finland. Finnish hockey system is on the rise but Caps seem to not have any pro scouts over there. They just hate to draft finns for whatever reason. Instead, they're in love with the WHL players which I don't understand, that league looks like the least talented one in the CHL.

 

[Sam Spade]

They need to draft more from Finland. Finnish hockey system is on the rise but Caps seem to not have any pro scouts over there. They just hate to draft finns for whatever reason. Instead, they're in love with the WHL players which I don't understand, that league looks like the least talented one in the CHL.

They did just sign Ikonen though.

 

[Melkor]

They did just sign Ikonen though.

Ikonen is an undersized undrafted 23-year old with pretty average stats in Sweden tho. He doesn't have NHL potential, more like AHL signing.

 

[hb12xchamps]

Curious... how much blame do you put on the Caps vs on Hershey's (mis)management? It's obviously tough for Hershey that the Caps haven't drafted any elite offensive talent since Burakovsky and Vrana but what about not signing any veterans?

It’s tough because what we hear at the rink and on the Facebook groups is only hearsay but I’d slightly lean more towards the Caps in terms of hockey management and Hershey towards being cheaper since HERCO has newer management. As Hive said the Caps have basically taken over in terms of roster management since Helmer was hired. I’m sure Helmer has some say but it’s definitely not a Doug Yingst led Hershey team. Yingst had the balls to fight back whereas all we’ve heard about Helmer is that he’s basically a puppet. It’s actually funny to think that Doug’s last year was the last time the team signed big time vets. That roster had Aaron Ness, Carter Camper, Ryan Stanton, Mike Moore, Paul Carey, Sean Collins, the Bourque brothers and Zack Sill mixed in with the influx of young guns. Now we have Ness on D, they just signed Ryan Sproul and we have Sgarbossa and Megna up front.

Generally, I’d say the Caps really need to sign some AHL scoring each offseason to offset the lack of high end prospects coming through. The Bears play in arguably the hardest division each year and all the teams around them are very active in the free agent market (Lehigh Valley, Providence, Wilkes-Barre, Charlotte and now Bridgeport).

I just don’t get why they went away from Doug’s vision in terms of roster management. It clearly was working as a lot of guys in Washington and throughout the league developed under a Doug Yingst led Hershey team. I’m hoping it gets better next year but this year has completely gone off the rails and fans in Hershey aren’t happy about it

 

[hb12xchamps]

Good post on the Bears. One thing you did not point out is that this coaching staff seems lost and clueless. Of the Cap's prospects, I've need little to no improvement over the first 30 games. When you look back, Troy Mann did develop players and I still think he got a raw deal.
I heard that there were a lot of fans that sent e-mails to the front office saying they would not renew season tickets if he was back as coach although he had a terrible roster to work with last year.
As they say, "be careful what you wish for". I hear many folks around me this season saying they are done with season tickets at seasons end.

Agreed on the coaching staff. I said before that the Wellar hire seemed more of a “let’s try to connect to the fans” type of hire than a developmental one. I’d argue that was the second most important position to get right with how many D prospects there are to develop. That group has taken a step back IMO

 

[Johnny Danger]

how do you like Hobbs development?

 

[hb12xchamps]

how do you like Hobbs development?

Hobbs has made significant strides since last season. You can tell he has a lot more confidence compared to last year. He's had some injury issues this year but which Bears D hasn't this year. It will be interesting to see if he picks up right where he left off after being out a few games while injured.

I really like him on the PP. Hershey's PP has been pretty abysmal throughout the year and I'd argue that's because they weren't utilizing the strengths of guys like Hobbs. Hobbs has a huge shot from the point and should be fed the puck a lot more than he has on the PP. Basically make him Hershey's version of Ovechkin on the PP

 

[hb12xchamps]

I also have to give shoutouts to Beck Malenstyn and Garrett Pilon. Both seem to be hitting their stride right now and have finally seemed to settle in.

Malenstyn is now getting 2nd PP and PK time now which he's done a good job at. He doesn't have a high ceiling developmental wise IMO but I could see him being a bottom 6 guy at the NHL level for sure. Decent skater, good defensively and isn't afraid to throw around the body. Only knock on him right now would be skills development and adding muscle to his frame. He looks like a twig out there some nights.

Pilon has started to put together some consistent performances. I've noticed how he does a lot of little things very well. Great at protecting the puck and with his board work and has great vision. He made a sweet little play the other night that resulted in a high quality scoring chance. He deflected a pass meant for him to a teammate overlapping him. He seems to be keeping his play simple which has been super effective.

 

[Hivemind]

I like Malenstyn and hoping he can translate into a NHL-quality 4th liner/PK player one day. But I fear he may end up as the latest revision of Garrett Mitchell or Steve Pinizzotto where he just doesn't quite have that NHL talent level. Hopefully he can fully develop in the next couple years.

Pilon turning a corner has me encouraged. He was a dark horse for me to keep an eye on heading into camp, but his slow start in Hershey afterwards had dampened my expectations. Hoping he can turn himself into an NHL-grade 3C given time.

 

[francaisvolantsparis]

The 2016-17 season was a good season for Hershey Bears. The line-up was :

Chris Bourque	Travis Boyd	Christian Thomas
Jakub Vrána	Chandler Stephenson	Stanislav Galiyev
Nathan Walker	Liam O'Brien	Riley Barber
Paul Carey	Zach Sill	Garrett Mitchell
Christian Djoos	Tyler Lewington
Aaron Ness	Colby Williams
Hubert Labrie	Madison Bowey
Pheonix Copley
Vitek Vanecek

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

So we have :

Goaltenders. Samsonov in, Copley out. Older Vanecek. Seems OK.
Defensemen. Johansen and Hobbs in, Djoos and Bowey out. Seems OK.
Forwards. Two entire top lines out. Replaced with Sgarbossa, Megna, Gersich, Pilon. Only Sgarbossa shows AHL Top6 play. Organization needs more forwards.
Head coach. Spencer Carbery in. Troy Mann out.

 

[Sam Spade]

Something will have to give with all these D prospects sooner rather than later. Moving one or two of Hobbs, Seigenthaler, Johansen, Fehervery, Bowey, should get at least a B+ forward prospect back.

The only untouchable prospect should be Alexeyev.

 

[hb12xchamps]

That's without including Chase Priskie who has 12 goals and 23 points in 18 games for Quinnipiac. They can afford to move a D prospect for a decent forward prospect at this point and they should sooner rather than later. Hershey's season is already lost and the best thing for them would be knowing that they can get some help up front with a bunch of guys probably moving on next season. Guys like O'Brien, Barber and Walker more likely than not would like an opportunity somewhere to get into a NHL lineup and they are the ones providing a lot of the offense in Hershey.

Priskie is going to be a college FA and will probably gather a lot of attention but they should be able to get him signed to a deal similar to Gersich and Pinho from last year.

 

[Sam Spade]

Walker has been waived three times, sadly I think that ship has sailed.

 

[Melkor]

That's without including Chase Priskie who has 12 goals and 23 points in 18 games for Quinnipiac. They can afford to move a D prospect for a decent forward prospect at this point and they should sooner rather than later. Hershey's season is already lost and the best thing for them would be knowing that they can get some help up front with a bunch of guys probably moving on next season. Guys like O'Brien, Barber and Walker more likely than not would like an opportunity somewhere to get into a NHL lineup and they are the ones providing a lot of the offense in Hershey.

Priskie is going to be a college FA and will probably gather a lot of attention but they should be able to get him signed to a deal similar to Gersich and Pinho from last year.

It is mandatory that they need to get Priskie signed no matter what. They need a guy who can control the blue line the way Carlson can on the PP and give puck support to forward group on counter attacks.

Vanecek is an All Star apparently

 

[Hivemind]

While prospect-for-prospect trades do happen, it's not super common to find another organization that simultaneously has prospects your interested in AND has interest in the prospects you view expendable. It usually happens when either a prospect requests a trade to a different organization (think the Bouchard for Kundratek trade, for instance). It's possible, but I wouldn't really count on it happening.


edit; Looking through last season's trades, I found five AHL "hockey trades" of players with NHL contracts (two-way).
Ryan Kujawinski was involved in two of them.
The average quality of the players involved was definitely on the lower end of things. It was mostly guys searching for one last chance in North American pro hockey. Several of the involved players are now in Europe, including Kuawinski, Mario Lucia, Viktor Loov, and our old friend Michael Latta (China in his case*).


*Latta, Kundratek, and Wojtek Wolski are all now together on the Kunlun Red Star, in fact!

 

[maacoshark]

Something will have to give with all these D prospects sooner rather than later. Moving one or two of Hobbs, Seigenthaler, Johansen, Fehervery, Bowey, should get at least a B+ forward prospect back.

The only untouchable prospect should be Alexeyev.

Pretty high on a guy that is still in juniors. He isnt untouchable.

 

[Sam Spade]

Pretty high on a guy that is still in juniors. He isnt untouchable.

He should be. He is a player that slipped in the draft due to injury concerns, Caps got lucky. Alexeyev has all the tools to be a good top four dmen in the NHL.

I tried to find a scouting report that best describes what I watched and how I think he plays:

There are two notable traits that Alexeyev possesses that likely make him a tantalizing option for NHL clubs: his size and his particularly low-risk playing style. Alexeyev is a big kid, standing 6’3″ and weighing 190 pounds. He’s big and uses his size well, but his size isn’t a hindrance; he has mobility you wouldn’t expect from a guy his size, and his on-ice awareness has helped him adjust very quickly to the smaller North American ice after growing up on the larger European playing surfaces.

But the exciting thing about Alexeyev may be how low-risk he is. On the defensive side of the ice he’s rarely out of position and never really gets caught in a misstep. On the offensive side of the game he rarely makes risky plays and so he doesn’t cause a lot of turnovers. The downside to his lack of risk-taking is he might not have a high offensive upside, but his lack of defensive warts might make the sum of his traits worthwhile.

 

[Silky mitts]

He should be. He is a player that slipped in the draft due to injury concerns, Caps got lucky. Alexeyev has all the tools to be a good top four dmen in the NHL.

I tried to find a scouting report that best describes what I watched and how I think he plays:

What struck me about him in the preseason was how fluid he was at 6’4”. The guy he was compared to at the draft was Orlov, and Orlov is a good player so you can’t just assume Alexeyev will develop into that skilled of a D, but if Orlov was 6’4” he’d be so much more valuable because with the reach he’d have a greater chance to recover after giveaways.

I’ve elevated Fehervary ahead of Siegenthaler et al after the juniors, that guy was a pterodactyl going toward the net.