Movement

The roster's completely changed since my last post, but notables:

Billy Irish-Baker has retired. Really sad to se Billy go, but it's for the best for him. Good luck to him in his future.

Conrad Martin has returned to the team. Glad to see another guy back from last year's crew.

Additional moves

Released
Cincinnati: Travis Hanson, F

Las Vegas
Delete Jimmy Kilpatrick, F traded to Cincinnati, 10/22

Tickets, anyone got tickets?

Also quick note - if you don't have your ticket for the home opener, you might want to show up a bit early. According to the ticket rep I spoke to today, the lower bowl is filling up very quickly. Looks to be a good crowd on Saturday!

Transactions

10/23/2008 Mark Van Guilder (F) Milwaukee DEL Released from PTO
10/23/2008 Stephen Werner (RW) Milwaukee ADD Recalled from loan to Cincinnati (ECHL)

Van Guilder is Cyclones property - nothing has shown up on the ECHL side, but look for him to show up in town by the weekend I'd imagine.

Additionally, the team signed Michael Cohen yesterday. Cohen was released from Reading's camp. Between Johnstown and Pensacola last year, he had 35 points in 65 games. Not spectacular, but worth a look, I'd say. He did have 100 points in 134 career games at Canisius College where he was a teammate of Billy Irish-Baker.

0-1-1

Once again I've been a little absent but I just got my first taste of the 2008-09 Cyclones on Saturday in Dayton. The small sampling I saw was sloppy and not the kind of hockey we're used to seeing Chuck Weber's team play, but it was one game - I'm not panicking yet. Contrary to those comments made by Bombers fans - we are not 0-2, we're 0-1-1 and do, in fact, have one point. Winless, but not defeated.

I have no comment on Wheeling because, well, I was completely out of the loop and haven't even seen a scoresheet, all I know's we lost and Beauregard had a hat trick.

Speaking of Beauregard... How long until Hamilton swaps him for Aubin? Who knows - but they're 4-0. Although it'd be an incredible waste of talent to watch him waste away as a health scratch in the Ameircan Hockey League. Other bits from Hamilton... after four games, David Desharnais (the little munchkin who could) is 16th in the AHL in assists. He's 1-4-5. Ryan Russell has surpassed his 2007-08 point total already in four games. Cedrick Desjardins has yet to see time between the pipes.

In Milwaukee... Van Guilder and McElroy have yet to put up points - could we see one of them soon? Hopefully if Arnott gets healthy, Nashville will trickle some talent down to Milwaukee.

Goaltending Probabilities

Montreal has three goaltenders in the big club's camp (Carey Price, Jaroslav Halak, and Marc Denis). Denis will likely go to Hamilton, where he'll join Cedrick Desjardins and Loic Lacasse. In all probability, this will move Loic Lacasse to us. Cedrick's had a fantastic camp and is in high favor with Montreal. Lacasse, 22, went 19-18-5/3.24/.906 with Bloomington of the IHL last season.

Milwaukee currently holds three goaltenders. With Drew McIntyre being reassigned from Nashville to Milwaukee, the second roster spot is between Mark Dekanich and Kyle Gajewski to be fought for. Neither one did badly last year. Unfortunately, I have yet to hear a report on either, but look to see one of them get trickled down to us.

Other Notes...
- JM Daoust is in Wilkes-Barre camp with Mitch Woods, and is one of seven guys fighting for a spot. I'm not 100% sure Wilkes-Barre would return him to us if he's cut, but it's something to keep in mind.
- So long, Desharnais: After three great performances in camp with Montreal, he was sent to Hamilton, where he recorded two assists in his first preseason game. It was nice knowing you, kid, we enjoyed you while we had you. Don't expect to see him back.

Where the roster stands

In my unfortunate absence (sorry guys, Columbus' preseason home opener and e-stalking Montreal's camp has devoured much of my soul for the last few weeks), I've missed some signings, so I'm going to go ahead and give a rundown of where we stand:

Forwards
Kyle Rank
Ben Gordon
Mark Van Guilder -- in camp with Milwaukee
Billy Irish-Baker
Barret Ehgoetz
Mikael Bedard *
Nicolas Robillard *
Mitch Woods -- in camp with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
Matt Syroczynski

Defensemen
Donny Grover -- in camp with Milwaukee
Steve Makway
Matt MacDonald -- in camp with Hamilton
Sean Perkins -- in camp with Milwaukee
TJ McElroy -- in camp with Milwaukee
Paul Lynch *
Brian Porter *
Joe Grimaldi

* - denotes tryout

Musings from Montreal's Rookie Camp.

With Montreal's rookie camp coming to a close, here are some tidbits to enjoy:

Courtesy of canadiens.nhl.com:

Head coach Guy Carbonneau also announced Thursday that forward David
Desharnais and goaltender Marc Denis will suit up for the pre-season contest against the Sabres on Tuesday in Roberval, Quebec.

This game is supposed to be on CBCsports.ca on Tuesday. Look for it! Congrats to David.

Olivier Latendresse & the Canadiens' writers showed the fans of Cincinnati a little love as well:

Six members of the 2008 East Coast Hockey League champion Cincinnati Cyclones – Thomas Beauregard, David Desharnais, Olivier Latendresse, Conrad Martin, Ryan Russell and Cedrick Desjardins – are taking part in the Canadiens’ rookie camp this week. Not only have they brought the Ohio franchise its first championship but the crew has also managed another impressive feat: making hockey popular in a state where football is all the rage.“We had crowds of over 13,000 during the Finals,” said Olivier Latendresse, who racked up 35 points in 24 games with the Cyclones. “We had a bunch of Quebec natives on the team and together with our teammates, we all built something really special. There were actually a few Quebec flags in the crowd, and it wasn’t even our families!”

Not to gloat or anything... but I'm pretty sure the Quebec flag trend started right in Row B of Section 138. :)

Not much, news-wise, has come out of Nashville up to this point. Yawn.

Habs & more

• CBCSports.ca will be airing the Canadiens vs. Sabres game on September 23rd. Be sure to check it out and possibly catch some of last years' guys in uniform for potentially both teams, if Bonneau is in uniform for Buffalo.
• Olivier Latendresse was interviewed by RDS Sports. Unfortunately, it's in French. If you want to watch anyway, check it out here.
• By the way, Habs rookie camp opened today.
• A few players on the move: Jason Deitsch (Texas Brahmas - CHL), AJ Bozoian (Bloomington PrairieThunder- IHL), Scott Reynolds (HC Fassa - Italy)

Daoust has Talbot to Thank

Great article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about Jean-Michel Daoust's friendship with Maxime Talbot, and how Talbot helped him get a shot in the AHL (and ultimately, the Pittsburgh Penguins' camp). Read it here.

Getting caught up

First things first, some signings:
Billy Irish-Baker, Sean Perkins, TJ McElroy, Barret Ehgoetz

All of them are great assets to the team and I'm glad to have them back. I think Irish-Baker and Perkins, with a full season under the belts, will bring great things to the table in their sophomore season. TJ McElroy finished fairly strong after coming over in the trade from Idaho. Ehgoetz, what can I say? The guy has done great things for the team in two seasons. He's a trooper.

And four training camp invitees:
Mikael Bedard, Nicolas Robillard, Paul Lynch, Brian Porter

Lynch and Porter were invitees from the free agent camp in August. Bedard, however, comes to us from the BCHL's Nainaimo Clippers where he put up 71 points in 59 games... 1.2 points per game. Robillard comes from the University of Moncton (CIS), where he played one season and put up 24 points in 28 games after splitting four seasons between the QMJHL and the QJAHL. He won the Memorial Cup with Cedrick Desjardins and the Quebec Remparts in 2005. Lynch spent 48 games in the SPHL last season, chalking up 130PIM. I'll reserve my opinions on this one, based on my feelings about the SPHL, but I'm not writing him off completely. Porter comes to us from the Greater Toronto Hockey League, 58 pts in 46 games with a ... get this ... +49.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have one line! :P

Onto other things of importance... NHL training camps. At least 10 members of the 2007-2008 Cyclones are going to be suiting up for NHL clubs in their training camps this month:

Montreal: Mathieu Aubin, Thomas Beauregard, David Desharnais, Cedrick Desjardins, Conrad Martin, Olivier Latendresse, Ryan Russell
Nashville: Ryan Maki, Mark Matheson
Pittsburgh: Jean-Michel Daoust

Signings; Beauregard

• The Canadiens have a great feature here about Thomas Beauregard. Check it out. He talks about how he's glad he started in Cincinnati. Definitely a good read.
• Mitch Woods was signed today, he spent 73 games with the Fort Wayne Komets where he amassed 297 penalty minutes. He did also manage 36 points, so I'll give him a small benefit of the doubt, but WTF. I hate hate hate goons (my love for Jared Boll is irrelevent here). I know Chuck doesn't like to carry guys on his roster that play dirty, so I'm hoping for chippy and not like a Nick Parillo.
• Matt Syroczynski was signed last week. I have a love/hate relationship with Chico - but it all balances out because usually for each dumb thing he does, he does something equally as awesome. Welcome back, Chico. :)

Catching up

• The Cyclones renewed their affiliations with both Montreal/Hamilton, and Nashville/Milwaukee. I look forward to seeing what we get from Montreal, as it seems like they've added a lot of depth to their minor league system.
• The team brought back Dean Stork as Assistant Coach/Director of Hockey Operations. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone.
• MAX FM (97.7/99.5) has agreed to pick up 30 regular season games this year (all road games), as well as any road playoff games. Here's hoping this deal works out for the best. I guess 96ROCK gave up. Doesn't bother me any - their "listen online" coverage was lame.
• Former Cyclone forward Cory Urquhart has signed with the Springfield Falcons. Oh, darn.

C-Web back in the Nati

Weber's been re-signed by the team to a multi-year deal to be Head Coach and VP of Hockey Operations. Congrats to the ECHL Coach of the Year!

Having said that, it's nice to have the coaching melee out of the way. Maybe now we can sign some players?

...anyone?

...Bueller?

Announcement to be Made Thursday

An announcement is to be made at 12:30pm on Thursday according to Cycloneshockey.com.

Cyclone-to-be?

The Sault Star from Sault Ste. Marie, ON reports the Preds have signed 21 year old goaltender Kyle Gajewski to a two-way contract; most likely he'll end up either with us or with Milwaukee. He was 39-16-4/2.44/0.913. Fairly good numbers. Here's hoping!

Baird Update

Stay updated on Jason's progress with this site run by his wife, Bethany.

Also, it looks like there's going to be a benefit game in Youngstown for him on August 24. Playing in the game will be NJ Devils player Mike Rupp and Kevin Kaminski, who coached Jason in Youngstown. If anyone who reads this is able to go, please drop me a line and let me know how the turnout is. Any donations to that benefit can be sent to:

Cindy Piedra
826 Oakridge Drive
Boardman, OH 44512

If you'd like to make a donation to the Baird family, you can do by sending checks, gas cards, anything you can help with to:

Baird Family Fund
PO Box 264
Perry, OH 44081

Also, if you'd like to send cards to Jason & his family, you can send it to the address here:

Jason Baird
Akron Children's Hospital - Burn Institute
One Perkins Square
Akron, OH 44308

Swanson to Victoria

Blueliner Jeremy Swanson has signed with the Victoria Salmon Kings according to the Victoria Times-Colonist.

Random tidbits

• According to the blogger for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, Chuck's in the running for the Amerks' coaching job. Except, by reading it, you can't tell if he's either a) having a wet dream about it and wishing Chuck would apply, or b) Chuck has really considered it or even been considered.
• This is old news. Grimaldi was signed. He finished the season with Gwinnett after spending time in Fresno and Elmira. He put up average numbers (4-17-21 with a +13), but was high on PIM (142). A d-man with high PIM? Not sure about this. At least he maintained a plus...
• The revised schedule for the season was announced, with the departure of Pensacola causing a few changes. No major toss-ups, but here it is, nonetheless.
• The preseason schedule was announced, with two matchups against Dayton (one home, one away).

Former Cyclone seriously injured

Former Cyclone Jason Baird was injured in a lawnmower accident in Youngstown, OH last Thursday. More information can be found here and here. According to the article, he was burned on 60-65% of his body, and is currently in a coma in the Akron Burn Unit. My best wishes & thoughts go out to Jason, his wife, and his children. Please keep Jason in your thoughts.

Syro gets some radio time

I haven't listened to this yet, but thought I'd share. Syroczynski got some airtime on Beyond Buffalo Radio:

In the second segment Matt Syroczynski, player for the Kelly Cup winning Cincinnati Cyclones, joined the show for about 15 minutes to talk about winning the ECHL championship as well as his future plans in hockey.

Check out their website: www.beyondbuffaloradio.com

Developmental Camp

Just quick note: forwards Thomas Beauregard, David Desharnais, & Ryan Russell are among the 30 prospects participating in Montreal's developmental camp this week.

Qualifying offers

Qualifying offers were made today to eight players: Barret Ehgoetz (F), Jean-Michel Daoust (F), Billy Irish-Baker (F), Scott Reynolds (F), Matt Syroczynski (F), Matt Macdonald (D), TJ McElroy (D), and Sean Perkins (D)

I can't really say any of them surprise me, or disappoint me. I figured Macdonald and Ehgoetz to be shoo-ins regardless. I'd love to see all three of the defensemen back. Perkins' progress as the year went on was phenomenal, so I think with a year & a Kelly Cup under his belt, he'll be even stronger come training camp in October.

I hope that it means better things will come for Irish-Baker... after the Wheeling game where he got the concussion, his ice time and play were never the same. If we could back get the intense, wanna-make-the-cut version of Billy (circa October) that we all fell in love with, we'd be in really good shape. But I hope for the best for BIBs.

All are great players, I can't say enough great things about Scott Reynolds... undervalued, underappreciated, but one of the hardest working guys on the ice. To some degree, Ehgoetz is much the same, but puts up a few more points. Syroczynski's a great player who put up great numbers quietly - by playing the small game, not the big, flashy way. But I question his focus at times. Sure, sticking up for your much smaller teammates is great, but there's a time and a place for everything. Sometimes it's just not necessary to be a gigantic tool and hit people.

McElroy, I don't have much to say about. His penalties can be an issue, but he's a solid defenseman when he's not in the box. Macdonald has come so far in his two seasons, and I wouldn't be entirely surprised if he spends a little more time in the AHL than in Cincinnati.

Daoust, on the other hand, was a different player when he came back from WBS. Provided, yes, the team was different when he came back than when he left. But he made a lot more boneheaded moves, but because the city of Cincinnati worships the ground he walks on for reasons unknown the way they do Cedrick, he could do no wrong by the fans. And I don't roll that way. I don't care how many goals you score, how many points you tack on, how many callups or trophies you get, you need to not act like a toolbox.

But that's enough about that. Where is Chad Starling's name on the list? Hm. Need to investigate. Unless they're not worried about him being gobbled up.

Side note: the ECHL rule for qualifying offers says that of the 8, no more than 4 can be vets. So I went looking into who we had in respect to veteran status (260 regular season games). From the final roster, it looks like Chad Starling may be the only player from last season who actually fits that bill... still. Ah, the joys of almost an entire roster full of 21 and 22 year olds.

Knock, knock... anybody home?

I know, I know. It's been three and a half months since I updated. I'm a bit of a slacker, sometimes, and it doesn't help that I kind of picked up and moved to Louisville... but never the less, I have good things to share:

2007-08 Weekly/Monthly/Yearly Awards Recap

ECHL All-Rookie Team: David Desharnais
All-ECHL First Team: David Desharnais
All-ECHL Second Team: Chad Starling

InGlasCo Player of the Week
- Mathieu Aubin: February 18-24

CCM Player of the Month
- JM Daoust: November 2007; December 2007

RBK Hockey Goaltender of the Week
- Dov Grumet-Morris: February 11-17

RBC Financial Group Saver of the Month
- Cedrick Desjardins: February 2008

PaysourceUSA Plus/Minus Performer of the Month
- Chad Starling: February 2008
- Scott Reynolds & Matt MacDonald: December 2007
- David Desharnais: November 2007

Vector/CCM Rookie of the Month:
- David Desharnais: March 2008, February 2008, November 2007

...more awesomeness forthcoming, I promise!