hf101

With Fenton in charge, I forsee this approach being used for the Wild as well. Nashville hasn't been a team to rush their prospects into the NHL either.

I've seen this for years with the Flyers also and Ron Hextall has shed some light on the reasonings for this. These type of FA signings provide several things. One they provide depth in the organization (NHL and AHL). When teams rely too heavily on their unproven rookies at the NHL level they open themselves up for circumstances where they might need to make lopsided trades cover for the lack of depth in cases of key injuries. The bottom tier signings are often for that 7th d-man and 13th forward who do a lot of bench warming. But you need these guys to be there as you don't ever want your rookies sitting. They are better off getting top minutes in the AHL than 6-7 min in the NHL. They also provide competition. At least for the Flyers if a rookie beats out a veteran for a roster spot in camp and is "ready" for a long season in the NHL the newly acquired FA will find himself waived and on the AHL roster. IE the situation with Matt Read last season. Just because a prospect is termed valued doesn't mean a roster spot is handed to them. The AHL needs these veterans too to provide leadership for the franchise's prospects.

This will be worn this season by Humbolts new starting goaltender.

of course... but I think Seatle will get an expansion team.

You do know there are bonus points for also posting in the less active forums...

Accomplished 2-way players sure have main roles on the PK and traditionally the third and fourth lines however forwards on the top two lines have to be defensively responsible to limit their own turnovers and to forecheck pucks away and create a turnover on their shift. The NHL game is changing to four defensively responsible scoring lines these days. Teams that can consistently do this are going to win. The Penguins were able to accomplish this in their two cup wins, and the Capitals were able to do that better than the Penguins this season. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/3/capitals-enjoy-variety-scoring-while-penguins-lowe/ Sokolov is going to get there, he may need a full AHL season or 2, but he is only 20.

Sokolov needs to demonstrate that he is "NHL ready" first. I don't see what is disturbing about that at all.

That then is something Fenton needs to FIX ASAP. The Iowa Wild need to be an extension of the Wild's coaching staff. Players within the AHL need to be trained so that a call-up to their NHL team is a seamless transition. And I don't think there can ever be too much emphasis on two-way play. Turnovers are game killers. Look what happened with Yakapov since his #1 pick in the 2012 NHL draft. He never got it w/r to the defensive side to his game and NO NHL GM wants him. Sokolov has shown improvement in his Defensive game in the last 3 years in the OHL. Starting the year in the AHL is the perfect place for him.

Yes. there is more on him here

True, but a call-up from the AHL can also be dependent on who can be called up and be sent back down. Not all AHL players have a 2-way contract and not all players are waivers exempt. GMs also try to have a solid AHL team core so talented prospects can quickly learn and progress to the NHL. Maybe that isn't completely fair, but those core players know that is their role.

I also saw there were a lot of "I" comments in Graff's interview with Sutter however, the article was about Suter and his progress. There were comments there that are a concern that Suter is rushing back and could likely face some setbacks. I also saw a lot of the Peter Forsberg mentality that he is committed to pushing past the pain of rehab and do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. “How cool would that be to come back from this injury after people said I couldn’t and then to go on a run and win a Stanley Cup?” Suter says. “That would be the ultimate. Sometimes you’ve got to hit the bottom before you get up there, and maybe for me, this is it.”

In an attempt to keep this topic about the Wild's Prospects and Iowa Wild I moved some posts to a new topic. and an existing topic

On this Day ( July 4th) 7 years ago the Wild's fanbase rejoiced with landing the two biggest Free Agents in Ryan Sutter and Zach Parise, and all thought the Wild's future was bright...

Please post throughout the site as topics and conversation interests you, as we are all hockey fans first here. There are members here who only post in their team's forums, but we really encourage all members to join in or lead conversations of topics throughout the website. Topic discussion with various viewpoints and perspectives are usually far more interesting imo. Also, feel free to post a shoutout in the chatbox located on the main Activity page or its own page. Most hockey news is posted here first before topics are made and depending on how you choose to set your Activity feed it is a page to view the latest posts throughout the site and view our twitter feed which is from of list of informative twitter accounts. btw, there are two ninja emoticons. and for sarcasm.

I don't believe it is out yet. As for Ryan Straz.... it's amazing the amount of support this young man has had from around the world. I got a chuckle out of the Flyers are now higher on his list than Boston. Graysen Cameron is another who has had lots of support after his back injury ended his playing hockey career. He's been given the opportunity to coach the Red Deer Optimist Chiefs as an assistant coach for the upcoming Alberta Midget Hockey League season. https://rdnewsnow.com/article/587982/cameron-optimist-chiefs-coaching-staff https://denver.cbslocal.com/2018/06/25/humboldt-broncos-hockey-bus-crash/ I saw this one too last night as there are still two in the hospital with severe head injuries Layne Matechuk and Morgan Gobeil who as of June 29th was still in a coma. https://www.saskhealthauthority.ca/news/releases/Pages/2018/Jun/Matechuck-family-statement.aspx

https://www.nhl.com/flyers/news/humboldt-broncos-player-ryan-straschnitzki-meet-flyers-prospects--philadelphia-flyers/c-299347930 "Mac was dialed right in," said Hextall. "I don't know if I should tell this story or not, but the first time we went over to the hospital Tom [Ryan's father] told us that A-Mac offered him his house and his car."

OR it could be the first website in everyone's Favorites Bar...

This is impressive.

Congrats to the Washington Capital fans and their team. Ovechkin was drafted 15 years ago and over that time he's learned not only how to be a great player, but a great leader, a great teammate and a great champion. It took a long time for Trotz too to win it all.

Just thought I'd add this tweet.

Except the site looks like **** right now...