A quick look at the AHL at midseason

[yave1964]

  I enjoy the AHL, hell, i even get to the occasional Waleye game in Toledo in the ECHL though that league is close to a glorified beer league for the most part. But I cheer like crazy for the Griffins, almost as much as i cheer for the parent Wings, Just a quick update on some of the news coming out of the AHL this season.

 

  It is kind of odd but top NHL teams usually have top AHL clubs as well. The reason, as explained to me by former NHL goalie Brad Theissen once is a good NHL team is a healthy team, not needing to dip into the minors for a lot of injury replacements. An injury ravaged NHL club that is struggling has to pull players from the AHL team who has to scramble adding players from the ECHL or wherever they can get them. So... the best teams in the AHL by far are

Coachella firebirds parent team the Kraken

Calgary Wranglers parent team the Flames

Texas Stars parent team in Dallas

Toronto Marlies parent team the Leafs

Providence Bruins parent team in Boston

Hershey Bears parent team the Capitals

 

  These six teams are miles ahead of everyone else, all six parent teams are likely to be playing into April

 

  Worst teams are 

San Diego Gulls parent team Anaheim

Grand Rapids Griffins Parent team Detroit

Cleveland Monsters Parent club the CBJ

Chicago Wolves parent team the Hurricanes

Belleville Senators parent team in Ottawa

 

  Anaheim has called up its prospects to the NHL to take their lumps with the big boys leaving very little talent in San diego. The Wings, Sens and especially the Jackets have been hit by injuries more than most. The Hurricanes are a bit of an outlier here but truth is they have had a bunch of injuries in net and Pacioretty and several others so they have had to recall quite a few people as well.

 

  TOP TEN SCORERS

 

Usually all the top scorers in the AHL are AHL veterans, almost without exception as if you can score in the AHL as a young kid they want you in the NHL as soon as possible. There are some exceptions this year and it is obvious why, teams like Arizona dont want a player screwing up their chance at a top draft pick in the deepest draft in the past decade with a crack at Bedard for whoever gets the lucky ping pong ball.

 

Carcone Leads the league in points, Normally he would be a Coyote, but you know, Bedard. Real prospect.

Matthew Phillips is third, a decent prospect who for an unknown reason the Flames apparently dont like. 

Connor Zary also a flames prospect is having a damn good scoring year. I keep forgetting Sutter likes Vets in the NHL, not kids. Both these two are probably NHL ready.

 

  Other than that, the top twenty scorers are guys who if you jog your memory a bit you might remember a few of them from their cup of coffee in the NHL a year or two or five ago. Logan Shaw, Wolanin, Max Mccormick, TJ Tynan, AJ Boullet, Radysh, Poturalski Froden, Anthony Richard are all on the leader boards. All get a few games a year on a good year staying at five star hotels with the big club. No matter the numbers, they are there to score in the AHL and to help the kids find their way.

 

  Goalies, quite the opposite. Dotting the top goalies in the AHL are the teams best goalie prospects, names like Wolf in Calgary, Schmid from the Devils, Annunen from Colorado, Hugo Allfelt, brilliant young prospect for the Bolts, Wallstedt, maybe the best of all with the Wild organization and Dostal who is NHL ready now but stuck behind Gibson and his unmovable contract. Among the top goalies in the AHL you will get the occasional guy who is not ready to take the hint that the game has passed him by such as Cory Schneider or Tokarski, but top goalies in the AHL is a young mans game.

 

  There is still a lot more fights in the AHL, A HELL OF A LOT MORE in fact. In the NHL no player has 100 penalty minutes, in fact only two, the alphabet kid in Montreal and Deslauriers in Philly have so much as 80 penalty minutes. In the AHL nearing the halfway point Scott Sabourin of Belleville has almost as many as the two NHL leaders combined. The NHL ran the goons out of the game, those who didnt want to give up playing ended up in the AHL. Garret Wilson, Hoefenmayer, Gemel Smith, Rempe, Jeffrey Viel, Curtis Douglas, all are among the most popular players on their teams with the fans, very few bring anything more to the game than fighting and hitting and a bit of knuckle dragging. It is not just the vets, a whole new generation of fighters with nowhere else to go end up in the AHL as well.

 

  So that is the halfway point of the AHL seasons. Six teams pulling away, the top scorer belongs in Arizona but they are racing to the bottom, the NHL has a bunch of meh vetern backup goalies and the brilliant kids dominate the AHL. And lots of fighting. Lots and lots of fighting. In Fact Veteran Scott Sabourin in an effort to prolong his career actually has more penalty minutes through 37 games than he has ever had in a full season combined.

 

  I love the AHL, the skaters are just a half an inch slower, all the short guys like a Grimaldi or Gerbe who struggle because of their size in the NHL usually find a home as a goal scorer in the AHL. Guys like Matt Luff who gets 10-15 games in the NHL almost unnoticed every year and frustrating his coaches with his scoring ability but inability to play defense become minor stars in the AHL. Teams are forced to have a mix of prospects and veterans playing out the string so with few jobs a lot of the 28 year old vets are more assistant coaches to the kids than anything.

 

  The AHL. Gotta love it.

 

  

 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

@yave1964

I've been looking for a long time for AHL streams so I too can follow along.
It's no wonder you have a leg up on most posters here with what is going on with players..... you watch them before they ever make it big...and LEAGUE WIDE...not just for your own team! Kudos to you, my friend.

My husband says we should just spring for AHL .tv, as it seems the 'free streamers' don't bother with the AHL.

Would love to watch the Amerks, your Griffins, the Iowa Wild, hell, even the Marlies. 
And of course, there are the baby Lightning Syracuse Crunch....who stay crispy....even in milk!  

Syracuse has big bodied young man, just 20, whom I keep reading is being compared to Tage Thompson.
Jack Finlay. Would love to see him play in a game in real time and see whether he is worth waiting for as far as the Lightning are concerned.

Bolts haven't had a prime big bodied top six center since Vincent Lecavalier.
Nick Paul is currently trying to fill that role, but I think he is more top 9 than top 6. Good, just not top tier center material.
And Cirelli is looking more and more like a very good defensive center who can chip in offense.
Is Jack Finlay tthe guy? Who knows....for awhile I thought Otto Sompi might be the next big time top six pivot, but that hasn't panned out.

Anyways, always glad to hear what you have to say about the next gen of players who are not yet seen by the NHL fans at large!

[yave1964]

4 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

@yave1964

I've been looking for a long time for AHL streams so I too can follow along.
It's no wonder you have a leg up on most posters here with what is going on with players..... you watch them before they ever make it big...and LEAGUE WIDE...not just for your own team! Kudos to you, my friend.

My husband says we should just spring for AHL .tv, as it seems the 'free streamers' don't bother with the AHL.

Would love to watch the Amerks, your Griffins, the Iowa Wild, hell, even the Marlies. 
And of course, there are the baby Lightning Syracuse Crunch....who stay crispy....even in milk!  

Syracuse has big bodied young man, just 20, whom I keep reading is being compared to Tage Thompson.
Jack Finlay. Would love to see him play in a game in real time and see whether he is worth waiting for as far as the Lightning are concerned.

Bolts haven't had a prime big bodied top six center since Vincent Lecavalier.
Nick Paul is currently trying to fill that role, but I think he is more top 9 than top 6. Good, just not top tier center material.
And Cirelli is looking more and more like a very good defensive center who can chip in offense.
Is Jack Finlay tthe guy? Who knows....for awhile I thought Otto Sompi might be the next big time top six pivot, but that hasn't panned out.

Anyways, always glad to hear what you have to say about the next gen of players who are not yet seen by the NHL fans at large!

My favorite Lightning prospect is Hugo Alfenelt, the goalie for the Crunch. The man can flat out move, waaaay to skinny, I think he is 6 foot 3 or 4 and around 180 pounds, 21 years old, but he is  the fastest goalie in the AHL, Shester may be faster in the NHL but very few are. He challenges shooters, within a year or two Vasilevskiy will be the odd man out in the salary crunch, Alfenelt will be starring in net for the Bolts. I think he could start for ten teams in the NHL right now, maybe more. He is that good.

 

  Jack Finley, cannot lie, I have watched three or four Crunch games and he is nearly invisible to me. He isnt having much of a season this year, he does not remind me of Tage Thomson, more Paul Guastad, a big monster size 4th line center who might play in the league for quite a while because of solid defense, sneaky occasional scoring and great at faceoffs. The offense might come, Thomson took quite awhile to develop but IDK, just think he is overhyped as a prospect.

 

  Thanks for the nice comments, just thought i would throw something out there because as you say, the AHL never gets much pub in here.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

5 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

My favorite Lightning prospect is Hugo Alfenelt, the goalie for the Crunch. The man can flat out move, waaaay to skinny, I think he is 6 foot 3 or 4 and around 180 pounds, 21 years old, but he is  the fastest goalie in the AHL, Shester may be faster in the NHL but very few are. He challenges shooters, within a year or two Vasilevskiy will be the odd man out in the salary crunch, Alfenelt will be starring in net for the Bolts. I think he could start for ten teams in the NHL right now, maybe more. He is that good.

 

  Jack Finley, cannot lie, I have watched three or four Crunch games and he is nearly invisible to me. He isnt having much of a season this year, he does not remind me of Tage Thomson, more Paul Guastad, a big monster size 4th line center who might play in the league for quite a while because of solid defense, sneaky occasional scoring and great at faceoffs. The offense might come, Thomson took quite awhile to develop but IDK, just think he is overhyped as a prospect.

 

  Thanks for the nice comments, just thought i would throw something out there because as you say, the AHL never gets much pub in here.

 

Knowing the salary cap crunch is a real thing, I certainly hope the Bolts never have to trade a still-in-his-prime Vasilevskiy!
I've kinda, sorta followed Alfnefelt via stat sheets and some clips whenever I can get ahold of them, but TBH, I never worried about going too indepth because the way I see it, as long as Vasy is in net, is healthy, and fits within the salary structure, any and all goalie prosects within the organization make better trade chips than players, due to them being blocked.

I am sure any young goalies behind Brodeur, Roy, Belfour, and Barrasso in the past know the feeling!

A bit bummed to hear that about Finley! But, in the comparison to Tage Thompson, Tage's 'late prospect bloomer' status was mainly paralleled.
Now, if you have actually seen him play, you may see things in Thompson BEFORE he finally broke out last year, that you DON'T see in Finley.
Those are the types of things I would like to see for myself as well!
Here is hoping young Jack is more Thompson and less Lowry.....no disrespect to Lowry, as I like him as a bottom six center, but that is not what the Bolts need in an up n comer.

You know, if I follow my husband's suggestion and go for AHL .tv, I might get addicted to that sort of thing...then want to spend MORE trying to get ahold of the Finnish, Swedish, and Czech Liigas as well!  
Then NOTHING will ever get done round here because I will be glued to way too much hockey heroin!

[Brewin Flames]

Living right between Boston and Providence is awesome, but for some reason, i'd rather not go into Boston...

 

Providence However, tickets are cheep cheep like bird, and it's an easy drive in and out....get to the the bruins prospects at work, and you get much more for your money.

[yave1964]

44 minutes ago, Brewin Flames said:

Living right between Boston and Providence is awesome, but for some reason, i'd rather not go into Boston...

 

Providence However, tickets are cheep cheep like bird, and it's an easy drive in and out....get to the the bruins prospects at work, and you get much more for your money.

We love exactly halfway between Columbus and Cleveland, the wife and our youngest daughter had a half season package for the cbj for several years before COVID shut it all down and the daughter left for Miami and college. Anyway we still get to jackets games, still fun but we LOVE taking grandkids to see the monsters play. Half price, so family oriented, great times. The AHL is a bit slower pace and seem to go out of their way to make you feel welcome.