Crawford's Pack Report: Off-Season Update

The Pack are Staying in their Den

Monday, June 4, 2007 - 12:00 PM

It’s now official, the Pack are staying in their den!

I have gotten numerous questions sent to this column in the past few months about the future of the team and have had to refrain from answering any of them, as I didn’t want to engage in any speculation about a decision that was going to be made way higher in the corporate structure than where my job description falls.

Now, however, all of us involved with the Wolf Pack can celebrate the fact that a deal is in place and signed to keep the Pack at the Hartford Civic Center for the immediate future. Great news for Wolf Pack fans and great news for the AHL!

With the team’s history assured of continuing into an 11th season and beyond, we can now turn from anxious conjecture about whether or not the Pack will be around back to what we all enjoy pondering, that is, all that’s new and interesting with Hartford’s pro hockey franchise and hockey’s top development league...

The Ranger organization lost a sharp executive and a terrific individual when Don Maloney left to become general manager of the Phoenix Coyotes. I think that’s a great hire by the Coyotes, and a well-deserved opportunity for a guy who is a real class act. I would look for Don to make every effort to replicate in Phoenix what the Ranger organization has done since March of 2004, unload older, more expensive players and stockpile draft picks and young guys in an attempt to build a fast, aggressive team that has a strong identity.

It will be interesting to see if Don’s departure directly affects the Wolf Pack by impacting Jim Schoenfeld’s situation. He was immediately identified in media analyses as an obvious candidate to replace Don as the Rangers’ assistant GM and VP of player personnel. I do not have any inside knowledge as to whether that type of move will be contemplated or not, but it seems to me like a logical step in Jim’s career, which has seen him expand his horizons steadily and smoothly from player to coach to AHL general manager. In theory, he could retain the Wolf Pack’s general managership while assuming the assistant GM’s role with the big club. Remember, Don Maloney did that for the Wolf Pack’s first three seasons, before Al Coates’ arrival in the summer of 2000.

The actual schedule of Wolf Pack games won’t be finalized until late July at the earliest, but the AHL released the schedule format, i.e., what teams each club will play and how many times, for 2007-08 during the last week of May. In what I think is a refreshing change, the Pack’s season series’ with frequent adversaries Providence and Worcester have been reduced from 10 games to eight, and the Wolf Pack will play three squads this coming season that they haven’t seen much of over the years. They’ll get their first-ever look at the Toronto Marlies in ‘07-08, they’ll play Hamilton, whom they haven’t met in the regular season since January of 2000 and only four times ever, and Syracuse is on the Pack’s list of opponents for only the second time in seven seasons.

The Wolf Pack are sticking around Hartford, but the Omaha Ak-Sar-Ben Knights, after just two seasons in Nebraska, are pulling up stakes and moving to the Quad-Cities, which straddle the Mississippi-River border between Illinois and Iowa.

When the Calgary Flames set up their affiliate in Omaha, I wondered whether there would be enough hockey interest for three different teams in that market, with the Omaha Lancers of the (junior) USHL and the Division I University of Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks already owning established fan bases prior to the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights’ arrival. As it turns out, apparently there wasn’t. One thing that interested me, though, was that the Ak-Sar-Ben Knights actually drew significantly better crowds for their first-round home playoff games than their regular-season average. You almost never see that in the AHL. Unfortunately for the folks battling hard to make the team viable in Omaha, it wasn’t enough to keep the team in town.

The Quad-Cities at one time were a great market for the UHL, with the Mallards drawing some of the best crowds in minor pro hockey. Those numbers have fallen off significantly in recent years, but it will be interesting to see whether the jump up in level will re-invigorate the fan interest. One thing’s for sure, the Flames’ affiliate’s eastward move across the State of Iowa, coupled with the Chicago Blackhawks moving their affiliation from Norfolk to Rockford, Illinois, only strengthens a nice little geographical quadrant that the AHL features in that area. With the two new teams joining Chicago, Milwaukee, Peoria and Des Moines, that division now has almost as cozy a traveling situation among rivals as we have out here in New England.

So the franchise map is now set for next season, and we’re also into that time of year when you start getting a number of coaching moves. Both of the teams that the Wolf Pack will see the most of in 2007-08, DATTCO I-91 Challenge rival Springfield and GEICO Connecticut Cup adversary Bridgeport, will have new coaches. In with the Edmonton affiliation to the Falcons’ coach’s office is Geoff Ward, who led Hamilton all the way to Game Seven of the Calder Cup Finals in 2003. In Bridgeport, Jack Capuano takes over from Dan Marshall, whom he assisted last season. Media reports chronicling the Sound Tigers made it sound like Capuano had unofficially all but already been handed the coaching reins by the latter part of this past season, after Marshall had been brought in at the start of the year with no previous pro head coaching experience.

Further away from home, Houston has replaced Rob Daum behind its bench with Kevin Constantine, who for the past four seasons has piloted the Everett Silvertips of the Western League, where the Wolf Pack’s Ivan Baranka skated for two years. Constantine also brings 378 NHL games of experience as an NHL head man to Houston. In Binghamton, Head Coach Dave Cameron announced shortly after the conclusion of the regular season that he was leaving the Senators to return to the position from whence he came, the head job with the Toronto St. Michael’s Majors of the Ontario Hockey League. The Binghamton job had yet to be filled by the beginning of June, but here’s hoping the Ottawa organization gives old friend Mike Busniuk a long look. "Buzz" has a wealth of experience in the league as an assistant but has never had a chance to run his own show. He’s had so much success as a lieutenant, I’d like to see how he’d do when he was calling all the shots.

At that, I’ll now dive into some reader inquiries:

J.T. from North Babylon, NY writes, "Bob, what does the future hold for Jed Ortmeyer? Can you send me info on how I can purchase Pack tix?"

J.T., it is my understanding that Jed is an unrestricted free agent, so he is free to sign with any team that is interested in him.

In my mind, watching it from afar, he is a big part of the Rangers’ chemistry, even though he doesn’t chip in much on the scoresheet. He always plays with heart and intensity, and does a lot of the “dirty” jobs, like blocking shots and banging bodies on the forecheck. Jed is also emblematic of the group of young (although he’ll be 29 by the start of next season, he’ll still only be a fifth-year veteran) sparkplugs who have come up through the Wolf Pack ranks to add some real energy to the Rangers’ group. On that basis, I’d be surprised if the organization doesn’t make a strong bid to get him signed.

As far as ordering tickets goes, if you’re in a position to be able to travel up to Hartford for more than a game or two, the easiest option and best value is a coupon book or mini-game plan. You can order those right through the Wolf Pack ticket office, which can be reached at (860) 548-2000. If not, then you can order single-game on-line right through this very website, www.hartfordwolfpack.com. Just go to the “Tickets” tab and click on the “Order Tickets Online” button.

Ron McNaughton from Toronto asks, "Is that (Jordan) Owens in the (website) pic squaring off with Petr Kalus? Owens almost took this guy’s head off. Hope he is back with the Pack in September."

It is indeed Owens, Ron.

I was very impressed with his game in a lot of ways. He’s certainly not a big guy, and at 170 pounds he might have to hit the weight room pretty hard to be able to survive in pro hockey, but I thought he showed real good speed, shot, and offensive instincts. Looking at his penalty minute totals I didn’t figure that he had fought much, and I knew that Kalus is reasonably tough, so I was a little bit worried when I saw Jordan throw the gloves down. He definitely did real well in the scrap, though, and looked like he had more than enough savvy in handling that part of the game. For a guy like that to come out of the OHL as a virtual unknown and grab himself a spot in the Wolf Pack lineup, and some pretty good ice time, in all but one of the team’s playoff games, I think is pretty remarkable. I would guess that the Pack would make a strong bid to get him signed at least to an AHL contract for next season.

Rich from Croton, NY asks, "Do you see Jarkko Immonen bring ready for the NHL or do you see him as a career AHL player? I think that he has done a wonderful job in the AHL myself and deserves another shot at landing a center position with some organization, perhaps as a #2 or #3 centerman. He is good at winning faceoffs, can score and doesn't hurt you defensively. Reports out of New York have Dubinsky in the running to be the #2 center next season. Do you think that Ivan Baranka is ready to take the next step forward to the NHL too?"

Rich, I like Jarkko a lot, and I think you accurately ran down his several strengths. I think his skating is considered borderline for the NHL level, but I’ve never thought that he has looked slow in the AHL. He certainly doesn’t have blazing speed, but I think he has plenty of quickness in terms of getting to the puck and getting to where he needs to be away from the puck. I definitely think he would be a good fit in the NHL as a third-line center, a guy who would take his defensive responsibilities seriously and have the offensive potential to chip in some key points.

I think it might be a stretch to say Brandon Dubinsky is ready to grab the number-two center spot with the big club. There’s no doubt that he is a good prospect, and I think he opened some eyes during the six games he played this year with the Rangers, but I think he might need another year of seasoning in the AHL before he can legitimately be expected to log that kind of ice time in the NHL.

I would classify Baranka as still a work in progress as well. His physical skills, particularly in the skating department, are tantalizing, but I think he still has some work to do on things like reading the play and bringing his best game consistently every night.

Mike from Watertown, CT writes, "This isn't as much a question as it is a response to Eric from Avon's question (in the last column in this space) about Petr Kalus' AHL eligibility. My understanding of the ‘you can't play in the AHL until you're no longer eligible for junior hockey, or until your junior team's season is over’ rule is that it only applies to players drafted from a OHL, WHL, or QMJHL junior team. For example, Marc Staal was drafted by the Rangers from the Sudbury Wolves. Bob Sanguinetti was drafted from the Owen Sound Attack. Petr Kalus, on the other hand, was drafted from Vitkovice Jr. in the Czech Republic -- not the Regina Pats. He then came over to North America and played a season in the WHL."

Further research, Mike, ably assisted by the Wolf Pack’s indispensable team operations maven Alex Case, indicates that you are exactly right. In the case of a player like ex-Wolf Pack Jozef Balej, for example, a Slovakian native who was not drafted until after he came over to North America to play in the WHL, the notion of an underage (younger than 20) junior not being able to play in the minors would apply. With a player like Kalus, though, who was drafted before he headed overseas, the junior team would not have the right to prevent him from leaving for the AHL. I’m told that his European club would still have to sign off on it, but as long as they were OK with it, he is free and clear to play in the AHL. Thanks for your input!

In a similar vein, my good friend Bill Miller, who happens to be the VP of Events and Entertainment for the NHL, provided this information, "In reference to the question from Sydney from Cheshire, CT (also in the last column): In the NHL Rule Book, Rule 14, subsection (d) states, ‘No playing coach or playing Manager or goalkeeper shall be permitted to act as Captain or Alternate Captain’."

Thanks, Bill, I appreciate it. I knew that was tradition, but I wasn’t sure if it was actually a matter of rule.

Ty from Southfield, MI asks, "What is the status of Dwight Helminen - is he coming back to Hartford?"

I believe, Ty, that Dwight is a restricted free agent. So, in contrast to his former University of Michigan teammate Ortmeyer, he does not have total freedom to shop himself, but he will need to be signed to a new contract to continue with the Ranger organization.

I personally really like the way Dwight plays. He’s short, but very solid, and he’s always in the middle of a lot of contact. Plus, most importantly of all, he looks to me to have an NHL set of wheels.

He has yet to play a game in the NHL in his three years as a pro, but with the way he can skate, and his having embraced both being a scorer and a checker, I would classify him as a player who could help a team at the NHL level.

I don’t know what the organization’s plans are for him, but I’ve always gotten the impression that Dwight was well-regarded.

Martin Boatwright of Cromwell, CT writes, "Once again thank you for another great season behind the mike as the voice of the Hartford Wolf Pack. You truly bring the game into the home of any Wolf Pack fan. It's fun to listen to you. Here is my question for you. Who do think will be back in Hartford next season, who do you think will be up in New York, and will Craig Weller be back as captain?"

Martin, thank you for the kind words. I truly appreciate your listenership and feedback!

It’s kind of hard to speculate on who exactly might or might not be back off of this year’s Wolf Pack team, as I’m not privy to those kinds of internal discussions. From whatever contract status information I’ve been able to wheedle out of anyone here, though, it looks like a significant percentage of the major cogs from this year’s team will be back in the organization. I would look for it again to be a young, fast, aggressive team, which will certainly be good for those of us who spend large amounts of time enjoying the games. Craig Weller, however, did state for public consumption that he is looking at heading over to Europe for next season, so it looks like the team will have a new captain, which would be just its third in its history.

And Sue Stewart of St. Cloud, FL asks, "Do you have any news about Kaspar (Darius Kasparaitis)? What is going to happen with him? Will he ever be back in the NHL?"

Darius has another year left on his NHL contract with the Rangers, Sue, and it remains to be seen whether they will buy him out of that or bring him back for a 16th pro season. It didn’t seem as though he was ever fully healthy this past season, so I would be interested to see what he has left if he can get back to 100% physically. He has a lot of miles on him, but if he could ever get back to close to what he was the previous three or four years, he would still be without a doubt a valuable player for the Rangers.

Have a great offseason, and I’ll continue to poke my pen into this space whenever I can cobble together enough material.