This is Jeannot Gilbert. Legend has it that after he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Penguins (in the original 1967 expansion draft) Gilbert requested a trade back to Hershey. Reasons range from his taking a slapshot in the back of the leg and deciding the NHL wasn't for him (I know, but that's the legend) or that he enjoyed Hershey and the Bears so much he wanted to go back where he belonged.Last night the Bears won their second AHL championship (the Calder Cup) in a row; it was their 11th (the league record) in their 74 years of existence.
If Steve Tambellini is looking for a suitable template for the Oklahoma City Barons, the land of chocolate would be a great place to start.
Consider the 2009-10 Hershey Bears roster:
- D Karl Alzner: Former lottery pick looks like he's NHL ready. Has already played over 50 games in the show.
- D John Carlson: 2008 1st rounder got some NHL time and will certainly be in the mix this fall.
- C Alexander Giroux: Scored 50 goals this season, backing up a 60-goal year in 2008-09. Someone hire this guy!
- L Chris Bourque: Huge AHL season (70 points in 49 games) and 27 more in 21 playoff games. Small skill winger is better than a few guys making NHL pay.
- F Keith Aucoin: 30-year old scored 106 points during the AHL regular season.
- R Andrew Gordon: Scoring winger popped 37 in the regular season and 13 more in the playoffs.
- G Michal Neuvirth: Young goaltender had a strong showing in the NHL (.914) and AHL (.919). He looks like the real thing, but is behind the Russian Varlamov and veteran Jose Theodore.
Those are 7 very good minor league players. Some excellent prospects on their way to NHL careers (Carlson, Alzner, Neuvirth) mixed in with "tweeners" looking for their next chance (Bourque, Gordon) and career minor leaguers who can make a difference (Aucoin, Giroux).
In 2009-10, the Oilers had prospects (Dubnyk, Peckham, Plante, Petry, Chorney), they had "tweeners" looking for their next chance (Reddox, McDonald) and they had career minor leaguers (Minard, Linglet, Wiseman, Fretter).
The difference came with regard to quality. Across the board.
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ReplyDeleteEdit: Quite excited about our AHL team this season. I can see 2 of our major prospects (MPS, Omark, Eberle) playing as a Baron; my guess is that the only rookies to make the Oilers are Hall/Seguin, MPS, and Peckham.
ReplyDeleteI am sure this has been answered elsewhere, but what is the problem with Giroux? Foot speed? Blackballed?
ReplyDelete@kk
ReplyDeleteblue balled! even worse.
Brendan Morrison not coming back with the Caps.
ReplyDeleteDo the Oilers need a veteran tough minutes centre?
Brendan Morrison
ReplyDelete[x] veteran
[ ] tough minutes
[x] center
I may be reading the stats wrong on behindthenet, but corsi looked favourable and he did it with less than strong teammates. As a one-year stop gap veteran centre he does not seem like a bad idea. Especially if he can be had for less than a million.
ReplyDeleteOn the AHL tip: Daum's gone, according to Brownlee.
ReplyDeleteToo bad, as I always felt he was a good guy getting jerked around in a bad system. Was really hoping he'd get his mitts on some quality players in OKC.
Now let's get that rumour mill churning out some coaching candidates...
So dumping the garbage and calling it change in Oiler land. Hope this isn't the only change. They better not try to sell the fans on all the changes and none of the roster rolls over.
ReplyDeleteSo it's Tuesday. Have POS, Captain Terrific, and Rowbear been bought out yet?
ReplyDeletelooks like former hitmen and oiler draft F. Pettersson has been signed by atl
ReplyDeletehttp://capgeek.com/players/display.php?id=1793
More 'decisive' moves by Tambellini that seem to have no rhyme or reason to them.
ReplyDeleteReally looking forward to UFA/RFA season.
I wore an Oilers sweater today in honour of the buyout window opening and the peeps here in the old salt mine are wondering if I somehow forgot that the Oilers' season ended right around New Year's.
ReplyDeleteAnd the only news so far is Dougie Weight is gonna play another year... oh, and 13,000 articles on the Laffs new captain, whazhername.
Speaking of new captains...
spOILer - I wouldn't hold my breath for any buyout news until the draft is over. Might as well wait and see if you can con another GM into taking someone off your hands.
ReplyDeleteThere probably aren't any moves to be made with these players, but there's no harm in waiting until closer to the 30th before pulling the trigger.
Jesse,
ReplyDeleteI won't be holding my breath even then.
If the plan is to suck another year and these guys aren't problems in the dressing room, then buyout might not be the correct route.
Is there any correlation between AHL success
ReplyDeleteand NHL parent-team success? I'm more
interested in seeing the farm properly develop
prospects, and the Calder Cup secondary.
I wonder if those Bears could have done better than 30th-by-a-dozen. I bet you could fit that squad under the cap, too.
ReplyDeleteNot much Daum could do with what he had. Potulny (up), Stone (up), Minard (hurt), Chorney (up), Peckham (hurt and fat) all were slated to be top guys who weren't in lineup at start or most if not all the year. Then add in the goaltending and what could Daum have been expected to do? I think the measure of an AHL coach is how the prospects called up play in the bigs, and all indications were that the players brought up all played well, played their role and were solid in the room. Disregard the record and know he's one of the better teachers in the game. I think he had more to do with the kids success a few years back then people realize (when he was an Oil assistant with Cogs, Gagner and Nilsson playing big roles along with Gilbert having his breakout year). I'd love to see OTC gone, Renney moved up to big boy chair and Daum back as an assistant to help the wave of kids we have. He is exactly the kind of teacher our youth will need. Sorry, but Bucky is not that guy.
ReplyDeleteThe draft can't come soon enough.
ReplyDeleteThen I can finally learn that moves won't be made until July 1st where I will learn that moves won't be made until things shake out at training camp where I will learn that teams want to see what they have with their roster and not to expect any moves until the trade deadline where I will learn that moves won't be made until the draft.
The suspense is killing me.
Patience, grasshopper.
ReplyDeleteTraktor, that is pretty funnny, and unfortunately in many ways - sad but true. Tambellini is the very definition of "plodding."
ReplyDeleteBohologo:
ReplyDeleteYes and no. The most consistent teams in the AHL for the last 10 years or so (IMO) have been the Hershey Bears (WAS) and the Chicago Wolves (ATL). They've been successful because their teams are stacked with AHL veterans, Hershey with the guys LT mentioned, and Jason Krog, Joel Kwiatkowski, Darren Haydar and company have been dominating in Chicago forever.
I don't have a lot of information about this year's other Calder finalist (Texas Stars), but they apparently got Jamie Benn through waivers to play for them and Andrew Hutchinson is one of the best AHL defensemen out there. They got past a very tough, very young Hamilton Bulldogs.
I think that if there's one constant with good AHL teams and being good feeder systems for an NHL team, it's to have a bunch of veterans playing key minutes in front of a young goalie from the prospect pool. It's worked wonders for Hershey (Neuvirth), Chicago (Lethonen, Pavelec), Manitoba (Schneider), Hamilton (Price) and so forth. Fewer prospects, more actual players.
Traktor, that is pretty funnny, and unfortunately in many ways - sad but true. Tambellini is the very definition of "plodding."
ReplyDeleteWell except for that last trade deadline where he made some large moves, but we won't let it get in the way of the running milquetoast joke.
How in the name of all that's holy can it be that with all these firings Bucky is still part of the team?
ReplyDeleteHey LT,
ReplyDeleteI just got back from spending a month in China.
The whole time I was there I couldn't open your webpage. (Nor Tyler's)It's the craziest thing. Nothing was censored; I could open every news site, every political blog. But somehow, your website was censored.
This confirms my longstanding theory that local media are in league with the communists to control fan opinion about Oilers' management. :)
Anyway, being away from your site, and having to live with Oilersnation -blech!- made me realize how much fun and how interesting your site is. Once again, thanks for that.
Kris:
ReplyDeleteAs long as I've lived in China, all blogs have been blocked. They open up once in a while but most of the time they keep an eye on those sort of things.
The suspense is killing me.
ReplyDeleteWell then its not all bad...
It seems evident that Tambi did as much as he could do at the deadline, and will face the same problem at the draft and on July 1 - he will need some dance partners.
Until he knows who he can trade and who might be coming back, he can't offer Pisani a job, do buyouts or even finalize his draft strategy.
Add to this the fact adding a Jason Spezza or Dan Hamhuis or other whale will be counterproductive, and I expect Tambi will be reaching into the bargain bin near the end of the off season.
Its going to be a slow offseason in a lot of ways brother.
The Texas Stars sort of break the pattern. A lot of their success was that, as he can do in streaks, Brent Krahn, stood on his head for five or six games in a row. When he is on he is unbeatable. He is also a free agent. Has he finally got it together? Who knows.
ReplyDeleteBehind him they have another free agent, Mike Climie who was fabulous in college. He was superb all year when he had to be.
So two kids from the west carrying their team to the Calder Cup final. Both free agents. Kind of makes you think.
If the plan is to suck another year and these guys aren't problems in the dressing room, then buyout might not be the correct route.
ReplyDeleteIf the plan is to suck another year we've got the guys to do it already "in house", that's for sure.
Well except for that last trade deadline where he made some large moves, but we won't let it get in the way of the running milquetoast joke.
Yeah, no kidding. Besides offloading half our defence at the deadline, so far this off-season I count six guys fired or re-assigned within the organization. But many continue to accuse Tambellini of fiddling while the Oil burns.
You can certainly question this move or that, but one thing Steve Tambellini isn't doing, is nothing.
Linnaeus
ReplyDeleteSuspect that Tambi will move on both AHLers on about August 20th and then announce that they were, unfortunately, just signed by another team
He is also just weeks away from completing his assessment of the 2008/09 roster so changes to the Oilers could be a comin
Bruce
ReplyDeleteCome on, he has sequentially:
1. fired the training staff and equipment guys (it was their fault we have a roster replete with AHL and ECHL players);
2. gotten rid of the head of player personnel KP after fielding one of the worse AHL rosters in 3 of the last 4 years;
3. let the contracts of scouts lapse instead of giving the heads up as soon as you knew they were gone;
4. Let Daum dangle till 2 weeks before the draft when, presumably, you knew he was gone within 3 weeks of the end of the Springfield season;
5. Done nothing re your Oiler coaching staff n/w/s that they were at least as bad as Springfield; and
6. signed what about 4 college free agents? wait you say he has signed no one.....I forgot he has been busy with the 08/09 roster review
Talk about nibbling at the edges
Tambellini certainly can make coaching/staffing changes fairly quickly. It's the part where he claps his hands together and says, "And now, this team will be tougher and healthier!" that's the problem.
ReplyDeleteCan we all agree on something, too? How about no one is allowed to defend Tambellini until JFJ is put out to pasture, or at least until there's a definitive statement of "I'm taking away Pat Quinn's blood pressure medication if JFJ rises above fourth line minutes."
I don't care if someone is taking completely uncalled for shots at him ("He makes a terrible English muffin and wife smells!"), until that tragedy is rectified he's history's greatest monster.
I had a dream we traded Boston the first pick and got the second. We also managed to get the fourth, sixth and mid-teen pick. With the second pick we selected Al Iafrate.
ReplyDeleteBrownlee has a Daum interview up...
ReplyDelete"This is a kick in the nuts," Daum said. "But it's not going to change my love of coaching or my desire to be a coach. The timing is not good. It's just not good at all. Every day can make a difference. - Rob Daum
Tambellini not earning Brownlee points today.
Quain:
ReplyDeleteFor the record, a traditional English muffin with a side of wife smells is particularly tricky to prepare.
I'm not trying to defend Steve Tambellini. Just this notion that the guy isn't doing anything. He's done a lot of things since the trade deadline.
ReplyDeleteI suspect people feel he's not making the moves they want him too and are just being lazy.
Daum mentioned even a few days makes a difference on his trying to be employed next year, and that he wasn't looking for a new job because tambellini said he did a good job and that Daum felt he wasn't going to be disloyal and shop his services. he was caught totally off guard.
ReplyDeletetambellini is not making friends anywhere right now, and I do not think any of his changes are "significant". That's like the laundry crew on the titanic being fired just before the ship sinks. Not their fault, but at least the captain was doing something.
kind of like saying we will be a different team, tougher to play against and no one is safe. then bringing back the same roster except for Bulin, and adding toughness in a broken no hands JFJ and a career minor leaguer in Stone.
Ribs:
ReplyDeleteTambellini really is in a no win with the fan base right now with any move he makes.
But these "assessments" that take forever are not doing him any good. Hanging Daum out this long is just the latest.
I have no issue with making the decision (although I disagree with the call). When Daum actually had a goalie to rely on, the team was competitive and in the hunt. Take that away and there was nothing to hold back the water.
On the buy-outs (POS, Nilsson, Moreau), wouldn't surprise me if he waits to the very last second before doing it because he must really think there's value there. Problem is whenever everyone else knows you've got nothing in your hand - why give up an asset for someone's problems - UNLESS IT'S A CRAPPY CONTRACT going back the other way?
Assess that one Tambi.
I had a dream we traded Boston the first pick and got the second. We also managed to get the fourth, sixth and mid-teen pick. With the second pick we selected Al Iafrate.
ReplyDeleteI had a dream that I was in ze Land of Chocolate.
http://tiny.cc/eqcd5
Also, ESPN.com was reporting rumoured conjecture that the Oil and Habs might look at a Penner for Price swap.
Thoughts?
Smarmy Boss: i agree the deadline deals were "big". My issue is his off season plans that always seem to go nowhere. he's made deals every deadline, but nothing in the off season to set the identity and path of this team going forward.
ReplyDeleteDaum on Team 1260 right now
ReplyDeleteTambellini took out the trash on garbage day just like every other 30th place GM. I'm not sure that counts as being active.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile quality Euro and NCAA free agents are bring gobbled up by clubs that know the value in free assets.
Brian Burke's ECHL goalie is better than Tambellini's NHL backup goalie (Rynnas/Scrivens vs JDD/DD).
Still waiting on that Riley Nash contract...
@ DG
ReplyDeleteI think that if there's one constant with good AHL teams and being good feeder systems for an NHL team, it's to have a bunch of veterans playing key minutes in front of a young goalie from the prospect pool.
Thanks DG for the overview. Without really looking at the data, it's interesting to consider whether or not a successful AHL franchise (employing the metric defined by Calder Cup victories) portends success for the parent franchise. Or does it make more sense to measure success by how well the AHL team graduates prospects into the bigs.
Frankly, and my apologies to every hockey fan in the great state of Oklahoma, I don't care if the farm team doesn't win a single game, as long as its graduates come to the bigs prepared to pull their weight. That's the proper role for a farm team. Winning trophies is nice, but not if you're employing so many AHL vets that it stifles minor league development.
Traktor: I don't know if Brian Burke is really a good exemple here.
ReplyDeleteCommonfan: As a Habs fan i love it, just take a shitty contract tough, Penner's thing is heavy.
"Penner's thing is heavy"
ReplyDeleteGet a room.
Traktor: By contract I did not meant penis.
ReplyDeleteProblem with out farm team was there was no high end prospects to actually help the club.
FPB & Commonfan:
ReplyDeleteWell, They have to move Hamrlik, eh? If Roman is willing to go to Edm, I can see something happening. If it's Price and some spare parts for Penner, well that may mean Plekanec's not coming back (ick).
Even tough there are a few habs whose contracts who are on the heavy side (Hamr, Spacek, Gomez), the guys are all major league players (when they aren't getting their legs cut by skates that is), so I wonder what kind of "large" contracts the Oilers could take back.
Hamrlik is actually a pretty nice value; he and Spacek had a very nice year handling the heavy lifting and Roman's NTC ends on February 1st, making him moveable to a contender if necessary. Still overpaid, tough.
I guess Hamrlik and Price for Penner is a pretty large payment so something else would have to come back. Would love to see what the big oaf can do with Gomez and Gionta tough. Actually, I'd send Cammalleri back with Gio and Gomez and have Penner with Pleks and AKost, but I'm just a weirdo, so...
Olivier: Spacek was criticized monster time actually, tough I think he did a great job. (For the circumstances)
ReplyDeleteMaybe Subban permits us to move him. But we'll see in time, if we move one contract we can still keep Plekanec and Penner (Price makes 2,2M$+3,5/4M$ range contract)
I'm not trying to defend Steve Tambellini. Just this notion that the guy isn't doing anything. He's done a lot of things since the trade deadline.
ReplyDeleteI suspect people feel he's not making the moves they want him too and are just being lazy.
Repeating all of Smarmy Boss's comment cuz I agree with every word of it, except of course I'm way too polite to call other posters lazy. :| Sure he might not be doing everything you and I might want, but he sure as hell is not doing "nothing". Unfortunately, it probably isn't "enough" either.
Oilers did sign a few college UFAs as I recall, and locked up a few prospects including getting Omark and MPS under contract from Europe, which can be tricky business. And the org. is less one manager, one coach, one scout, and one training staff.
The next target, Obviously, is players. Buyouts are just one option, and that season just started. Patience!
But these "assessments" that take forever are not doing him any good. Hanging Daum out this long is just the latest.
ReplyDeleteYes, and now he's adding another "To Do" to his list because he needs to hire another coach for the farm team. How much of his time is that going to eat up? Hopefully he has someone in mind for the position (and hopefully it isn't Mike Sillinger).
Also, ESPN.com was reporting rumoured conjecture that the Oil and Habs might look at a Penner for Price swap.
I had a dream where I was at a game and Taylor Hall was in a Canadiens uniform skating around in warm-ups. They also had some old bald guy as a backup goalie. *shrug*
That said, the timing of the Daum decision leaves quite a lot to be desired. Not very timely, and not very classy. This is one "evaluation" that could have been completed in April.
ReplyDeleteFPB: Spacek's critics were on his case because he created lots of turnovers and didn't score that many ponts. They didn't understood 2 things:
ReplyDelete- The more your coach asks you to starts in the defensive zone, the more you'll create turnovers and the less points you'll score.
- Montréal (with Edmonton) are the arenas where the most turnovers are dished out by the scorers, and the discrepancies are out of this world between the top and bottom scorers; in 08-09, 1300+ turnovers were recorded at the Bell center and something like 300 at the TD Gardens (one of the least generous arenas). As a rule of thumbs, RTSS stats are garbage.
Of course, Spacek and Hamrlik were those with the lowest Zone start on the Montreal D and they also were doing so playing against the best players.
Did I mention they still were pretty darn good at generating scoring chances at even strength?
Spacek and Hamrlik were both perfectly good last year. Any sentient being who actually watched more than 5 habs games can tell this. But Montréal's media sphere is replete with brain dead morons, so...
I'd still trade Hamrlik before Spacek because of the price tag.
Also, I'm mighty curious about Giroux. It seems he doesn't make the league because he is kinda soft and is the kind of scorer who ply his trade by floating around waiting for the good pass / crappy rebound.
ReplyDeleteBetween a rock and a hard place, I'd give him 20 games with a good playmaker just in case he's actually, y'know, able to do just that in the NHL. Say with Hemsky and Gagner, and you let Penner prop another line or play the toughs with Horcov...
As I said, it's not like he'll command much more than 750k...
It seems to me that the charges that have been laid on Tambellini about not being a good communicator in the past are very true. I don't think he's handled any of the firings (trainers, KP, scouts, Daum) with class. Either they were told over the phone after many years of service or they were left hanging, not knowing whether they were going to be employed or not. Beyond Tambo looking like a jack ass with the way he handled these moves, I think it reflects poorly on the team. Scouts and other staff from different teams will talk to each other, and you can bet at least some will eventually hear about how these things. If you're trying to attract the best people to your team, then having a reputation as a classy organization can only help. Having a rep as a cruddy team to work for will not. Unless Tambo's only concern is putting "his" people in place, I think he really needs to change how he deals with others.
ReplyDeleteThey'll have that patton goalie spliting time with a career ahl veteran they sign.if eberle & svenson don't make the team they can be sent here.Riley Nash sounds like he's not signing so who knows what happens there.he could play in the ahl next year.omark & trukhno are 2 highly regarded prospects.you could have Nash,svenson,eberle,omark all in the minors with plante,chorney,petry,motin as your top 4 defence.add a few ahl veterans to the names listed above & add o'marra too the defensive picture & you got the makings of a good minor league team with balance...only if svenson & eberle don't make the team.the oilers gave great options here.we could suck again & get another lottery pick but the FANS need to be PATIENT!
ReplyDelete