Bulldogs - 06-07 Season
Oct 3, 2006 0:01:43 GMT -5
Post by NWTHabsFan on Oct 3, 2006 0:01:43 GMT -5
Montreal's top farm team, the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs, starts their regular season this Friday night on the same night as the parent club. After missing the playoffs for the first time since affiliating with Montreal, there is a great sense of urgency to return to the winning ways that saw a joint effort of Montreal and Edmonton prospects come within a game of winning the Calder Cup four years ago.
What is new this season? Well, for one, Montreal has closed the door (for the most part) on having a shared AHL affiliate this season. With a lot of promising young prospects in their system, the Habs' brass felt that it would need the extra roster spots to help develop their own players as opposed to the challenge of finding ice time for both their prospects and others from another NHL team. With shared affiliations with Edmonton, Dallas and Tampa Bay over the last few seasons, this year should only see a max of two players from Edmonton sharing the bleu-blanc-rouge in Steeltown.
Will this team improve this season? I think a lot of things favour a much improved year after missing the playoffs last season. The Dogs were the youngest team in the AHL last year and had a rookie coach in Don Lever after Doug Jarvis was promoted to the parent club as an assistant coach. Each of those young players now has another year under his belt and all should see improvement in their game this season. In addition, Montreal management and Hamilton ownership agreed to have the owners spend some of their money to bolster the young lineup with some AHL vets to provide some experience to the developing youngsters. All in all, things are shaping up for this young squad.
Who are the players this season?
In net, Hamilton fans should relish having the solid tandem of Yann Danis and Jaroslav Halak. Danis came off a roller coaster season, due to a season split between Montreal and Hamilton and having to share the net with a handful of other goalies from the two organizations. Danis is expected to have a much better and more consistent year this season. Danis will be pushed by the young Slovakian who enjoyed a great pro debut that saw him put up great numbers in both the ECHL in Long Beach and later in the AHL in Hamilton. If either should falter or get called up, the Habs have Memorial Cup veteran Cedric Desjardins in the wings who likely will be getting lots of ice in Cincinnati of the ECHL.
On defense, things have sure improved over the last two months. During the off season, this was seen as the Achilles heel of the team. However, this has been addressed a fair bit over the summer leading up to opening night. The Habs and Dogs have acquired a number of veteran players to complement the relatively thin Hab blueline prospect depth in Hamilton. Returning players Andrew Archer, JP Cote and Andre Benoit will be joined by solid AHL veteran Dan Jancevski, previous AHL'er Danny Groulx, solid Edmonton prospect Mathieu Roy who played for the Dogs last season, possibly Patrick Traverse if he clears waivers, and Hab prospect Ryan O'Byrne who towers over most at 6'5". In the wings, watch for Ryan's previous Cornell Big Red teammate Jon Gleed to make the move if any openings occur. The big question mark is whether James Sanford, who showed up to his second straight camp out of shape, is given a third chance with the club. So far, no sign of him since Coach Carbo sent him packing from the big club training camp and he likely would be outside looking in as this is the area of biggest improvement over last season if all remain healthy.
Up front, the team should be able to score more goals than it did last season, where sophomore Corey Locke led the team in scoring ahead of a number of Edmonton prospects. With the Oiler players gone, look to a combination of veterans and new recruits to help bolster the cause and put the biscuit in the basket. The Dogs signed a few veterans in Eric Manlow and Ajay Baines, the former who put up career numbers in Grand Rapids last season and the latter who is a solid two way leader who has worn the "C" in the A. Newcomers Mikhail Grabovski, Mathieu Aubin, Matt D'Agostini and Kyle Chipchura (who played 8 games at the end of last season with the Dogs) all hope to add to the team's offense. Rookie Greg Stewart is a good two way energy guy who is also looking to make the cut. Returning players like Locke, Andre Kostitsyn, Maxim Lapierre, Jonathan Ferland, and Duncan Milroy should all make the team. Cory Urquhart and Michael Lambert, who saw time in both the AHL and ECHL over the past two seasons, should be fighting for spots once again. Also look for tough guy Jimmy Bonneau to try and keep from being sent down to Cincy at season's start.
All in all, it should be a fun season with some good promise for the Hab hopefuls down in Hamilton.
What is new this season? Well, for one, Montreal has closed the door (for the most part) on having a shared AHL affiliate this season. With a lot of promising young prospects in their system, the Habs' brass felt that it would need the extra roster spots to help develop their own players as opposed to the challenge of finding ice time for both their prospects and others from another NHL team. With shared affiliations with Edmonton, Dallas and Tampa Bay over the last few seasons, this year should only see a max of two players from Edmonton sharing the bleu-blanc-rouge in Steeltown.
Will this team improve this season? I think a lot of things favour a much improved year after missing the playoffs last season. The Dogs were the youngest team in the AHL last year and had a rookie coach in Don Lever after Doug Jarvis was promoted to the parent club as an assistant coach. Each of those young players now has another year under his belt and all should see improvement in their game this season. In addition, Montreal management and Hamilton ownership agreed to have the owners spend some of their money to bolster the young lineup with some AHL vets to provide some experience to the developing youngsters. All in all, things are shaping up for this young squad.
Who are the players this season?
In net, Hamilton fans should relish having the solid tandem of Yann Danis and Jaroslav Halak. Danis came off a roller coaster season, due to a season split between Montreal and Hamilton and having to share the net with a handful of other goalies from the two organizations. Danis is expected to have a much better and more consistent year this season. Danis will be pushed by the young Slovakian who enjoyed a great pro debut that saw him put up great numbers in both the ECHL in Long Beach and later in the AHL in Hamilton. If either should falter or get called up, the Habs have Memorial Cup veteran Cedric Desjardins in the wings who likely will be getting lots of ice in Cincinnati of the ECHL.
On defense, things have sure improved over the last two months. During the off season, this was seen as the Achilles heel of the team. However, this has been addressed a fair bit over the summer leading up to opening night. The Habs and Dogs have acquired a number of veteran players to complement the relatively thin Hab blueline prospect depth in Hamilton. Returning players Andrew Archer, JP Cote and Andre Benoit will be joined by solid AHL veteran Dan Jancevski, previous AHL'er Danny Groulx, solid Edmonton prospect Mathieu Roy who played for the Dogs last season, possibly Patrick Traverse if he clears waivers, and Hab prospect Ryan O'Byrne who towers over most at 6'5". In the wings, watch for Ryan's previous Cornell Big Red teammate Jon Gleed to make the move if any openings occur. The big question mark is whether James Sanford, who showed up to his second straight camp out of shape, is given a third chance with the club. So far, no sign of him since Coach Carbo sent him packing from the big club training camp and he likely would be outside looking in as this is the area of biggest improvement over last season if all remain healthy.
Up front, the team should be able to score more goals than it did last season, where sophomore Corey Locke led the team in scoring ahead of a number of Edmonton prospects. With the Oiler players gone, look to a combination of veterans and new recruits to help bolster the cause and put the biscuit in the basket. The Dogs signed a few veterans in Eric Manlow and Ajay Baines, the former who put up career numbers in Grand Rapids last season and the latter who is a solid two way leader who has worn the "C" in the A. Newcomers Mikhail Grabovski, Mathieu Aubin, Matt D'Agostini and Kyle Chipchura (who played 8 games at the end of last season with the Dogs) all hope to add to the team's offense. Rookie Greg Stewart is a good two way energy guy who is also looking to make the cut. Returning players like Locke, Andre Kostitsyn, Maxim Lapierre, Jonathan Ferland, and Duncan Milroy should all make the team. Cory Urquhart and Michael Lambert, who saw time in both the AHL and ECHL over the past two seasons, should be fighting for spots once again. Also look for tough guy Jimmy Bonneau to try and keep from being sent down to Cincy at season's start.
All in all, it should be a fun season with some good promise for the Hab hopefuls down in Hamilton.
