#10:This shot of Chris Mueller makes the list thanks to his Patrick Kane style use of his mouthguard and the snow spray from Peoria Rivermen defenseman Bryce Lampman's attempt to block the passing lane.
And if you have not noticed, I have lightened up on the Admirals updates of late. This is primarily due to the fact that there are two excellent Admirals sites for updates, the newly unveiled Admirals Roundtable from the makers of ASS (Admirals Shoft Shifts) and the venerable MilwaukeeHockey.com. There will still obviously be some Admirals undertones (due to my season tickets with the Ads) despite an attempted focus at the entire Western Conference of the AHL, but I feel these two blogs spend alot of time putting together the same critical info, and frankly, why re-hash it a third time?
NHL Contracts: Jonas Andersson-The Swedish winger played 4 years here with the Ads, and hopes to crack the Preds roster this season. If he doesn't make it, who knows that we will actually see him in Milwaukee versus returning to Europe.
Gabriel Bourque- Moncton Wildcats leading scorer in the playoffs, Bourque will make his pro debut with the Ads and hope to continue his scoring touch.
Ryan Flynn- Flynn only played a couple games for the Ads last season after his senior year at the University of Minnesota and will probably be situated on the 3rd/4th lines for the Ads.
Blake Geoffrion- Last year's Hobey Baker winner scored 2 goals in his Bradley Center debut, and missed the rest of the playoffs after landing awkwardly into the boards in the subsequent game.
Matt Halischuk- Acquired from New Jersey in the Arnott trade, the winger put up moderate numbers in the AHL, but only had a goal and assist in 20 games for New Jersey last season.
Linus Klasen- Averaged a point per game in the Swedish Elite League last season, and lets hope to see more of this:
Jamie Lundmark- The Rangers First Rd pick up 1999 has never lived up to the hype, although puts up solid numbers in the AHL.
Mark Santorelli- After watching a number of games of the 08/09 season from the upper bowl of the Bradley Center, the Mike's younger brother showed some flashes of the talent that were hoped to be seen from him. Playing 15 more games in 09/10, he more than tripled his performance of the previous season.
Nick Spaling- Spaling bounced between Nashville and Milwaukee, and reinforced the defensive talents seen in Milwaukee by playing on the PK on occasion for the Preds.
Ryan Thang- Notre Dame's captain played the last 12 games of the Ads season and all 7 post-season games, putting up 10 points in the 19 games.
Andreas Thuresson- Probably one of Nashville's first call-ups depending on need, Thuresson will enter his 4th season with the Ads. Increasing his point totals each year, he matched his career high in goals last season despite playing 24 less games with the Ads while playing 22 games for Nashville.
Kelsey Wilson- Returns to Milwaukee after year in Europe, lead the Admirals in PIM every season with the team and will make up for loss of Triston Grant and Nolan Yonkman.
AHL Contracts: Michael Bartlett- Signed by the Ads at the start of the playoffs last season, the Morton Grove, IL winger split time between AHL Lake Erie Monsters and ECHL Johnstown Chiefs last season.
Dylan Hunter (per Aaron Sims at the Admirals Crew Booster Club meeting on Sept 13th)- Hunter saw his share of teams to call home last season, splitting time in the AHL with the Houston Aeros, Rochester Americans, and Ads, along with the ECHL Utah Grizzlies. Shown flashes of talent with a 47 pt season in 70 games for Rochester in 07/08, hopefully being able to play an entire season with one team will help increase performance.
Mark vanGuilder- Bounced repeatedly from Milwaukee and Cincinatti for the past two years, MvG wound up being a critical key of the penalty kill while playing 4th line minutes with the Ads last season.
Chris Mueller- Started last season in Cincinnati, and after the call-up never looked back. Hard-working all around player who set career highs in points and assists.
As the start of the AHL season is less than a month away, we will take a look at the potential players for the Milwaukee Admirals. In this installment we will take a look at the defensemen, while covering the forwards and goaltenders in the following weeks.
With the top 4 spots locked up in Nashville by Ryan Suter, Shea Weber, Francis Boullion and Kevin Klein, it leaves 2 spots open.
Ryan Parent signed a one-way contract, and can be assumed will be in Nashville, while Cody Franson is still unsigned but similarly will be assumed to return in Nashville once re-signed.
This leaves 7 defensemen with NHL contracts in addition to the 2 Scotts: Lehman and Ford, who are both under AHL contracts.
Jonathan Blum- The only Admiral to play in every game last season will probably return and will be looking to improve his Ads blueline high of 11 goals while replacing Robert Dietrich as the puck handling defenseman on the Power Play.
Scott Ford- Played on the bottom pairing for the Ads last season and may rely on his leadership in the locker room to retain his roster spot, as he was largely considered the next team Captain before the signing of Brett Palin.
Aaron Johnson- A solid veteran who will probably see time with Nashville as a 6th/7th defenseman, playing a handful of games for Milwaukee, much like he has in other organizations in recent years.
Roman Josi- Nashville's 2008 2nd Rd pick will be making his North American debut this season and will see time in Milwaukee to acclimate to the change in playing style compared to the Swiss-A league.
Teemu Laakso- Battled through shoulder problems the past two years, needs to show that he can last a full AHL season.
Scott Lehman- Signed to an AHL contract and could end up in ECHL's Cincinnati, will probably see time as Lane Lambert's 7th defenseman also splitting time on the 4th line as Lambert has used other defesemen in previous years.
Grant Lewis- Missed time the past couple seasons with injury, was leading defenseman in plus/minus for the Chicago Wolves in the 2008/09 season.
Brett Palin- Captain last year for AHL Abbotsford Heat and former AHL All-Star played only 21 games last season, but will look to get back to his form from 2008/09.
Alex Sulzer- The conundrum with Sulzer is his One-Way contract, in which he will earn the same pay whether he is in Milwaukee or Nashville. In my opinion, I would not be surprised to see him traded due to his one-way contract, despite his solid AHL play.
All players have NHL and/or AHL experience (with the exception of Josi) will offer the Ads a solid defense for the upcoming season regardless of who makes the team.
Next week we will take a look at the potential forwards for the Ads.
In case you haven't seen, the Admirals will face the Rockford Icehogs at the Rockford Metrocentre, Friday October 1st. (Link)
The Admirals also announced in their STH email that there will be a pre-season game in the Milwaukee area Saturday October 2nd. (Which was just announced today, against the Chicago Wolves at the Kern Center. Link)
In a Chicago/Milwaukee swap, the Nashville Predators acquire defenseman Grant Lewis from the Atlanta Thrashers in exchange for Ian McKenzie. (Link)
Lewis has played with the Chicago Wolves the past 3 seasons before being re-assigned to the Hershey Bears at the end of last season, while McKenzie has bounced back and forth between Milwaukee and the ECHL Cincinnati Cyclones.
In case you haven't seen or received the email from the Ads yet, they have Cal O'Reilly's blue alternate on ebay. (Link)
Also, defenseman Aaron Johnson signed to a two-way deal by the Preds. (Link)
Finally, good luck to former Admiral forward Stephen Werner who is looking to make a comeback in Germany after missing last season due to concussion issues. (Link)
*If you didnt hear Monday night, the Village People will return to the Bradley Center after the game on Friday December 3rd.
*Bobbleheads for this year will include former Ads Scottie Upshall and Darren Pang. (Awesome!)
*Finally, a shoutout to a classy gesture by the Peoria Rivermen to their season ticket holders. They have scheduled a schoolday 1:05 PM afternoon game on Wednesday, November 17th, and are offering 2 ticket vouchers for every seat to those who are working and unable to make the game.
Forward Ben Guite has signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets, after it had been known since early June that Nashville would not resign him.
He will probably be with the Springfield Falcons next season.
And browsing the interweb, came across this humorous opine on the Admirals logo (and it's creation) along with many other minor league hockey teams logos reviews.
In case you were one of the 3 Ads fans who didn't hear the news, the Admirals have new away jerseys and are auctioning off the one modeled by Blake Geoffion at the unveiling.
And if you preferred the old style, there's an example of Blake's gray Admirals jersey from his debut last season on ebay also.
The Dexshow is finally tweeting, and announced the signing of his 2nd pro contract. Since he's an RFA, can only mean he's back with the Preds organization in some fashion.
Congrats Dex, glad to see you on twitter, and great background ;)
In other news, Mike Santorelli traded to Florida for a draft pick and the Ads unveiled a new away jersey (as predicted)... check it out on www.milwaukeeadmirals.com
Aaron Sims confirmed that Scott Ford signed a two-year AHL contract with the Admirals last season, so we will see Ford on the blueline again this season. If you aren't checking out his blog, its a good read.
As mentioned a couple places by the Ads, Blake Geoffrion will be at the Wisconsin State Fair Thursday to unveil "a new look".
Without any internal knowledge or connections, I'm willing to go out on a limb and guess we will not be seeing the away gray jerseys in their current state next year.
Also, per Jon Greenburg's blog, we only have approximately two more weeks until the schedule is released! Then only ~1.5 more months until hockey season...
The Admirals announced the return today of forward Mike Barlett.
The Admirals announced today that they have signed forward Mike Bartlett to an American Hockey League contract.
Bartlett had a very busy season last year as he played for four different hockey clubs. He joined the Admirals for the playoffs and recorded an assist in four games during their series with the Chicago Wolves. While splitting time during the regular season with the Lake Erie Monsters (AHL) and the Johnstown Chiefs (ECHL), Mike recorded a total of 35 points (16g-19a) in 71 games played.
The Morton Grove, Illinois native played four years of college hockey at Notre Dame University after playing for the U.S. National Under-18 Team for two seasons. Bartlett began his professional career playing for the Arizona Sun Dogs of the CHL in 2007-08 and in 2008-09 he made the jump to the AHL and recorded three points in 17 games with the Monsters.
Milwaukee Admirals published an article stating F/D Scott Lehman was signed to an AHL contract and is not under contract to the Nashville Predators as stated originally.
Nashville has signed ex-Chicago Wolves defenseman Scott Lehman, who only played 11 games last season due to injury.
Lehman will fit perfectly in the Admirals system, as he frequently played both defense and forward with the Wolves, allowing him to fill the role Mark Matheson and other defenseman occasionally played on the 4th line of forwards for Lane Lambert.
A week after Brett Palin was signed by the Admirals, his teammate for the past two years, center Jamie Lundmark has also signed with the Nashville Predators. Both have been Alternate Captains (and in Palin's case Captain) in the Flames farm system and will bring veteran leadership into the locker room.
No surprise, besides the new Western division Oklahoma City Barons, the Admirals will play the same teams as last season, playing neither the Rochester Americans nor any Eastern Conference teams.
Breakdown (same number of games home and away):
West Division Chicago Wolves-5 Rockford Icehogs-5 Peoria Rivermen-5 San Antonio Rampage-4 Houston Aeros-3 Texas Stars-3 Oklahoma City Barons-3
North Division Grand Rapids Griffins-4 Abbotsford Heat-2 Lake Erie Monsters-2 Manitoba Moose-2 Hamilton Bulldogs-1 Toronto Marlies-1
James Sixsmith was signed this week by the Cologne Sharks of the German Elite League (DEL), so unfortunately, no Sixsmith sightings in Milwaukee this year. Link
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