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2008-2009 Training Camp and Preseason
 Tue Jan 29, 2008 8:56 pm
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This post will cover the formation of the 2008-2009 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins from the first day of training camp to just before opening night on October 8th against the Philadelphia Phantoms.
On the first day of camp Maxime Talbot and Sean Collins were reported to be in the best shape.
On the second day we saw our first scrimmages as Team Blue beat Team Red 2-0 while Team Green tied Team White 2-2. Goal scorers were as follows: Sich(1), Stone (1), Collins (1), Murray (1), Hisey (1), and Conboy (1). Drouin-Deslauriers (17/18) and Franck (23/24) had the best goaltending performances. Positive reports were filed about Todd Rohloff and Stephen Dixon and the most positive about Ryan Stone.
On September 13th, morning scrimmages saw Green knock out Red 5-1 while White beat Blue 4-2. The goal scorers: Carcillo (1,2), Lee (1), Conboy (2), Stortini (1), Songin (1), Edwardson (1,2), Stone (2), Freiberg (1), Maunu (1), and Hisey (2). Jake Moreland (7/7) had the best goaltending performance. Positive reports were filed about Daniel Carcillo, Zach Stortini, Rohloff, and Derek Edwardson and the most positive about Marty Murray and Rob Hisey. After the game Stone received more good news in unsolicited praise from Coach Mullen. After the morning's practices, Pittsburgh called up 15 players to NHL camp and Edmonton called up 5.
2nd Annual I-81 Cup Semifinal
September 14th vs. Binghamton
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 5 - Binghamton 1
Goals:
Haggett (Sich, Rohloff)
Labelle (Collins, Pszenyczny)
Songin (Edwardson)
Edwardson (O'Connor, Marr)
Collins (DeFauw, Pszenyczny)
Goaltenders:
Madden (13/13)
Moreland (8/9)
Obviously I was pleased with this effort, but all it shows is that I invited better players to camp than Binghamton. Hershey defeated Syracuse 1-0 in the other I-81 Cup semifinal.
On September 15th, more scrimmaging took place as Green again waxed Red 4-3 while Blue turned it around on White 3-2. Goals were chipped in by: Labelle (1), Collins (2), Haggett (1,2), McMorrow (1), DeFauw (1), Campbell (1), O'Connor (1), and Conboy (3).
Positive reports from the coaching staff came down about Rohloff, Olivier Labelle, Brad DeFauw, and Jeff Campbell with Les Haggett garnering highest praise. Andy Franck and DeFauw got overall camp improvement reports.
I-81 Cup Final
September 15th vs. Hershey
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 6 - Hershey 5
Goals:
Kelly (Sich, McMorrow)
Collins (DeFauw, Labelle)
Edwardson (Giroux, DeFauw)
Pouliot (Kelly, Sich)
Edwardson (DeFauw, Giroux)
Rouleau (Giroux)
Goaltenders:
Franck (8/9)
Hayes (13/17)
On September 17th, more scrimmaging took place as Green and Red skated to a 1-1 tie while Blue fell to White 3-0. Goals scorers on this day were: Pouliot (1), Collins (3,4), and Giroux (1).
Positive reports from the scrimmage included Labelle, Alexandre Giroux, Patrick Pouliot, and Tim Songin with Sean Collins attracting the most positive attention. Labelle, Giroux, and DeFauw got overall camp praise reports while Haggett was characterized as struggling.
On September 18th, coach Joe Mullen gave his report on all players who participated in camp on tryouts. Only Collins and Giroux were given a positive endorsement to potentially acquire. DeFauw, Moreland, McDonald, Edwardson, Jorde, McMorrow, Jozsa, Rouleau, Fraser, and Irwin were given neutral evaluations with the rest negative.
#7 - Sean Collins
Pre-Season Game
September 19th vs. Rochester
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 2 - Rochester 0
Goals:
Campbell (Sich, Lee)
Kelly (Haggett)
Goaltenders:
Drouin-Deslauriers (15/15)
McDonald (9/9)
This one was largely a battle with gray players as Rochester usually doesn't sign any of their own. After the game Jeff Slate approached the team with interest in joining the squad.
Pre-Season Game
September 21st vs. Milwaukee
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 10 - Milwaukee 1
Goals:
O'Connor (Campbell, Songin)
O'Connor (Campbell, Rohloff)
O'Connor (Songin, Campbell)
Haggett (O'Connor, Songin)
O'Connor (Campbell, X)
Goaltenders:
Madden (9/10)
Franck (9/9)
Goals not credited were scored by Penguin gray players. Chris Lee chipped in two assists and Campbell one on those goals.
#12 Sean O'Connor
On September 22nd, reinforcements arrived in the form of players reassigned by Pittsburgh and Edmonton. Many new faces were added to the mix, many would eventually be released outright and some would come back to haunt the baby Pens.
Edmonton Assigns:
RW Alexsandr Bumagin
LW Tyler Doig
LW Liam Reddox
RW John Snowden
RW Zach Stortini
Pittsburgh Assigns:
D Paul Bissonnette
D Micki DuPont
D Phil Hartman (Alex Goligoski)
D Tommi Leinonen
D Kris Letang
C Stephen Dixon
C David Desharnais
C Tyler Kennedy
C Ryan Stone
C Maxime Talbot
RW Jonathan Filewich
RW Petr Freiberg
C Dave Steckel
RW Greg Hornby
LW Mario Carpenter (Nick Johnson)
LW Daniel Carcillo
G Chris Beckford-Tseu
G Rejean Beauchemin
On the 23rd, I took stock of the roster and sent Beauchemin, Leinonen, and Hornby to Wheeling. I noticed that 2006-07 contributors Rob Hisey and Justin Donati were sent by Edmonton to Milwaukee, meaning Edmonton actually has 3 AHL affiliates. At this point we had 8 veterans on the roster.
Pre-Season Game
September 23rd vs. Hartford
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 3 - Hartford 1
Goals:
Bumagin (Campbell, Reddox)
Letang (Stone)
Bumagin (Stone, Reddox)
Goaltenders:
Beckford-Tseu (12/12)
Drouin-Deslauriers (20/21)
Noting that we had cornered the market on goalies with hyphenated last names, Edmonton decided to clean out their AHL closets, releasing Snowden, Bumagin, Doig, Stortini, and Drouin-Deslauriers. At least this year I'll have a new goalie to curse!
Pre-Season Game
September 26th vs. Chicago
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 4 - Chicago 3 (OT)
Goals:
Reddox (Stone, Bissonnette)
O'Connor (Carcillo,Stone)
Carpenter (Songin, Desharnais)
Stone (Dupont, Carpenter)
Goaltenders:
Madden (11/13)
Franck (20/21)
The AHL season preview was released on September 28th. We were disrespected again though not as bad as last year, ranked as the 22nd best team out of 27! Maxime Talbot was noted as our team MVP and Todd Rohloff was the key new addition. Defending Calder Cup Champion Hamilton was ranked 7th, arch-rival Bridgeport 4th, and the Rochester Americans 1st as usual.
On September 29th, more roster augmentations occurred as the Oilers backfilled their compliment of contributed players while Pittsburgh sent three more. These moves increased our veteran total to 12.
Edmonton Assigns:
C Kevin Baker
RW Anton Skorykh
D Andrew Hotham
D Dan Smith
C Brad Winchester
Pittsburgh Assigns:
RW Ryan Dube (Alexander Daigle)
C Marty Murray
RW Andre Roy
Pre-Season Game
October 1st vs. Houston
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 5 - Houston 3
Goals:
Freiberg (Hornby, Dixon)
Dube (Hartman, DuPont)
Baker (PS)
Hotham (Stone)
Dube (Winchester, EN)
Goaltenders:
Beckford-Tseu (8/11)
Franck (16/16)
After the game Franck was injured in practice for 3 weeks with a hip issue. He had been stellar in the pre-season, with a 0.91 GAA and 96.4 Save percentage. Also, Talbot was named the 3rd best center in the AHL while Winchester and Murray were ranked 6th and 8th respectively. Dube was named the #2 right wing.
On 10/4 Pittsburgh assigned veteran defenseman Rob Scuderi to the team after a year with the big club. Edmonton retaliated it seemed by releasing Winchester. On the 5th, the Penguins and Montreal completed a trade which sent Leinonen to the Habs for the rights to Steve Bernier. Edmonton then assigned young defenseman Michael Vernace which was much appreciated.
Pre-Season Game
October 5th vs. Iowa
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 4 - Iowa 4 (SOL)
Goals:
Carcillo (Skorykh, Murray)
Skorykh (Carcillo, Murray)
Filewich (Carcillo, Leinonen)
Kennedy (Baker)
Goaltenders:
Madden (9/12)
Beckford-Tseu (11/12)
On 10/7, opening day, the Leinonen deal confirmed so I sent Phil Hartman down to Wheeling before placing Franck on IR.
2008-2009 Opening Day Roster - Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
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