Milwaukeehockey.com

I saw fireworks from the freeway...

July 4, 2007

and behind closed eyes I cannot make them go away
cause you were born on the fourth of july, freedom ring
now something on the surface it stings
~(Jason Mraz)

Hope you all had a great Fourth of July holiday. Mine was uneventful... after all, I'm sitting here updating this page instead of doing something out and about.

The week that has passed was an eventful one for Admirals and Predators fans. The free agency market opened for business on Sunday. A few of our players left. A few new players were signed. More news on the pending sale of the Predators. I'll briefly break these stories down for you...

Before I get to that, I'll answer a question that gets posed to me several times every summer. "When is the schedule coming out?". I never hear an exact date, but it's usually released in the first week of August. Why not sooner? Because the league has to wait on the NBA to release their schedule. Milwaukee, Houston, Cleveland, and San Antonio share their building with an NBA team.

The Admirals lost a few key figures this past week. Coach Claude Noel accepted an assistant coaching position with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Upon arriving in Nashville to conduct the Predators prospects camp last week, he got the phone call asking if he wanted to reunite with Columbus head coach Ken Hitchcock, who Noel worked under in Kalamazoo in the IHL. Best of luck to Claude. He has certainly deserved his shot at an NHL job.

The big question now is who will take his place behind the Milwaukee bench. Admirals assistant Lane Lambert could be a canidate. His resume shows two years as an AHL assistant and one year as a head coach in junior hockey, but I'm guessing the Predators would rather pick someone who has minor league head coaching experience.

Milwaukee also lost AHL Defenseman of the Year Sheldon Brookbank who followed Claude to Columbus. Signed to a two way contract, he will play in Syracuse if he doesn't earn a BJ jersey after training camp.

And although Ville Koistinen re-signed with Nashville this week... it is unlikely he will see time in Milwaukee because he signed a $475,000 one way contract. Players with a one way deal only see time in the minors if they are on an injury conditioning assignment or are completely worthless in the NHL.

The week before, Brandon Segal was traded to Anaheim. Hopefully he gets a look by the Ducks. I feel he played well enough to deserve a brief callup by the Predators this past season, but it never came.

And with the recent salary-dump trade by Nashville of goaltender Tomas Vokoun to Florida, it effectively promotes Pekka Rinne to the #2 position on the Predators depth chart behind Chris Mason. Other Admirals may get a full time NHL position, such as Kevin Klein and Rich Peverley, but we won't know how that shakes out until after training camp. Bet the bank on Pekka spending the season in Tennessee.

Good luck to Sheldon, Ville, Brandon, and Pekka. All will be missed by Admiral fans, including yours truly. Across the Milwaukee area, there are girls literally crying over losing one or more of those guys. Happens every summer.

A few players were added to the Admirals roster. Alex Henry re-signed, although he could earn an NHL roster spot, and journeyman goaltender Dov Grumet-Morris was signed. Dov has played on six different teams in his two year pro career. A slew of new prospects were signed in the past few weeks. I haven't taken the time to learn much about all of them. You can read the list of new prospects on my Players page to see who is coming and going.

The Predators lost a few top players as they are reducing player salary expenses as Craig Leipold is cutting his losses before selling the team in the coming months.

Paul Kariya signed with St. Louis. Kimmo Timonen and Scott Hartnell signed with Philadelphia. Peter Forsberg is out of Nashville's picture, but hasn't yet signed elsewhere, and as I mentioned, Tomas Vokoun went to Florida.

Nashville re-signed Jerred Smithson and Scott Nichol; and added Radek Bonk, Greg de Vries, and Jed Ortmeyer. This season does not look good for Predator fans.

But there might be some good news for the Predator fans. A group of local investors have put in a bid to buy the team from Leipold. Two other bazillionaires have put in offers with the plan of relocating the team in the future. The local group would keep the team in Tennessee. No word yet on how much cash they ponied up. Me thinks it will fall far short of the $200 million price range of the other bids.

I'd also like to give a tip of the hat to Admirals president Jon Greenberg for winning the AHL's executive of the year honors. He and his staff have done a great job in his first two years running the team. I'm looking forward to what he has in store for us in the upcoming season.

One more thing before I sign off... when contacting me on my feedback form, leave your email address if you want me to answer you. I've had several comments lately I'd reply to if I knew where to send it. Or, feel free to comment on this page by clicking on the comments link after each of my entries. Only one comment this summer, but things always slow down in the offseason, and many people don't want to contribute. Understandable... I rarely comment on other sites, but it's here for anyone who wants to use it.

posted by Todd # 1:26 PM

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