20 AHL Thoughts - 2020 Trade Deadline Edition

Entering the final 24 hours until the NHL's annual trade deadline (Monday, February 24th at 3 p.m. ET) and in terms of the American Hockey League (AHL) the result of the trade deadline can impact an AHL team in several ways.

As we've seen the past few days, NHL GM's are getting some of their work done early - particularly in regards to their AHL-level players with 1-for-1 trades and even a 2-for-2 swap between players on AHL rosters.

It really started on Tuesday when the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes exchanged prospects, with big, skilled forward Julien Gauthier heading to the Rangers and rookie defenseman Joey Keane joining the Hurricanes organization. Several NHL clubs addressed needs for their AHL clubs ahead of this weekend, and surely more "smaller" AHL-level deals will come before Monday evening.

Stealing a page from the great Elliotte Friedman, here's 20 AHL-centric thoughts to get everyone in tune with the latest around the AHL heading toward the 2020 NHL Trade Deadline.

1.

A simple reminder that the NHL's trading deadline also serves as a deadline for players to be AHL-eligible for the remainder of the 2019-20 regular season and 2020 Calder Cup Playoffs. Players must be on AHL rosters when Monday's 3pm deadline passes to be eligible to play in the AHL moving forward, meaning anyone on an NHL roster can't be reassigned to the minors. NHL Teams are allowed four recalls post-deadline, so some paper moves will be made Monday afternoon and subsequent call ups after.

2.

The AHL's trading deadline always falls one week following the NHL's, so that would be next Monday March 2nd.

3.

In terms of the AHL's landscape in this season's standings to date, there are a handful of teams well out of playoff range - Bakersfield (EDM), Bridgeport (NYI), Cleveland (CBJ), Lehigh Valley (PHI), Manitoba (WPG) and San Jose (SJ). Players with expiring contracts on those AHL teams might be paying closer attention to their phones, as organizations tend to move some of the veteran depth to allow younger prospects to gain more ice time and experience down the stretch in the AHL for teams out of playoff contention in the spring.

4.

The Philadelphia Flyers seem to have a deadline plan in place in regards to their AHL affiliate in Lehigh Valley. It began with trading veteran goaltender J-F Berube to the New York Rangers Wednesday but not before Berube came on in relief of Alex Lyon in Wednesday night's Phantoms game in Bridgeport. The following morning, in a separate but subsequent move, the Rangers AHL affiliate Hartford traded goaltender Tom McCollum and forward Lewis Zerter-Gossage to Lehigh Valley.

The move made room for the Phantoms to bring up promising rookie goaltender Kirill Ustimenko, who began the year in the ECHL with the Reading Royals and has shown he's ready for the AHL. He stopped 36 of the 38 shots he faced Saturday night in Syracuse in his 2nd AHL start. Trading Berube also saves the Flyers organization some money. While there's no salary cap limit for an AHL club, Berube was due $350,000 at the AHL-level this season - one of the larger salaries as far as AHL veterans go.

5.

Those close to the Phantoms seem to think Berube won't be the last of the Phantoms' veteran type players moved out before all is said and done. While Lehigh Valley might be a little thin on defense with the recent injury to Tyler Wotherspoon, they have NHL-contracted prospect forwards Matthew Strome and Pascal Laberge in ECHL Reading. With the Phantoms out of realistic playoff contention, perhaps another forward or two will be moved to allow the younger players more opportunities to learn in the final 20 games of the season.

6.

While no one in the Flyers organization has commented on the record as to what happened to T.J. Brennan and why his locker stall was cleaned out during the team's five-game homestand in January, the veteran defenseman has been a healthy scratch the past 19 games and hasn't been seen around the team in over a month. The four-time AHL All-Star apparently fell out of favor rather quickly Dave Isaac's story on Brennan with the coaching staff this season after finishing last season with no goals and just six assists in his final 20 games and not providing much this year.

While the Flyers look to trade Brennan and rid themselves of paying his $450,000 rate at the AHL-level this season, it can't be an easy sell to move an offensive defenseman with that kind big of an AHL price tag that hasn't played in five weeks. What happens next if Brennan remains in the organization post-deadline will be interesting to see play out.

7.

While the Philadelphia Flyers helped their cause at the AHL level by shipping out a veteran and promoting prospects within their development system, the New York Rangers helped solidify their AHL affiliate's goaltending with the addition of J-F Berube. While the other recent addition, forward Julien Gauthier, is currently in the NHL with the Rangers it's possible that Gauthier, one of the AHL's leading goal scorers this season, will be moved to the AHL roster prior to Monday's trade deadline to make him AHL eligible for the stretch run and postseason.

8.

The New Jersey Devils' re-tooling of their roster has greatly benefited their AHL affiliate in Binghamton. It began in November when the Devils acquired goaltender Louis Domingue, who appeared in 11 AHL games with Binghamton early on in the season and has been reassigned to the AHL Devils on Friday, potentially making him AHL eligible post-trade deadline day. Then again in December when the Taylor Hall trade brought forwards Nick Merkley and Nate Schnarr to Binghamton.

The AHL Devils also signed veteran defenseman Kyle Cumiskey to an AHL contract for the remainder of the 2019-20 season while last Sunday's trade of Andy Greene to the New York Islanders saw the player in return, defenseman David Quenneville, placed on Binghamton's roster. A 6-3 loss Saturday to Charlotte snapped the Devils' five-game win streak but the recent surge pushed Binghamton from last place in the North Division to just two points out of a playoff spot entering Sunday's games.

9.

The team the Devils are currently chasing, the Syracuse Crunch (Tampa Bay), made a change-of-scenery swap directly affecting the Crunch when they sent forward Danick Martel to Springfield (Florida) in exchange for forward Anthony Greco. The Crunch have struggled to find consistency most of the season, but are 6-2-2 in their last 10 games after Saturday night's 2-1 win over Lehigh Valley. They hold the fourth and final playoff spot in the North Division by two points over the Binghamton Devils entering Sunday's schedule.

10.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have an interesting setup at the AHL level with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins head coach Mike Vellucci also serving as the AHL team's GM. In his first season with the Penguins organization after winning the AHL's Calder Cup Championship last season as the bench boss of the Charlotte Checkers (Carolina), Vellucci has been wheeling and dealing all season to get out from under the AHL's veteran rule and to add some help on defense. I would expect the Penguins to continue to be aggressive at the AHL level, not only before Monday's NHL trade deadline but also into next Monday's AHL trading deadline.

11.

The biggest AHL-level trade the Penguins pulled off came on Thursday with Laval (Montreal), which has the potential to be the biggest deadline deal for a team in this league. The Penguins sent forwards Joseph Blandisi and Jake Lucchini in exchange for forwards Riley Barber and Phil Varone, 2018-19 AHL MVP. Northeast hockey expert Mark Divver reported that "Laval's mysterious decision to scratch Riley Barber & Phil Varone in Providence last Sunday was related to some kind of off-ice unrest".

Seriously though. At the AHL level this season Vellucci has orchestrated moves that have seen forwards Joseph Blandisi, Joseph Cramarossa, Ryan Haggerty, Jake Lucchini and Oula Palve turn into defenseman John Nyberg, forwards Riley Barber, Graham Knott, Kevin Roy and Phil Varone. Vellucci also signed forward Cole Cassels to an AHL contract after his PTO with Belleville ended, and the forward has produced 13 points (four goals, nine assists) in his first 20 games with the Penguins.

12

The AHL's Chicago Wolves have been scouting AHL games in the Eastern Conference this season. I've noticed they've been at Lehigh Valley Phantoms games both at home and on the road throughout various points in the season. Whether or not that has relevance at the trade deadline for the Vegas Golden Knights affiliate in the coming days remains to be seen. As an AHL team that owns itself and is pushing for more control of the AHL operations, perhaps they are getting out to other AHL games and putting together a short list of players they'd be interested in adding for the 2020-21 season - depending on their new NHL affiliation (discussed a little more further below.)

13

The Toronto Marlies (Toronto Maple Leafs, of course) are another AHL team that makes the extra effort to make sure they are competitive and developing prospects in a winning environment, including usage of their ECHL affiliate (Newfoundland Growlers) to give an extra stepping stone for longer-range prospects to get a taste of pro hockey. The organization has made several moves impacting the AHL club, with their latest trade on Saturday involving a swap of AHL players with Milwaukee (Nashville) seeing defenseman Ben Harpur head west and forward Miikka Salomaki join the Marlies, re-uniting with former longtime teammate Pontus Aberg.

It's worth noting that in Elliotte Friedman's final 31 Thoughts piece of 2019 he mentioned that Harpur - and forwards Jeremy Bracco and Dmytro Timashov - had "asked Toronto to see what's out there for them." The Maple Leafs placed Timashov on waivers Sunday, while Bracco - one of the Marlies' 2020 AHL All-Star representatives - appeared in the Marlies' first two games following the all-star break but has been away from the team since the beginning of February with what head coach Greg Moore commented was for personal reasons. There hasn't been any update on Bracco's absence since the initial remark from Moore on Feb 4th.

14.

The Charlotte Checkers are nowhere near the juggernaut they were last season with last year's championship team all but picked apart over the summer, including the departure of head coach Mike Vellucci. Last year's assistant coach and former ECHL head coach Ryan Warsofsky has his team this season fully bought in and they've overcome a slow start to the year and are solidly in position to contend for a playoff spot in the Atlantic Division. They've already made a big move at the AHL level in swapping big, skilled forward Julien Gauthier for defenseman Joey Keane from the Hartford WolfPack (New York Rangers), a first year pro having a great season on the blue line with 32 points (nine goals, 23 assists) in 51 AHL games this season. Keane had a multi-point game in his second game with Charlotte over the weekend, tallying a goal and an assist in the Checkers' 6-3 win over a much-improved Binghamton Devils team.

Now, it's the goaltending situation as both of the NHL's goalies (Peter Mrazek and James Reimer) were injured in Saturday night's infamous game in Toronto. Currently, the AHL goalies (Alex Nedeljkovic and Anton Forsberg) were both promoted to the NHL and likewise with the two ECHL goalies (Callum Booth and Jeremy Helvig) up to the AHL. Depending on the severity of the injuries, it's possible that the organization could pursue to add a goalie - albeit for AHL depth purposes - while both AHL and NHL teams are in the middle of playoff races in both leagues. The Philadelphia Flyers sent J-F Berube to Hartford to open up a spot for promising rookie Kirill Ustimenko, and have another rookie adapting to pro hockey in the ECHL playing well lately in Felix Sandstrom. Wouldn't it be something if Alex Lyon - who famously stopped 94 of 95 shots in the Phantoms' 5OT win against Charlotte in the 2018 playoffs - was moved to the Hurricanes organization to help stabilize the goaltending situation at the AHL level?

15.

The American Hockey League's (AHL) President and CEO Dave Andrews is retiring from his role as the league's front man after 26 years as the man that kept everything working in relationships with all 31 NHL organizations while also expanding the AHL brand in both the addition of the now defunct IHL teams in the midwest and the expansion to the west coast with five teams in California - and a soon to be sixth when Seattle's AHL affiliate begins play in 2021-22 season - and an AHL team in the desert out in Tucson, Arizona.

Having the 2020 AHL All-Star Classic, Andrews' final All-Star event as the league's president, in Ontario, California - a place that likely wouldn't have AHL hockey without Andrews' involvement - was definitely a nice touch, and the sunny warm weather at the end of January was certainly an added bonus.

Andrews won't be leaving the AHL after the season, however, his contract calls for three years as a chair on the AHL's Board of Governors and he'll also be assisting his newly appointed successor during the transition.

16.

You might have missed the AHL's Valentine's Day (evening) release about the news that Scott Howson, former Columbus Blue Jackets General Manager and current Edmonton Oilers Director of Player Development, was unanimously elected by the AHL's Board of Governors as the league's President and CEO effective July 1st, 2020.

Howson has plenty of experience and a wealth of knowledge about several aspects in the game, as well as being well-connected in the hockey world that go hand-in-hand with the positions he has held throughout his career.

Stephen Whyno (AP Hockey Writer) spoke with Howson shortly after his appointement as the AHL's 10th President/CEO in league history.

Howson said making sure every franchise is healthy and continuing to build the AHL’s brand are among his biggest tasks. It helps that he has a rapport with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, deputy commissioner Bill Daly and many GMs.

“We know what we are,” Howson said. “We’re a development league. You’ve got to make sure that the relationship with the NHL head office and the NHL general managers and the teams, we’re serving their needs. You’ve got to take care of the product first and make sure that we’re serving the (NHL’s) needs.”

17.

The Vegas Golden Knights purchased an AHL franchise previously owned by the Spurs Sports and Entertainment group in San Antonio, home of the San Antonio Rampage (currently affiliated with the St. Louis Blues). They applied for relocation of the franchise to Henderson/Las Vegas, Nevada and the plan is for the team to play their games in 2020-21 in the Orleans Arena while the new arena in Henderson is built. Per the team's recent release, it will be "a new state-of-the-art, 6,000-seat arena for our AHL team."

18.

Rumors have been swirling about other potential AHL affiliation and relocation movement following the news of the Golden Knights' purchase and relocation of San Antonio., For the 2020-21 season we can pencil in Stockton as the city and franchise agreed to extend their lease for one more season. While the city and franchise attempt to work on a multi-year lease past next season, Flames' VP of Communications Peter Hanlon said in the team's release Wednesday "We have recently extended our agreement in Stockton through 2020-21, and that’s all we are focused on at this time.”

19

The St. Louis Blues are currently without an AHL affiliate for the 2020-21 season and the Chicago Wolves are currently without an NHL affiliation for 2020-21. But that's anything but a guarantee as those close to the situation have been reporting since the Vegas-San Antonio deal that St Louis and AHL Chicago won't work together again. It appears that there will be more AHL-NHL affiliation shuffling to come before next fall. The current affiliation agremeent between the Chicago Blackhawks and Rockford IceHogs is set to expire at the end of the 2019-20 season, so there are multiple things in play.

20.

The AHL is going outdoors next season, marking the 11th time in the league's history they've played a game outdoors. The Utica Comets (VAN) will host the Syracuse Crunch (TBL) on Saturday, February 13th in the 2021 AIS Empire State Classic Outdoor Game at the Griffiss Business & Technology Park in Rome, NY.

In the Comets' press release, .. "the exact location of the event is still to be determined, as three sites within Griffiss are currently being considered. Mohawk Valley Garden is currently working with a number of companies on orchestrating the plans for the build out of the stadium, which will include approximately 16,000 fixed seats, a full sheet of NHL-caliber ice, portable video boards, and more."