Quote:
Originally Posted by rob1989
Last thought: I am a Murray fan, but I think it is terrible that they couldn't bring in some solid veterans to help out the Bsens this year. A culture of winning is important and it is too bad that they are having such a poor year... The playoff experience that junior players could get if they got a chance to join would be valuable
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Ok... let's see
* All those numbers are without playoffs games.
a) Before the season started they had :
Corey Locke : 534 AHL games + 9 NHL games
Mark Parrish : 118 AHL games + 722 NHL games
Francis Lessard : 522 AHL games + 115 NHL games
Tim Conboy : 412 AHL games + 59 NHL games
b) After the season started, they also traded for :
Rob Klinkhammer : 288 AHL games + 1 NHL game
Looks like solid veterans to me (except Lessard but he is here to protect the younger guys)
- They also had an experienced goalie that is supposed to back up Lehner :
Mike McKenna : 164 AHL games + 17 NHL games (that's a good amount for a goalie)
- They also had a few younger guys approaching "veteran territory" (check below for definition) :
Craig Schira : 135 AHL games (almost 200 pro games now)
Nikita Filatov : 75 AHL games + 44 NHL games + 26 KHL games (almost 200 pro games now)
Jim O'Brien : 156 AHL games + 6 NHL games (almost 200 pro games in NA now)
Kaspars Daugavins : 182 AHL games + 1 NHL game (almost 250 pro games in NA now)
- Finally, they also had a guy named Lee Sweatt (who played pro hockey in Europe and a bit in AHL/NHL, 221 pro games if I'm correct) who retired at the last minute, and kinda screwed their plans for the defense.
Bottom line, Bingo has its maximum of AHL veterans, which is 5 (Locke, Parrish, Klinkhammer, Lessard, Conboy). They even had a few others that have some decent pro experience (McKenna, Schira, Filatov, O'Brien, Daugavins, Sweatt) but Sweatt retired, Daugavins made the NHL (because of Winchester and Regin injuries) and Filatov decided to go back to the KHL.
There's not a lot of veterans in the AHL, it's a league for NHL prospects. There's a reason why there's a rule called "Veteran scratch". You can't dress more than 5 veterans per team in an AHL game.
To be considered a "Veteran" :
260 games in the NHL, AHL or any European Elite league. Calculated at the beginning of the season
http://hfboards.hockeysfuture.com/sh...3&postcount=73
The problems for Bingo this season are more related to the ridculous amount of games missed due to injury (particulary to key players), the inconsistent season of their goalie (who should be one of the best in the AHL but has a sophomore slump + injury problems) and the suckiness of the defense (Godfrey can't fill Sweatt shoes, others have been injured and/or have struggled (Wiercioch, Conboy) and/or regressed (Schira for example), or just haven't progessed a lot (Gryba, Wiercioch). Coach KK seems to be in a sophomore slump too. That being said, they have just 3 wins less than the team in 7th position in the East.