Wrapping it up (well, almost) (with chat)

The Sound Tigers got their wrap-up meetings over in a hurry; well, they got them over in a hurry, as in they got them done today, within 24 hours of the start of the game that eliminated them. They didn’t get them over in a hurry, as in the scheduled 11 a.m. appointments finished up a little after 3 p.m. (That’s far from unusual. They get backed up easily.)

They hung out in the room one last time (the logjam waiting for the three various interviews helped gather them in the hallway), swapped war stories, checked out the old team photos, shared a few laughs, complained about lack of sleep last night. I have boatloads of notes to transcribe and didn’t even get to everyone I’d hoped to get. Word of the day after the first losing sweep in Sound Tigers history? Probably “shock.” The team had high hopes and high expectations. To go out in three drove them nuts.

Garth Snow wasn’t committing to any moves, be it signing draft picks like John Persson, qualifying those restricted free agents, or re-signing those who need re-signing. He and Brent Thompson also weren’t talking about the reported possibility of Thompson being up for one of the vacant assistant coaches’ jobs on the Island. “Too early,” was the gist.

Rhett Rakhshani still didn’t know the full extent of the damage of taking that puck to the mouth in Game 2; he was off to the doctor’s in the afternoon.

Scott Howes could return to Alaska for its run at a Kelly Cup repeat. The ECHL is in the conference finals, Kalamazoo against Florida, and Las Vegas against Alaska. Kael Mouillierat could’ve rejoined Idaho, but Las Vegas eliminated the Steelheads yesterday.

The list, as best I have it; corrections welcome: (Numbers in parentheses for signed players are years remaining on the contract; those without numbers are signed only through next season. Lots of help, as you can surely expect, from CapGeek and other sources.)

Bridgeport
SIGNED:
Anders Nilsson (2), Kevin Poulin, Marc Cantin (2), Calvin de Haan (2), Matt Donovan (2), Aaron Ness (2), Casey Cizikas (2), Mike Halmo (3), Brock Nelson (3), David Ullstrom
GROUP II: Mikko Koskinen, Mark Katic, Ty Wishart (V-320), Sean Backman, Justin DiBenedetto, Tomas Marcinko, Tyler McNeely, Rhett Rakhshani, Yannick Riendeau, Tony Romano
GROUP III: Jeremy Colliton (V), Trevor Frischmon (V), Trevor Gillies (V)
GROUP VI: Micheal Haley (V-320)
AHL: Kenny Reiter, Jon Landry, Steve Oleksy, Russ Sinkewich, Brett Gallant, Scott Howes, Jordie Johnston, Kael Mouillierat, Blair Riley
UNSIGNED DRAFT PICK: John Persson

Islanders
SIGNED:
Rick DiPietro (9), Evgeni Nabokov, Travis Hamonic, Andrew MacDonald (2), Mark Streit, Josh Bailey, Michael Grabner (4), Kirill Kabanov (3), Matt Moulson (2), Nino Niederreiter (2), Frans Nielsen (4), Kyle Okposo (4), Marty Reasoner, Ryan Strome (3/slide possibility next year), John Tavares (6)
GROUP II: Yuri Alexandrov, Matt Martin
GROUP III: John Grahame, Al Montoya, Mark Eaton, Milan Jurcina, Dylan Reese, Jay Pandolfo, P.A. Parenteau, Steve Staios

Group II players are restricted free agents if tendered a qualifying offer by June 25. The other free agents are all unrestricted. (V) indicates he’ll qualify as an AHL veteran next year. (V-320) means he qualifies as that one exempt player a night with 320 or fewer pro games. And because he spent significant time here, I’ll note that Dylan Reese would be a full-fledged veteran next year in the AHL.

That’s 25 NHL contracts on the books next year (4 G, 7 D, 14 F), including Strome (who wouldn’t count against the limit of 50 if sent to junior).

The view from upstate: Paul Doyle’s gamer and Jeff Jacobs’ column on Marek Hrivik; Bruce Berlet and Mitch Beck at Howlings.

And as it appears things are pretty well broken down in the room, we’ll do a chat at 1:30 on Tuesday as usual.

Bridgeport Sound Tigers Chat with Michael Fornabaio

Michael Fornabaio