Wade Redden(6) sporting the Whale white colored away jersey (and one pissed off look).
Having him as the team’s Assistant Captain hasn’t hurt their chances of securing a Calder Cup playoff spot down the final regular season stretch. Kind of surprised he is a -7 +/- player.
In and out of the AHL, this year in with Connecticut Whale defenseman Pavel Valentenko(25) shows you don’t necessarily need to have all your equipment to play the game.
6th year center, John Mitchell(79) was moved from the Maple Leafs‘ organization to New York Rangers, where he was assigned to the AHL to get playing time with Connecticut.
He’s off to a good start with his new team, 11 points in 15 games.
He also has 55 points in 159 games of NHL experience.
6th year pro, Francis Lemieux(20) is definitely an AHL caliber player but has been slipping in recent years at the AAA level. So, he has played most of the current season in the ECHL with Florida Everblades, where he’s racked up 73 points in 56 games played.
After being called up by the Connecticut Whale and signed to a pto in late February, he was officially signed to an spc in early March before teams submitted their clear day rosters. Interesting because in 9 games he has 1 assist and in the couple of games I’ve seen him play has been pretty much invisible.
Sharks‘ veteran d-man, Sean Sullivan(37) laughs off getting throttled by a Checkers‘ slapshot late in the game that he took a bullet for and Tommy Wingels(17) picked up to fire into the empty net for the 2-0 shutout win.
4th year pro, Brett Sutter(14), son of Calgary Flames‘ gm Daryl Sutter, has yet to light the lamp in 19 NHL games. He has only 1 goal to go along with 1 assist. Unfortunately he’s not exactly the most prolific goal scorer in the AHL either.
3rd year forward Oscar Osala(32) has yet to live up to his early billing, although he was only chosen #97 in the fourth round of the 2006 draft by Washington.
Still, with his large 6’4″ 226 lb frame he should be more of a force than he is and should definitely be making more appearances in the NHL than he has; 3 games, 0 points. In the AHL, he’s managed more points in each successive season with Hershey and now Charlotte.
He needs to play harder and be much more of a force with the puck or before too long off to European hockey he will go.
Charlotte’s other 2008 draft pick, 2nd rounder (#45 overall) Zac Dalpe(19) is also a point per game guy in the AHL but only 1 in every 4 in his rookie season with the Hurricanes. He’ll help the Checkers drive to win the Calder Cup this season.
2008 1st round draft pick (#14 overall) Zach Boychuk(11) is definitely not happy about being in the AHL after spending 23 games on 3 different call-ups with the Hurricanes. He’s a point per game played with Charlotte but only 1 in every 3 this year in the NHL.
5th year goalie Daren Machesney(1) is either hot or he’s not in net. In 6 games so far with Worcester on a pto his two wins have been shutouts, while his three losses have been blowouts. This is the first season that he failed to land an AHL job out of camp but has been recalled from the ECHL three times and found a good landing spot with the Sharks.
