A Little House Keeping

We’re a little late on this but it was announced this week that Dean Stork will be returning as the Cyclone’s Assistant Coach for the 2009-2010 season. I’m glad to see this. In the 3 years that Coach Stork has been with the squad, the defense, which he has been responsible for, has been top notch.

In other news, the rumors regarding Matt Syroczinski’s potential return to the Fort Wayne Komets  are not rumors. Chico will not be rejoining the Cyclones for 2009-2010, he will instead lace them up for the Komets. Matt will be missed, especially if healthy. Heck, even when playing injured as he was for most of 2008-2009, his offensive prowess never let up. Good Luck with the Komets and sorry again for being on your case so much last season.

Not only will Syroczynski be rejoining Fort Wayne, but so will former short term ‘Clone Mitch Woods. Mitch played a handfull of games at the beginning of last season for the Cyclones. I really wanted to like the guy, but he failed to impress me at the ECHL level given all the hype he generated coming from the IHL.

-Mike-

Mark your calendar

The Cyclones have announced their preseason schedule. The first chance to get a glimpse of the 2009-2010 Cincinnati Cyclones will be Friday, October 9th at U.S. Bank Arena when they take on the Toledo Storm, I mean Walleye.

-Mike-

Welcome back

The Cyclones announced the return of Barret Ehgoetz and the signing of Jason Woll.

I’m really happy to see Ehgoetz return. He is one of the hardest working players you’ll find and it won’t surprise me in the least if he is wearing the C again this year. As a forward, he is not only capable of scoring, but his play in the defensive zone is tenacious which is refreshing to see at this level of hockey. His experience as a prefessional will no doubt be invaluable to the new guys, like Jason Woll.

Woll’s play impressed me late last season. He had a “who is this guy” effect coming from the Milwaukee School of Engineering but any questions about his ability were answered pretty quickly. I think he’s a bit of a “diamond in the rough” but he plays a solid, chippy and physical game that is very entertaining. The thing that worries me about players like Jason is bad penalties, which he managed to avoid for the most part late last season. If the playoff series against Wheeling and Elmira were any indication, Jason is very good at at playing his game and goading the opposition into retaliating.

This is a good start and odds are we’ll see the other players that the Cyclones Qualified signed in the upcoming weeks.

-Mike-

Leaving on a jet plane

According to Eurohockey.net a few former ‘Clones have made the move to Europe….

Matt MacDonald joined HC Fassa in Italy, which is where Scott Reynolds spent last season.

Rory Rawlyk headed Germany, joining Herner EV 2007.

Cory Urquhart is also bound for Germany, where he’ll play for Heilbronner EC.

Donny Grover will be playing for the Adelaide Andrenaline in Australia.

And for those that go back a ways…

Evan Cheverie is still bouncing around Europe, and is currently playing for the Belfast Giants.

Garret Prosofsky is making a third trip across the pond after playing in the CHL for the last few years, joining REV Bremerhaven in Germany.

I can’t say I’m surprised here. Players like MacDonald, Urquhart, and Rawlyk, that seem to be solid ECHL talent, but can’t stick in the AHL, usually head to Europe to make some money before either retiring or making one last effort at making in the AHL.

Keep an eye out, I’m sure there will be more players heading to Europe in the upcoming months.

-Mike-

Preseason matchup with Toledo!

So it isn’t quite the same, but October 10th it looks like we’ll be going toe to toe with the Walleye in Sylvania in a preseason bout. The Cyclones haven’t announced anything, so there could be more to come…

–Dannielle

Montreal’s D-Camp roster set

Former Cyclones on the d’camp roster for Montreal this year:

David Desharnais
Ryan Russell
JT Wyman

(Full roster here.)

Not many, but a few notable names (Desharnais & Russell) at least. As for Montreal’s in-camp goalie selection, I wouldn’t get too excited, they have five goaltenders on the roster, all under the age of 20. The odds of seeing one are probably slim. Montreal’s not overly deep in goal, so it may be a free agent goaltender kind of year in Cincinnati. At any rate, I’ll keep an eye on the reports out of d-camp, you never know what could be headed our way come October.

–Dannielle

More on the qualifying offers….

Since Dannielle beat me to posting the news (she’s a quick at stuff like that) I thought I’d expand on it a bit….

Jason Woll – I really like this guy when he was brought in late in the 08-09 season. He finished the regular season +7 and went +2 in the playoffs. He was not a huge scoring threat but he was intense, works hard and brought a level of physicality to the defense. I’m looking forward to seeing him back.

Mark Van Guilder – How can you not qualify a 70 point guy? Sure he  slumped slightly towards the end of the year but he was instrumental in the Cyclones achieving all that they did last season. Mark spent time in the AHL last season and the question that begs to be asked is; will Mark even end up in a Cincinnati Sweater in the upcomming season? I would think that 70 points in a rookie campaign would be enough to get at least a look from someone at the AHL level. At least we know we won’t have to play against him.

Felix Petit – I was excited when I learned the Felix was going to join the squad last season. His footwork and puck skills remind me of a little guy by the name of David Desharnais. Felix put up numbers in Juniors very similar to those of Desharnais and time will tell if he transitions to the professional ranks the way David did.

Matt Syroczynski – I’ll be the first to admit that I spent a lot of time throwing Matt under the bus last season, but when I heard how banged up he was throughout the entire season I felt like writing him an apology (Sorry Matt). Rumors are floating around that Matt is returning to the IHL. If those rumors prove to be true this is simply to retain his rights so we won’t have to go up against him. However, I usually don’t believe rumors and I can’t wait to see a healthy Chico wreak havoc in front of opposing goaltenders next season.

Jimmy Kilpatrick – I put Jimmy in the same boat as Van Guilder. He put up 65 points so we have to qualify him to keep him from ending up playing for one of our rivals.  He had a solid rookie campaign and he will surely get some looks from AHL camps.

Justin Johnson – JJ was a fan favorite for sure and he proved to be a better player than his numbers indicated; not only could he fight, but he would fight and he could play the game pretty well to boot. I really want to see JJ back and getting qualified is a good start, but if Chuck puts the kind of team, that I’m sure he wants, together JJ may end up fighting for playing time just as much as he spends fighting on the ice.

-Mike-

Qualifying Offers

The Cyclones have extended qualifying offers to the following players:

Jason Woll
Mark Van Guilder
Felix Petit
Matt Syroczynski
Jimmy Kilpatrick
Justin Johnson

No surprises here. Glad to see Petit back! :)

More info here on qualifying offers.

–Dannielle