Offseason, day 5 for me. At least the weather is cooperating for now…but anyway, a few things to pass on:
-Wednesday afternoon came the first official signing for 2012-13: forward Kelly Zajac signed a one year AHL deal for next season. After signing an ATO on April 10th, he played in the final 3 Devil games of the season, going scoreless.
-With New Jersey in the playoffs, we all wondered who would be the select few that would serve as Black Aces. I figured anyone that had played with the big club earlier in the year had the best chance. Today it was announced that there will be a total of 17 (yes, 17) players that will continue to skate in Albany if needed: Jeff Frazee, Keith Kinkaid, Matt Anderson, Mike Hoeffel, Brad Mills, Tim Sestito, Mike Sislo, Mattias Tedenby, Steve Zalewski, Vladimir Zharkov, Brandon Burlon, Matt Corrente, Eric Gelinas, Dan Kelly, Jay Leach, Matt Taormina, and Alexander Urbom. Basically anyone on a NHL deal got on the list (which could explain the absence of Joe Whitney and someone like Darcy Zajac).
-Congrats to Adam Henrique for being nominated for the Calder Trophy for NHL Rookie of the Year! He does face some pretty good competition in Edmonton’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog. The winner will be announced June 20th at the annual NHL Awards show in Las Vegas.
-Kelly Cup Playoff Update: Kalamazoo can clinch a berth in the Eastern Conference Finals tonight with a win (and a 4 game sweep) of South Carolina. Meanwhile Timo Pielmeier and his mates in Elmira can fall victim to an upset by Florida with a loss tonight (the Everblades lead the series 3 games to 1).
Stay tuned, because in about an hour you’ll see Part 3 of my season in review…
Thoughts Inside The Box 