The Almost Snowed In Update…

Quite a busy last couple of days in the land of the Devils. Now to get caught up:

-On Monday forward J.S. Berube was recalled from Trenton after appearing in 10 games for the Titans, notching 8 points (3 G, 5 A) in 10 games. He had been assigned to Trenton in mid January after coming back from injury.

-Just before Albany took the ice in Connecticut Tuesday afternoon, another roster move: the signing of defenseman Stefan Stepanov to a standard player contract. The 20 year old (turns 21 in September) comes to Albany from the KHL’s Yekaterinburg Automobilist, where so far this season he registered no points in 20 games. He represented Russia in the 2010 U18 World Junior Championships before spending 3 seasons in the KHL with CSKA Moscow and Automobilist. It’s not his first taste of North America, however: he appeared in 23 games for the U18 Dallas Stars in ’08-09 and 7 games in ’09-10 for the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves.

-Then earlier today, another new player has joined the team, as New Jersey sent a 5th rounder in the 2013 draft to Los Angeles for center Andrei Loktionov. He has spent the last three seasons bouncing between Los Angeles and Manchester, and had appeared in 37 games for the Monarchs this season, putting up 22 points (7 G, 15 A). Albany fans may remember his professional debut, when as a member of the Monarchs on Opening Night 2009 he scored a hat trick against the River Rats. He is a former junior teammate of Adam Henrique and Harry Young from the 2008-09 Memorial Cup winning Windsor Spitfires.

-And finally, with a major snowstorm about to arrive in the Northeast (especially in New England), Friday’s Albany-Springfield matchup has been postponed and rescheduled for Tuesday, April 2nd. Another game on Friday, Providence vs. Portland in Rhode Island, has also been postponed, but rescheduled for Monday. I think this is only the second time an Albany game was postponed due to weather–I remember during the 01-02 season a game against St. John’s was moved to March from late December due to the fact St. John’s couldn’t get out of Ontario due to a huge lake effect storm that closed the Thruway west of Rochester.