Happy Opening Day in the AHL! 10 teams are starting up the 2013-14 season this evening. Meanwhile, the Devils still have to wait about 48 hours before they can finally get started. Today the official opening roster was released, with 2 goaltenders, 7 defensemen, and 14 forwards:
Goaltenders
1 Keith Kinkaid
31 Scott Wedgewood
Defensemen
2 Seth Helgeson
5 Jon Merrill
7 Brandon Burlon
24 Eric Gelinas
28 Dan Kelly
33 Corbin McPherson
34 Reece Scarlett
Forwards
9 Joe Whitney
10 Rod Pelley
11 Kelly Zajac
12 Tim Sestito
14 Reid Boucher
15 Harri Pesonen
16 Chris McKelvie
17 Scott Timmins
18 Stefan Matteau
19 Mike Sislo
22 Cam Janssen
23 Darcy Zajac
25 David Wohlberg
26 Mike Hoeffel
A lot of jersey number changes compared to last year’s roster: Kinkaid switches from 35 to 1; Wedgewood from 1 to 31 (claiming Jeff Frazee’s old number); Helgeson from 39 to 2; Kelly Zajac from 17 to 11; Boucher from 20 to 14; Pesonen from 18 to 15; McKelvie from 37 to 16; Janssen from 14 to 22.
So how did we get to this point after the preseason schedule ended on Saturday night in Adirondack? A quick recap of all the roster changes from this week:
-On Sunday, Kinkaid and Timmins were sent down. Timmins had already cleared waivers and had been assigned to San Antonio before being acquired from Florida on Saturday.
-Monday, as a surprise to, well, no one, Janssen cleared waivers and was sent down.
-Forwards Alexandre Carrier, Artem Demkov, and Dmitry Goldenkov were all released. Demkov and Carrier are off to Elmira (ECHL).
-Thursday forward Ben Thomson was released from his tryout, he will return to Kitchener of the OHL as an overage player.
-Finally Maxime Clermont, Riley Boychuk, Raman Hrabarenka, and Harry Young were sent to Elmira, where the Jackals are about to start their training camp (although when they released their camp roster earlier today they were not listed, but Clermont is listed on the roster on the Jackals website, although it could be last year’s list still there).
One familiar name missing from this list that could have been there? Alexander Urbom. Wednesday New Jersey placed him on waivers to make room for Patrik Elias’s return from IR, but on Thursday the Capitals picked him up.
Unless anything else pops up, first pregame of the season comes down Sunday around noontime!
