3 goals in 3 games, & other alumni updates

Just a few quick alumni updates:

• After scoring his first goal of the season in the Hawks' 3-1 win over the Kings on Oct 27, JAKE DOWELL followed things up with a goal in each of his next two games, a 7-4 loss to the Oilers on Oct 29 and a 3-1 win over the Wild on Oct 30.

• ANDY BOHMBACH scored his first professional goal (and added an assist) on Friday in the Toledo Walleyes' 3-2 win over Cincinnati. In 5 games, Bohmber is 1-3-4. Hope to see him up in Rockford soon.
  

• Looks like MATT FORD is doing well so far this season with the AHL's Lake Erie Monsters. After 11 games, he's tied as their top goal-scorer with 4 goals, and he's 3rd on the team in points with 7 points. Ford has done well in the ECHL in the past, and it's nice to see him do well in the AHL. I hope his early success continues through the season.

• Don't forget you can always find stats for Badgers in the NHL, AHL, ECHL, and Europe on Chuck's spreadsheet. The best part -- it includes links the the players' stats pages on the team websites.

• JINELLE ZAUGG-SIERGIEJ was hired last month by Arrowhead High School as the girls head coach. Congratulations to Jinelle, and congratulations to Arrowhead! By the way, Jinelle also does motivational speaking and runs a summer hockey camp.
  

• Congrats to JOE and SARAH PAVELSKI on the birth of their first child, Nathan Joseph. "Nathan, a play-making nine-pound, three-ounce pivot with tremendous offensive upside, will be available for the National Hockey League Entry Draft in 2028."

Saturday afternoon catch-up

It's time for me to catch up on some things that have accumulated over the last week or so.

• First, props to DPlaya for finding yesterday's Windsor Star article indicating that the Windsor Spitfires are still pursuing and "keeping a close eye on" future Badger Jordan Schmaltz. Apparently the Spitfires selected him in the 7th-round of this year's OHL draft. It seems to me that the OHL likes to talk a lot, and so I don't pay a whole lot of attention in most cases, but I simply list it as an item of interest.
  

  “He doesn’t know a lot about the OHL, but he’s quite a player,” Spitfires general manager Warren Rychel said. “I would say he’ll likely not be here this season, but maybe next year.”

• Mike Chambers of the Denver Post has WCHA head coach salaries, and Mike Eaves is near the top of the list with a 2008-09 salary of $229,511. It's difficult to put the salaries in exact order, as only 2007-08 (rather than 08-09) salaries are listed for Lucia and Hakstol, and Scott Owens salary isn't given. Puck Swami reminds us that the salaries listed don't take into consideration performance bonuses, hockey camp income, TV/radio show income, and other compensation package perks. UPDATE: Gwozdecky says that his salary listed in Chambers' original post includes incentive-based compensation, whereas the other salaries listed are base salaries He further says that his base salary places him 5th in the WCHA.
  


• Earlier this week, Badger alumni Robbie Earl and Joe Piskula accepted qualifying offers from their respective clubs. Earl signed a 1-year deal for $550,000 with the Minnesota Wild, and Piskula signed a 1-year deal for $650,000 with the LA Kings (contract values per CapGeek).
  
  Speaking of Joe Piskula, I see that his Hockey's Future profile was last updated in March of this past year. While I don't know how subsequent transactions have affected things since then, at that time HF made the following statement about Piskula's position in the Kings' system:
  

  Piskula is a defensive defenseman with good size. For a man who is 6’3/212, he skates remarkably well with deceptive speed and can move the puck quite effectively. His smart, sound defensive zone play and great mobility are two of Piskula’s attributes that have gotten many in the scouting community taking notice.

• On July 2, the Charlotte Checkers announced that they made a qualifying offer to Badger alum Matt Ford. I haven't seen anything since then about whether he accepted or declined the offer.
  
  
• Hockey's Future has released their Nashville Predator's draft review on Thursday, including of course their take on incoming Badger Craig Smith:
  

  Craig Smith, C – USHL Waterloo
  98th Overall 4th Round
  6’1 189 lbs
  September 5, 1989 Madison, Wisconsin
  
  An over-ager not ranked by Central Scouting at midseason, Smith’s game saw improvement in the second half, as he finished ranked 177th among North American skaters.
  
  Smith is a hard-hitting center with strong offensive abilities, though he does have a tendency to take many penalties. Through 54 games with Waterloo of the USHL, a team that Smith captained, he scored 28 goals and 48 assists, with 108 penalty minutes. In three playoff games, Smith recorded four points and 26 penalty minutes.
  
  Smith played for the East Division at the 2008 USHL All-Star game, and also captained Team USA at the World Junior A Challenge, winning the gold medal.
  
  Smith will be attending the University of Wisconsin next season.

• Last week, Schlossman listed some 1st-round draft picks that will need to make decisions in the next month or so, and he included Ryan McDonagh as needing to make a decision between returning to the Badgers or signing with the Rangers. I'm curious as to what prompted Schlossman to include McDonagh.
  


• In the same post, following up the assertion by Sioux Women's head coach Brian Idalski that the Sioux are "on the radar of a lot of top players in the country", Schlossman indicates that potential Badger recruit Amanda Kessel might be looking at UND. On one hand, I chalk this up as Idalski promoting his program, but on the other hand I wouldn't be surprised if top recruits are starting to consider UND a bit more -- UND seems to be a team on the rise, showing improvement last season over previous seasons and landing the Lamoreux twins as transfers from minnesota. (Unlike new Badger Geena Prough, the twins will have to sit out this season because they transferred within the WCHA.) As far as Kessel goes, I haven't heard much chatter about where she might end up collegiately.

• NHL.com has released their list of North American Players to Watch for the 2010 NHL draft. WCH says, "It's a pretty good start to the list, though apparently they didn't get out to see the NTDP U-17 team last year, since a number of those kids should factor into the draft somewhere." No future Badgers on the list yet. Hayward's Nolan Kirley (about whom I know absolutely nothing) is included as a "B list" player and is the sole WI player on the list.

It looks like it's official . . . and other alumni news

• I should have posted this Thursday. Or Friday at the very least. But hey, better late than never, right? With Brian Elliott starting the last 5 games for the Sens, it appeared he just might be their number 1 goaltender. Looks like that's official now, with Martin Gerber being placed on waivers on Thursday. The Sens' website has a really nice feature on Elliott right now, too.
  

  "(Elliott) has made some real big saves at crucial times in games," said Hartsburg. "He's given us the saves and given us the chance in games to get something out of it. Before, there were goals going in at the wrong times. I think what Brian has done for us is when the game is on the line, he's been very good for us."
  
  Added defenceman Brendan Bell, "He is just that calm, steady guy in net and I think if we're going to turn this around, we're going to need that."

• Jake Dowell scored his second goal of the season last night in Rockford's 6-2 win over Iowa.
  

  In the third, Dowell pushed the score to 5-2 with a short-handed breakaway goal at 7:12 with a helper from Jimmy Sharrow. Both of Dowell's goals in 2008-09 have come on the penalty kill.

  Dowell also had an assist and finished +2.
  

  Bertram started the scoring as he picked up a feed from Dowell in front of the net and put it past David LeNeveu at 11:37 in the first period to give the IceHogs the advantage.

• Paul Capobianco has a number of alumni updates. He notes that Ryan Suter, Rene Bourque, and Brad Winchester are all having career seasons in terms of points production. He also notes the success that Dany Heatley and Brian Rafalski are having this year. Good stuff; thanks Paul!
  

• In his 2nd game back with Hartford, Matt Ford recorded another assist. (He also had an assist in his 1st game back). Hartford lost 3-2 to Lowell.
  

Matt Ford named ECHL All-Star MVP

Matt Ford was named MVP of Wednesday's ECHL All-Star Game. He had 3 goals and 1 assist, and he probably should've had at least 1 more goal. Based on this game and his stats in Charlotte, I think it was a wise decision to recall him to Hartford . . .

Alumni updates

• Do I really need to tell you how well Brian Elliott is doing? He picked up his 3rd win of the season last night in the Sens' 3-2 win over Washington. In his 5 games this season, he has a .924 SV% and 2.18 GAA.

• Jack Skille has been doing pretty well in Rockford lately -- last I mentioned, he had 3 goals and 3 assists for 6 points in his last 3 games -- but now you can make that 9 points in his last 5 games (not counting the 1/16 game in which he left the game early), as he added an assist in Rockford's 1-o win v. Toronto on 1/10 and a goal and an assist in Rockford's 4-2 loss v. San Antonio on 1/13.
  
  The Third Man In has a description of Skille's goal v. SA:
  

  Jack Skille got the IceHogs back into the game at 15:23 of the second period when he found a small space over San Antonio goalie Josh Tordjman’s left glove and shoulder. Treading up his trademark right wing, Skille snapped a wrist shot from the right face off dot to close the gap to 3-1.

  In those 5 games, he was +7 and had 25 SOG. And in one of the games (Rockford's 6-5 loss to Grand Rapids on 1/7), he had a season-high 12 SOG. Nice!
  
  Unfortunately, Jack didn't get a chance to score in what would've been the 6th game of his little streak (Fri 1/16 v. Chicago Wolves), as he left that game early with an injury. He has since missed the Hogs last 3 games.
  
  In 36 games with the Hogs this season, Skille has 15 goals and 19 assists for 34 points. He has already tied his point total for last season, in which he was 16-18-34 in 59 GP. He's currently 3rd on the team in points, but he's played 8 fewer games than the top 2 scorers.
  
  

• Jake Dowell hasn't been scoring a whole lot of goals this season, but he recently got some love on The Third Man In:

  - Despite just one goal to show for his efforts this season (he went 33 games without one), alternate captain Jake Dowell remains one of the Hogs’ most-consistent and sound performers. Obviously there’s disappointment that he hasn’t been able to provide much offense, but if there’s an injury to Colin Fraser, Adam Burish or both, Dowell should be more than capable of filling those roles in a replacement stint.

  The Third Man In also mentioned the following in a discussion of what to do with the Hogs' lines when Tim Brent returns:
  

  - Dowell is fine wherever you put him but he’s been better at center.
  
  - Dowell can be moved to the fourth line but I don’t see that as a permanent thing. . . . Peters is rolling his lines a lot more now than he was at the beginning of the season but he likes to use Dowell and the fourth line doesn’t see much more than a third of the ice that the second line does.
  

  Sounds like Dowell plays consistently well regardless of on which line or in which position he's put. It'd be nice if he had some more goals to show for it, but it's nice to hear that he's playing well.
  
  In 42 games this season, Dowell has 1 goal and 10 assists for 11 points. Last season, he was 7-10-17 in 49 GP.
  
  By the way, you can find some nice Icehogs game pics here. I've only looked at the top 2 albums, but there are some nice pics of Jake in there. (Skille didn't play in those games, so no pics, but I'd imagine there are some nice pics of him in previous albums.)

• Tom Gilbert seems to be doing well lately. I previously mentioned that Gilbert closed out the 1st half (41 games) of the season 2-16-18, +2. In his first 5 games of the 2nd half, Gilbert was 1-5-6, +3, and it sounds like his play has been picking up recently.
  It had been a while since he had last scored, so I was happy to hear that he got his 3rd goal of the season this past Friday in Edmonton's 3-2 win @ Colorado. And his play last night (2 assists) earned him 3rd-Star in the Oilers' 4-3 win over Columbus.
  
  (I really need to make a better effort to watch some Oilers games.)

• Joe Pavelski, whose Waterloo Black Hawks number is being retired this weekend, scored his 100th NHL point last night. (Thanks to bucky15 for pointing that out.) In 171 GP, he's 46-54-100. This season he's 6th on the team in scoring, with 13-19-32 in 43 GP.


• Matt Ford is back in the AHL, having been recalled from the Charlotte Checkers to the Hartford Wolf Pack. In his 1st game back with Hartford, Ford had an assist and finished +1 in their 3-1 victory @ Portland on 1/19. Ford started out the season in Hartford and was there for about a month (12 GP, 1-0-1, E) before being assigned to Charlotte. Ford is the top goal scorer and 2nd-leading points scorer for Charlotte (21 GP, 16-15-31) and by far has the team's best +/- with +19 (no one else is above +5). By the way, Charlottes's top points scorer (Mike Bayrack, 34 GP, 10-28-38) has played in 13 more games than Ford.
  
  Ford will be playing in the ECHL All-Star game tonight at 6 PM CST. The game is being televised live on NHL Center Ice (Channel 785 on DirecTV, Channel 626 on Dish Network). If you don't have NHL Center Ice, you can catch the game on b2 for free.
  

Brian Elliott is AHL Goaltender of the Month, Matt Ford is an ECHL All-Star

Apparently nubeetle is having technical difficulties, so it falls upon me to inform you all that Brian Elliott has been named AHL Goaltender of the Month for the month of December. Congratulations, Brian! And since we're talking about Brian, let me point out this extremely complimentary article (props to DPlaya for finding it) that contains lot of good quotes. Good stuff!

Matt Ford had been named an ECHL All-Star. The All-Star Game will be played on January 21. In 16 games with the Charlotte Checkers, he has 13 goals and 9 assists. His 22 points put him 3rd on the team, despite the fact that most of the other players have played a lot more games for Charlotte, as Ford also played about a month for the AHL's Hartford Wolfpack. Ford also leads the Checkers with a +14.

Rockford Badgers (and other alumni) update

Jack Skille had a pretty good weekend with the Rockford Icehogs. On Friday, he had 1 assist and 11 SOG as Rockford defeated Norfolk 5-4 in a shootout. On Saturday, he had 1 assist and 3 SOG as Rockford defeated Norfolk 4-0. And on Sunday he had 2 goals and 4 SOG as Rockford defeated Chicago 3-2 in a shootout. Oh yeah, Skille scored in the shootout, too.

"This is huge," said winger Jack Skille of beating the Wolves in their first meeting of the 2008-09 season. "They're really good at home and we knew that coming into this barn that we had to play hard.

"I had a couple of chances at the end there" Skille said of a chance at notching the second hat trick in IceHogs AHL history. "But it's not about me. Kontiola had a good game and we really played well as a team."

Jake Dowell had an assist and finished +1 on both Friday and Saturday. On Sunday he finished even and was held of the scoresheet. By the way, Jake was a starter on Sunday.

In other alumni news:

• Todd Milewski notes that Matt Ford has 5 goals and 7 points in 3 games with the ECHL's Charlotte Checkers and is leading the team in both categories. Nice!

• Tom Gilbert has another blog post. Ummm . . . it's not exactly as informative/entertaining as Burish's blog . . . but yeah, it's our Tommy and he seems like a nice guy, and it's nice to see the $24 MM contract doesn't appear to be going to his head . . .

• And here's Todd's alumni stats report.

Alumni updates

• Blackhawks TV has a slow motion video of an Adam Burish body check. By the way, if you missed them earlier, check out Burish's "One Goal" spots on Blackhawks TV -- 1st spot, 2nd spot. Classic Burish.


• Adam Burish hasn't updated his blog in the past week, but Chicago Sun-Times online sports editor Roman Modrowski stopped by to take a shot at Adam and to post a Burish fight video.


• Hockey's Future has released its previews of the Rockford Icehogs, Toronto Marlies, and Manchester Monarchs. No mention of Jake Dowell in the Icehogs preview, but Robbie Earl gets some nice mention in the Marlies preview, and Joe Piskula and Davis Drewiske are briefly mentioned in the Monarchs preview.
  

  Other promising Marlie forwards include late cuts Robbie Earl and Kyle Rogers. Earl, 23, has improved consistently since joining the Marlies two years ago. In 2007-08, he notched 14 goals and 47 points in 66 games after scoring 30 points in 67 games the year before. Earl's ticket to the NHL is his speed which he uses primarily in a setup role. Leaf injuries may allow him to see a few NHL games, but he'll likely bulk up and fine tune his game in the AHL this season.
  
  Joining Martinez and Voinov on the blueline will be Davis Drewiske, Joe Piskula and Drew Bagnall. Each is returning to Manchester for his second season, albeit after only a handful of games for Drewiske. Drewiske and Piskula are solid defensive defensemen who will be looked to as the anchor of the defense and on the penalty kill.
  



• In his blog post about Badger lines, Todd mentioned several recent transactions:
  
  
  • The Los Angeles Kings assigned defensemen Davis Drewiske and Joe Piskula to Manchester (AHL).
  • The Toronto Maple Leafs sent forward Robbie Earl to their Toronto AHL affiliate.
  • The New York Rangers assigned defenseman Brian Fahey to Hartford (AHL).
    
  • Hartford, meanwhile, released forward Matthew Ford to Charlotte (ECHL).
  • The St. Louis Blues sent forward Brad Winchester and defenseman Andy Wozniewski to Peoria (AHL).
  • The Chicago Wolves (AHL) released forward Andy Brandt and defenseman Josh Engel. They'll return to Gwinnett (ECHL).

HF 's Blackhawks Top 20 Prospects, Fall 2008

Hockey's Future has released it's Top 20 Prospects for the Hawks, Badger Jack Skille is listed as the #5 prospect for the Hawks. HF also includes Jake Dowell and Matt Ford as "other notables". As wojo tactfully pointed out to me last time, the "other notables" are listed alphabetically, not by ranking.

Interesting that Ford is listed. Apparently HF did not get the memo that the Hawks were declining to sign Ford and that Ford subsequently signed with the Charlotte Checkers of the ECHL.

Anyway, here's what HF had to say about Skille as #5 in the Top 20.

5. Jack Skille, RW
6’1, 205 pounds
Drafted Round 1, 7th Overall, 2005
Born: May 19, 1987

Skille is best known for his speed, blistering shot, strength and contact game. Some see him as a top-six forward based on his offensive talent alone. However, his style of play and lethargic defense could reduce his role to something less than this. Unlike Brouwer, who can create scoring chances regardless of those around him, Skille is highly dependent on his linemates. Fortunately, Chicago has the playmakers to compliment Skille’s game.

You can also find full updated HF profiles for both Skille and Dowell. (Ford's profile, also recently updated, is available as well.)

Ford headed to the ECHL

Nice logo, eh?

Todd at the TCT reports that Matt Ford has signed a contract w/ the Charlotte Checkers of the ECHL.

As 60 reported yesterday, the Chicago Blackhawks organization chose not to sign him, but he has officially found a home for the 2008/2009 season. Congrats and GL to Matt on the start of his pro career.

A couple of alumni updates: Matt Ford, Jeff Likens

• The Blackhawks organization has declined to sign Matt Ford, but he has a tryout coming up with the Rangers organizations (AHL Hartford Wolf Pack and ECHL Charlotte Checkers). We here at No Alibis No Regrets are disappointed that the Hawks didn't pick him up, as we had been looking forward to watching him play in Rockford (Go Hogs!). On the other hand, we're excited about his upcoming tryout and wish Matt the best. Good luck, Matt!


• Jeff Likens has opted to play this coming season in Germany. We don't yet have any details, but we'll keep you posted if we hear anything further. A number of Badgers have been quite successful in Europe (being who I am, Chris Tancill, Gary Shuchuk, and Barry Richter are the first who come to my mind -- and let's not forget guys like Brian Rafalski who were successful in Europe and then returned to a successful NHL career), and we wish Jeff the same. Good luck, Jeff!

Matt Ford Q&A

Today's preview video at uwbadgers.com is an interview w/ recent UW graduate Matthew Ford.

One thing I'm going to miss about Matt was whenever there were extracurriculars after the whistle, when the dust settled Matt was always in the middle of things mixing it up w/ the opponent. I guess we have Ratty Johnson to play that role now, but Matt always brought a smile to my face when he would skate back to the bench jawing w/ someone.

I think a lot of fans expected Matt to score more goals during his career, and he would have had one more if Randy Schmidt was capable of doing the job he was paid to last January in Denver.

Matt says he'll be playing in the Blackhawks system somewhere next year, and best of luck to him w/ his future pro career. If he's in Rockford, good chance I'll see him play a few times.

Friday Evening Odds & Ends

• Uwbadgers.com has a nice article about Matthew Ford. Matt will be graduating tomorrow with a degree in consumer science. He indicates he will be playing hockey next year, but he doesn't indicate where. I haven't heard anything lately on where Matt might be playing next year -- the Hawks own his rights and have until Aug 15 to sign him, after which he would become a free agent. I'm hoping that the Hawks sign him and that I'll be able to watch him in Rockford. (Gandalf, next year I'm getting your picture with the big giant red pig.)

• On Monday, the uwbadgers.com Badgers blog posted their second installment of "Around the World of Badger Hockey". (I missed it at first, because I saw the title and erroneously thought it was the first installment and not a new post.) It talks about Badgers playing for the Stanley Cup and Badgers playing in the IIHF World Championships.

• The US Women's National Team, which recently won the IIHF World Women's Championship, has been named the USOC Team of the Month for April.

• I know she wasn't a Badger, but she should've been one, and she would've been one if the Badgers had a D-I team when she was in college. Besides, doesn't everyone in Wisconsin love the Granato family? Anyway, Cammi Granato was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame yesterday. Congratulations, Cammi!

• While on the usahockey website, I stumbled upon this blog from Brooke Ammerman and Kendall Coyne from the U18 Championships in January. Team USA, of course, won the Gold!

Hockey's Future Top 20 Prospects, Spring 2008

Hockey's Future has been continuing to issue Top Prospect articles for each of the NHL teams. And while I have been "temporarily hibernating" since Denver, thankfully DPlaya has not, and therefore all the links were there waiting for me when I stopped by his blog today as one of my first stops since turning my computer back on.

Last month, I posted the HF articles pertaining to Jamie McBain, Brian Elliott, and Kyle Turris. Today, I have the same for Robbie Earl, Brendan Smith, Jack Skille, Jake Dowell, and Matt Ford.


Maple Leafs Top 20 Prospects, Spring 2008

6. (4) Robbie Earl, LW, 22, Toronto Marlies (AHL)

Acquired: Sixth round, 187th overall in 2004.

Earl’s second full professional season started off strong, but his play has tapered off as the season progressed. Earl potted 10 of his 14 goals this season before the calendar flipped to 2008. The 6’0 195 lb winger possesses blazing speed off the wing and shifty one-on-one moves that make him difficult to contain. Consistency has been an issue for Earl since he arrived in Toronto. There are games where he looks like a high-end prospect, capable of scoring on any given shift, and then there are games when he is difficult to find. The Illinois native got his first taste of the show this year as well, suiting up in nine games with the Leafs and registering one assist. Is Earl a late bloomer or just another player who can’t translate NCAA stardom into pro success? Next year will be a big one for Earl. He finished the season with 14 goals and 33 assists in 66 games.



Red Wings Top 20 Prospects, Spring 2008

5. Brendan Smith, D

Acquired: 1st round, 27th overall, 2007
Height: 6’1, Weight: 172 lbs

Smith raised a lot of eyebrows at the start of his first year of college hockey. The defenseman tallied two goals and four assists in his first four games with the NCAA Wisconsin Badgers. Smith was only able to muster six assists in his last 18 games, but still it was good production for a a true freshman defenseman.

A re-occurring back injury was to blame for the minimal amount of games that he played in. Smith needs to build up more muscle to withstand the constant pounding. He is expected to take on a more prominent leadership role next year for the Badgers.


Blackhawks Top 20 Prospects, Spring 2008

4. Jack Skille, RW

6', 205 pounds
Drafted Round 1, 2005
Born: May 19, 1987

In 16 games with the Blackhawks in 2007-08, Skille showed both the skill and holes in his game that have always divided observers alike on his potential. In those contests, he had three goals, two assists and was +1. Without question, he is blazing fast and has a nose for the offensive transition game. However, Coach Denis Savard rightly questioned Skille's commitment to work on the boards. His defensive zone play and positioning on the breakout were sloppy and inconsistent. The former Wisconsin Badger has always been touted as a power forward, with a stout 205-pound frame, yet he seems to play the game more as a finesse winger, preferring to prowl for breakaway opportunities and fat rebounds. At Rockford, Skille was marginally more productive, with 18 goals and 16 assists (-3) in 59 games.

Jake Dowell and Matt Ford did not make the Chicago's Top 20, but they were listed as #7 and #8 of the "Other Notables", so I suppose that puts them as #27 and #28 overall.