Top Secret Prospect Camp and Welcome Castaways
July 13th, 2011, 7:36 pm
Mike’s on vacation so the next podcast will be delayed a few days. Luckily, there’s not much news to talk about since Doug Wilson appears to be out of whoppers for the moment. In the mildly interesting news department, the Sharks resigned RFA John McCarthy to a one year, $525,000 deal and signed former Columbus forward, Andrew Murray, to a one year, two-way deal, no details confirmed. He is a bottom six forward with size and 181 NHL games of experience. It should be noted that when healthy he can throw the body around with 147 hits in the BJ’s 2008-09 playoffs debut. Unfortunately, he missed all four of their playoff losses with a hamstring injury. There’s that little health thing again. He hasn’t played a minute of AHL hockey in four years, and he won’t likely want to ride the bus, so if he’s healthy, Murray might be a guy to keep an eye on in camp to see if he pushes the Sharks young guns (Desjardins, McGinn, McCarthy and Ferriero) for a roster spot.
Also joining the Sharks this week were former Avalanche, Bruin and Predator, Ben Guite, and former Calgary Flame 2005 first round draft pick, Matt Pelech. Both these guys have been plying their trade in the AHL recently and I’m pretty confident they will be looking for an apartment in Worcester. Pelech is an interesting story though. He’s a shutdown defender that in 2009 was hospitalized with a life threatening blood clot in his shoulder. This combined with other injuries led to a disappointing professional run with the Calgary organization, but he got decent marks from Flames Nation in their profile and projection of him in 2010. Did I mention in the useless fact department, he’s also the nephew of Canucks GM, Mike Gillis. I’m not expecting much from Pelech, but he’ll likely gobble up some of Mike Moore’s minutes in Worcester and how will he aid or hinder the development of Dudes on Hockey love child, Nick Petrecki?
In Kyle Wellwood news, Andrew Strickland is reporting that Wellwood can’t even get a single NHL team to pick up the phone and give him a call. Pretty amazing for a guy who likely thought his stock was raised by his admirable performance in Teal after being claimed on waivers. Apparently, Wellwood’s agent was told by a few teams that they might be in touch later, but no one initiated any conversations with Wellwood, according to Strickland. In the words of Larry David, I find that “Pretty…Pretty…Pretty…shocking! Cheryl, do you respect Wood?” If Kent Huskins can drum up business, what gives with Wellwood? Also, at this point, if the Sharks wanted him back, wouldn’t he have pulled a Benjie Molina and come crawling back to DW like Molina did after no one offered him a deal in 2010? I think the cord is cut and Wellwood is using his floaties. 1-800-KHL-KYLE? Ouch.
This week is the Sharks Prospect Camp. If you follow coverage of other teams around the NHL, there is tons of news about their prospect camps, rosters published, coverage of scrimmages and all that great stuff that keeps someone like me entertained over a Blue Moon. Under a cloud of secrecy, the Sharks prospects skate this week with no real media coverage and I can’t find a prospect list published (if you’ve seen it, post it below). All we’ve seen is a quick interview of Tommy Wingels and a profile of how thick Brandon Mashinter’s skull is on the Sharks official website. Such a bummer. Would love to know more about what’s happening there this week.
We’ll kick the tires on all this and more on the next podcast. Please send your questions as we enter the lull of July and we’ll aim to have some more guests before training camp rolls around. Until then, soak up some rays and talk to you soon on tape delay.
Wellwood burned his own stock, w/ a poor showing in the WCF. He wasn’t the only once, but he probably should’ve been hungrier than he showed.
Quite frankly, the whole team looked to be sputtering for the majority of the playoffs. I believe injuries and biased officiating played a part; but, there cruise-control type minutes.
Could it be time for The Sharks to change their philosophy of play during The Second Season? Employ ‘the trap’? Call upon more built-in flexibility of game strategy(s)?
I believe The Sharks need to come prepared to leave it all out on the ice, EVERY night. That’s a tall order; but I believe we’ve got the horses now.
“but he probably should’ve been hungrier than he showed.”
Hah, good one! Wait, you’re saying Wellwood should eat more? I think you got the meme backwards.
Wellwood was fine for a 3rd line guy both in the regular season and playoffs. His line usually kept the puck in the other teams zone generated a ton more chances than allowed and had a few points to his credit by the end. I’m not exactly sure what you expect out of 3rd liners.
What are people’s opinion of Andrew Murray? The boys over on both forums I frequent can’t seem to reach a consensus.
Considering the Sharks played their best hockey after Wellwood was brought in, and they made the WCF where they lost to a more talented team but arguably outplayed them (with Wellwood singly-handedly turning a single-handed Dany Heatley into a threat for the first time all playoffs in G5), there must be some locker room or teammate issue that we are not hearing about. For everyone else that has left, DW has sung their praises, but he was very unemotional when saying they had not even spoke to Wellwood’s agent.
Either that, or DW is selling jeans and doesn’t think Wellwood fits the “mold” of a 3rd line center. Seems like DW needs his own Paul Depodesta to remind him that when Wellwood is on the ice, the other team rarely has the puck.
Is there gonna be an idea B? Chris Neil is an interesting idea. My plan B would be to let the kids rotate in on bottom six for a while. Would be good experience for them & maybe one or two surprises and steps up their game. DW has more time to work on getting that 3rd line wing or more.
Also wanted to mention how much I enjoy the podcasts & articles