FILLING THE VOID
Feb 23, 2015By Tom Witosky
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FILLING THE VOID
Jim Mill knew he had to move quickly.
In Minnesota, the Wild had just lost two players – Iowa Wild alum Jason Zucker and Ryan Carter – to injury in the first period of the Wild’s 5-3 victory over Vancouver. Mill knew the injuries would likely keep the players out of the line-up, thus prompting a call down to Iowa for replacements.
“I had a pretty good idea who Minnesota would be calling-up,” Mill said. “But the question was who could we find to replace them.”
Meanwhile, the Iowa Wild was in the middle of a four-game road trip getting ready to take on Hamilton Bulldogs the next night. Two Iowa players – forward Brett Bulmer and defenseman Guillaume Gelinas – had been injured on the road trip and wouldn’t be playing for a while. What Iowa’s general manager didn’t know then, but the next night two more players – forward Jason Gregoire and defenseman Alex Gudbranson – would be injured.
“It’s been crazy,” Mill said. “You have all of this going on at the same time. We are always trying to figure out who can help us up in Minnesota and then we have to figure out who can help us here.”
Since the beginning of February, Mill has been searching far and wide for players as the Wild has to deal with injuries to eight players as well as having three players – Jordan Schroeder, Stephane Veilleux and Stu Bickel – called to Minnesota. Replacing 11 players on the roster within two weeks in the middle of an American Hockey League season isn’t easy.
Mill said that the rash of injuries has depleted the ranks of the players from minor league teams that are affiliated with Wild – the Alaska Aces and the Quad City Mallards. “We have exhausted our contracted depth,” Mill said. “You have to remember we only sent three players to Alaska this year. We also have not sent anyone to Quad City and we have just been taking from them.”
Mill said that there is a limit to the number of players he would take from any club because those teams are also still competing. Instead, Mill said, he always keeps a list of five to 10 players he would consider singing when a rash of injuries might prompt it. Mill said the list is compiled and updated throughout the season as he talks with scouts and minor league coaches about their teams as well as their opponents.
“We took one from Gwinnet, we took one for Toledo, we took one from Colorado,” Mill said. “We just try to stretch it out so no one gets really hurt.”
One player on the list was defenseman Joel Chouinard, who had played in Des Moines with the Grand Rapids Griffins just prior to the Wild’s most recent road trip. Chouinard became available soon after when several players were sent down to Grand Rapids from Detroit.
“We had reports on Chouinard, but we also had seen him play,” Mill said. “We knew were getting someone pretty good.”
Along with Chouinard, the Wild also has signed Joe Stejskal. Greg Wolfe, Joe Perry and Collin Bowman – all tryout contracts. Meanwhile, the Wild also brought-up Olivier Archambault and Ryan Walters from Alaska and received defenseman Christian Folin from Minnesota (who was recently recalled back to the NHL club).
Bowman, Mill said, could be a real find because of his ability to score as a defenseman.
“Bowman kid is by far the leading point-producing defenseman in the ECHL. He deserves an opportunity to play in the AHL,” Mill said.
For the new players on the roster, this is a chance to show what they can do at a higher level.
“It is a great opportunity for me to come up and prove what kind of a player I am,” Joe Perry, who participated in Iowa’s training camp, but has been playing for Quad City all season. “When there are lot of injuries, it is up to the new guys to step-up and show what they can do.”
Perry said that his first priority is to adjust his game to what Iowa wants him to do. At Quad City, Perry has been a prolific scorer with 20 goals and 16 assists in 42 games.
“In Quad City, they counted on my offensive skills a lot,” Perry said. “Now I am more of role player who has to be more physical and take the pucks down load. I also have to be more conscious of what is going down in our own end. “
Head Coach John Torchetti said that the influx of new players has an upside as much as a downside.
“You hope they bring the talents to the ice that will allow them to show us how well they can play,” Torchetti said. “I am looking forward to seeing them grow.”
Torchetti said the early games with the new players will be to get them comfortable with a game much different than they have been playing.
“It is a different style of game here than it is in the East Coast league. You might be a leading scorer in the East Coast League, but you aren’t going to be able to get away with the same things here that you do there,” he said.
Torchetti pointed to the changes made by Olivier Archambault between the time he was with the Iowa earlier this year and now after a brief stint back in Alaska.
“He understands now what type of player we want him to be,” Torchetti said. “Yes, he is a goal scorer, but he also has to pay attention to the defensive side. In the AHL, it is a two-way game.”
For Mill, the recent rash of injuries is unusual only in the sense so many happened at the same time.
“Usually, they get stretched over the season, but not this year,” Mill said. “It’s crazy.”