2013/14 General Heat Discussion Thread

[GreenLantern]

Originally Posted by Drury18

The impression I get is that Ferland is done until next year's training camp. It sounds like it was a significant injury and he's not available to the team at all.

Sieloff sounds more likely to suit up for the Heat then Ferland for the playoffs.

Damn big loss for the Heat, even bigger loss for Ferland.

[The Fonz]

Re: RFP

I'm convinced RFP was a former player of Ward's, and was cut, or had limited ice time.

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

Re: RFP

I'm convinced RFP was a former player of Ward's, and was cut, or had limited ice time.

My money is on Ryan Howse

RFP - Really Fat Player

[Drury18]

Markus Granlund's about to have a big night:

Aaron Vickers ‏@AAVickers 3m
Nice touch by Bob Hartley, starting Markus Granlund tonight. If all goes to plan, he will take the opening faceoff against brother Mikael.

[Drury18]

Olson getting some love on the Flames prospect site:

http://flames.nhl.com/club/news.htm?...=rss-cadarette

As a utility man (or a Swiss Army knife if you will), Olson's style of play makes him arguably the most versatile player on Heat head coach Troy G. Ward's roster

Brett's matured this year in his second year. He's gone so far in his career … His versatility and his leadership - some of his experiences after four years of college have played huge dividends for him. -

[Alberta_Beef]

Originally Posted by Drury18

Olson getting some love on the Flames prospect site:

http://flames.nhl.com/club/news.htm?...=rss-cadarette

If Olson wasn't 27 I would want the Flames to sign him to an NHL contract. But I would have no qualms re-upping him to a 2 year AHL deal.

[sureLoss]

Brandon Astle @brandon_astle
Congrats to @GranlundMa on earning CCM/AHL Rookie of the month for FEB. 12 points in 10 games. 1st to ever win the award in #AHLHeat history

[Drury18]

Good luck with that. Might need to make it a Flames game:

In recognition of his achievement, Granlund will be presented with an etched crystal award prior to an upcoming Heat home game.

[Drury18]

New Heat Report: http://flames.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=707358

"We've played together before," said Baertschi. "We've connected before, so it's easy for me to change linemates … With Max, I've always felt that I've had a little bit of a special connection with him.

"Last season I played quite a few games with him and it's been a lot of fun. We play a similar way, so it's easy to understand him."

[RFP]

Originally Posted by Alberta_Beef

Or it could be what happens when teams are decimated with injuries and the standings are tight.

Your troll game is weak, you need to step it up

Apparently it can be whatever you want it to be as long as it agrees with the opinion of the other troll's

[Drury18]

Markus Granlund picked up his 1st NHL Point tonight with an assist on Mark Giordano's goal tonight.

Abbotsford Heat ‏@abbotsfordheat 14m
Congrats Markus Granlund (@GranlundMa) on getting your 1st @NHL point tonight with the @NHLFlames

As well, another call-up should be made shortly as Jones left the game tonight with his arm in a sling.

Pat Steinberg ‏@Fan960Steinberg 1h
"It doesn't look very good" is the word from coach Hartley when it comes to the Jones injury. #Flames

And the Heat swap a D for an F:

Abbotsford Heat ‏@abbotsfordheat 1h
#AHLHeat have recalled D Zach Davies from the @AlaskaAces and assigned F Zach McKelvie to the Alaska Aces. Read More~ http://ow.ly/ucPkj

[GreenLantern]

Looks like Reinhart and Knight are up with the big club now, for now.

3 of the top 6 forwards are on the Flames team. This might be a good opportunity for Baertchi to increase his ice time and turn some heads?

[Drury18]

It's being reported on Twitter that Knight will potentially make his NHL debut tonight.

[Drury18]

Derek Smith has been assigned to Abbotsford as per the Heat Twitter account.

[RM14]

Who do the Heat call up after loosing the two centermen?

[Drury18]

This is where PMM is probably going to have to correct me, but I believe Brendan Connolley is the last player we can call up from the Aces who is currently on an AHL contract. Anyone that fills in for a forward position will need to be signed to a PTO as the only other player I can see left in Alaska with an AHL contract is D Drew MacKenzie.

That being said, we have 9 defencemen who I believe are all healthy. I'm guessing Smitty is about to learn how to take a face-off. They've done it before where Lamb and MacKenzie both moved up to wing from D, so I'd venture to guess we will see that again tonight with 13 forwards and 9 defence.

[RM14]

I see, I wasn't aware that it was so limited.

Sivak was signed to a PTO with the Heat earlier in the season but was released after 3 games.

Connolly was "Recalled" for his three game stint with the Heat in December. Do Connolly and Mackenzie have a different contract type than the other players on the Aces? meaning they are the only ones who can be recalled without signing a PTO?

[Drury18]

I had this awesome post typed up and lost most of it when SureLoss killed CP. I think I remembered most of it when I was trying to retype it while CP was down:

Again, my knowledge of AHL contracts is limited so I'm sure if I'm wrong someone will jump in, but I believe there are three types of contracts in the AHL:

1) NHL Contract - Either a 1 way or 2 way contract. The difference between them is someone on a 1 way contract (SOB for example) will only have one pay rate regardless of whether they are in the NHL or AHL. He makes his $2M if he suits up for the Flames or Heat. A 2 way contract chances the pay rate between AHL and NHL. Let's use Reinhart for this one. He makes $620K in the NHL, but if sent to the AHL, he will make $67,500.

2) Standard Player Contract - This is your AHL/ECHL only contract. This has no affiliation to an NHL team but allows an AHL team to assign and call up players from the ECHL. This is what Connolley and MacKenzie (and Olson and Arsene and Trupp and a couple others) are all on. The Heat can call these players up and sent them down as they please as they are under contract with the Heat.

3) Professional Try Out - This is a 25 game contract with an AHL team, of which a player can only be signed to one twice per season. This allows a player to play for the AHL only. If they are released to the ECHL, the contract is ended.

Sivak was given a PTO as an "emergency" call up I believe. Once he wasn't needed, he was released. He could be signed once more to a 25 game PTO and (again for example sake) if he was required beyond that, the Heat would need to sign him to a SPC.

Connolly, MacKenzie, Trupp, McKelvie all have an AHL Standard Player Contract and can freely move between the AHL and ECHL as many times as needed. There is (I believe and this is where I might need correction) no limit to the transactions of the players on these contracts and acts much like waiver exempt players on the Flames. Reinhart, Hanowski and Granlund could be sent down and recalled 50x and it wouldn't change anything aside from their salary.

Any other players in the Aces would be on an ECHL contract which I believe is almost run by a weekly sort of contract status. Their salary cap is based on an $X per week and players are paid on a "Per Week" sort of basis. There isn't a yearly limit or yearly contract salary, it's an amount per week.

When I get a chance later, I might try to make up a chart of the players on the Heat/Aces and their contract status.

[RM14]

Thank you for that analysis. Very well done! It makes a lot more sense knowing about the ECHL contracts vs the Standard AHL/ECHL. I look forward to see what happens now. Very interesting with our 9 D man though.

[Drury18]

So...we are never seeing Joni Ortio in a Heat uniform again. Looks like he earned a job in the NHL.

Reto Berra has been traded to Colorado.

Joey MacDonald has been recalled to Calgary to backup Ortio tonight.

Guess the Heat need to scramble to sign a goalie to a PTO tonight.