2017-18 Amerks Report

[Scott-New York]

The New York Americans were active in the days leading up to the 2018 trade deadline, making two trades in the week before the deadline before making a third and final trade on deadline day. A breakdown of the deals is shown below. The Amerks front offices are happy with the deals they were able to complete and feel like they have definitely improved the team enough to make a run at the cup this season after a somewhat underachieving start to the year which ultimately led to the firing of their head coach. Under former coach, Terry Michael, the team had 38 points in 35 games with a 18-15-2 record. Under interim coach, Justin Brassard, the team has amassed 37 points in 29 games with a 15-7-7 record in that span with a 9-4-2 mark in their last 15. The team definitely seems to be headed in the right direction, posting 8 goals in each of their last two games.

2/18

Amerks acquire Moncton acquires

Roman Josi Nick Leddy
Stephen Johns Tyson Barrie
2nd round pick

2/24

Amerks acquire Adirondack acquires

Mike Fisher Devin Shore
3rd round pick

2/26

Amerks acquire Toronto acquires

Colton Sceviour Tomas Tatar
5th round pick

The players acquired have accounted for 10 points in a total of 15 games played and are a combined +12.

[Scott-New York]

AMERKS HEAD TOWARD RECORD FINISH

With two games remaining in the Amerks 2017-18 regular season, New York needs just a single point to break their highest season point total of 103. With a 4-3 victory over Halifax last night, the Amerks tied the mark set in the 2015-16 season. The team is at home for the final two games vs. Boston tomorrow night and Moncton on Saturday. The Amerks have been red hot coming down the stretch, going 9-1 in their last 10 and 13-2 in their last 15, including a 10 game winning streak, so there is no reason to believe that the Amerks can’t make club history this season. Casey Cizikas will draw back into the line-up tomorrow night after missing the last 8 games with an undisclosed injury. It has also been confirmed that Mike Fisher will be ready for the playoffs, but will likely not play in the final two regular season games. Niklas Hjalmarsson and Jeff Petry will both be healthy scratches vs. Boston as Jake McCabe will get back on the ice after being scratched for the last 6 games and 2017 2nd round draft selection, Paul LaDue, will make his Americans debut. Connor Hellebuyck will be back between the pipes for the 3rd time in four games as the Amerks continue to rest starter, Cam Talbot, in preparation for the teams 7th straight playoff appearance.

[Scott-New York]

The New York Americans surpassed their highest season point total of 103 with an 8-3 victory over Boston. Yes, the same Boston who have amassed an all time GHL record 126 points this season. The win gives the Amerks 105 points on the season with one game left to play. Moncton visits The Big Apple on Saturday in the season finale. Mikael Backlund and Chris Kreider each recorded 5 point nights in the win. Kreider notched a hat trick and 2 assists while Backlund scored twice and added 3 helpers to bring his team leading season point total to 70. Paul LaDue’s debut couldn’t have gone much better with the rookie blueliner recording 2 assists in his first GHL appearance. Mark Giordano and Patrick Eaves also chipped in with a pair of assists each. “That’s a big win for us all around”, said GM, Scott Jones, after tonight’s game. “It’s club history, yes, but it’s also good to see the team work that hard and get results against a club like Boston this late in the season. I think it helps our confidence heading into the post-season”. New York will start the playoffs at home vs. Suffolk next week.

Speaking of the playoffs, the Campbell conference match-ups are all set with Quebec visiting New Jersey and the Suffolk at New York series in the Norris bracket. Syracuse will visit Boston in the Smythe and Halifax and Montreal will meet with home ice yet to be determined. The Wales conference still has some sorting out remaining as Cincinnati and Washington are tied in the wild card race at 91 points each. The Patrick bracket will be Washington/Cincinnati at Colorado and Edmonton at Detroit while The Norris bracket will see Washington/Cincinnati at Cleveland and Toronto at Alaska. Washington will finish up the season at home vs. Cleveland while Cincinnati visits Montreal. Both games are part of the GHL’s 15 game Saturday to complete the 2017-18 regular season. If both teams remain tied after Saturday, Washington would finish in the 1st wild card spot with 4 more wins than Cincinnati but for this reporter, the first round possibility of Cincinnati at Cleveland is too intriguing so I’ll be routing for the Swords to claim that top wild card spot as the season wraps up this weekend.

Congratulations to Colorado, Cleveland, Boston and New Jersey on winning your 2018 division titles. Boston has also clinched their 1st President’s Trophy in the contemporary GHL.

[Scott-New York]

AMERKS ADVANCE IN 5

Connor Hellebuyck stepped between the pipes for the New York Americans in game 5 and turned aside all 34 shots he faced to notch a shutout for his first career playoff win. Hellebuyck appeared in 3 games last year in the Amerks first round match-up vs. Quebec but the Amerks were swept and Hellebuyck was not good in that series as evidenced by his .870 save % and a 5.66 GAA. His 4th playoff appearance last night went much better. “Connor did exactly what we needed him to do last night”, said GM, Scott Jones, this morning. “We took the opportunity, up 3-1 in our own building, to get Cam (Talbot) a night off and Connor closed out the series for us”.

“He not only closed the door but he slammed it shut”, added interim head coach, Justin Brassard.

When asked about turning his attention to New Jersey, coach Brassard made the following statement. “We’ve gotta sit down and look at tape, which we’re doing this morning and we’ve got to assess our own room. The Suffolk series was physical, we got a few bumps and bruises. Gio (Mark Giordano) and Mike (Fisher) went down in game 4 and Lehks (Artturi Lehkonen) had an issue last night. Injuries are gonna happen in the playoffs. Luckily we have at least a few days to heal with Toronto and Alaska going to at least another game tomorrow night to let us get a few days of rest here before we cross the river”.

Giordano had a pair of assists and was a +4 before suffering an undisclosed injury in game 4 but the big thing missing with Giordano out of the line-up is the minutes he consumes while being so defensively responsible. Over the first 4 games of the series, Giordano averaged 23:54 of ice time. That’s a lot of minutes to try and distribute throughout the line-up, which the Amerks did well in game 5 with guys like Roman Josi and Niklas Hjalmarsson stepping up with Jared Spurgeon and not only filling Giordano’s skates but closing out the series without giving up a goal. As the matter of fact, it was Giordano’s normal defense partner, Spurgeon, who netted the series clincher just :13 into OT. The Amerks showed they can battle without their defensive leader but they would certainly rather have him healthy and on the ice when they head across the river to face the Hawks.

GM Jones closed the short presser by congratulating GM Chris Frey and the Suffolk Stampede. “That was a good series they put us through. They were tough, don’t let a couple lop-sided scores tell you different. Those 3 games were all one goal differences and they were in every one of them other than game 2, that one was just our night. We didn’t open up game 4 until the 3rd and games 1,3 and 5 could’ve just as easily been a bounce the other way. I’d like to say Congratulations to Chris and that entire organizations, they had us on the edge of our seats up there in the booth the whole way”.

[Scott-New York]

AMERKS ADVANCE TO CONFERENCE FINALS

Patrick Eaves capped a roller coaster series 5:13 into overtime and sent the New York Americans to the Campbell conference finals to meet the Boston Bears. New York and Boston have met 3 times in the current GHL era with Boston eliminating New York on all 3 occasions. Twice in the conference semi-finals (2012 and 2014) and once in the conference finals (2015). The Amerks are hoping the that the 2018 version of the match-up brings better results.

Amerks GM, Scott Jones, held a brief media availability on Tuesday. “Roller Coaster, I like that term. Fitting. Ya, games 1 and 2 were not what we were looking for. We were outscored in those first 2 badly, we allowed 13 goals and you can’t win like that. After a run and gun game 3, which we were fortunate to come out on the right side of, Justin (interim head coach, Justin Brassard) made some changes and I think as a team we realized we needed to tighten up defensively. In games 4 and 5, we did exactly that, and it led to more offensive chances as well. We felt we were the better team in both of those games and we felt we took control of the series. Game 6 grounded us, bringing us down from our high. The Hawks are a very good offensive team. They proved on many occasions that they could score at will sometimes and that’s very tough to defend. Game 7, we came out flat and they dominated us early and Cam (Talbot) had to be strong. He was a rock back there and that gave us a chance to pull ourselves together. Marshy (Jonathan Marchessault) was able to draw us even and Patty (Patrick Eaves) did what he’s done all season for us in OT. This was an entertaining series and New Jersey deserves a lot of credit here. If you look at the stats, the series was very even but I really think this one could have gone either way. I’d like to congratulate Scotty (GM Scott Beldock) and their entire team on a great season and an amazing series. Thank you, folks, and get ready for some more great hockey. Here we come Boston!”

[Scott-New York]

AMERKS BLOW 3 GOAL LEAD IN GAME 6, BEARS ADVANCE TO FINALS

Chris Kreider, Mark Letestu and Mike Fisher scored first period goals as the Amerks came out determined in game six and it looked as if they would force a game 7 back in Boston but that was not to be. Brett Pesce scored a short-handed goal and Marian Hossa connected on the powerplay to draw the Bears to within a goal in the 2nd period. Jordan Weal drew Boston even early in the third and Adam Lowry finished off the comeback and the Amerks just before the midway point of the final frame.

“It’s disappointing, It looked like we sat back too much after building that early lead. Maybe we thought we had it in the bag. We believed in this team, the players believed in themselves. Nobody was dejected when we were down 2-0 to Jersey and nobody blinked an eye when we were down 3-1 in this series. We believed we would come back, not one player in that room had any doubt so being eliminated is tough to take.” said GM Jones this morning before taking a few questions from the media.

How did Talbot take getting benched in games 5 & 6?…
”Cam was a professional. We felt we needed a change and that worked in game 5. I’m not going to be a Monday morning quarterback and wonder if we should’ve put Cam back in for game 6. Obviously, if we won and were talking about a game 7, there would be no question that we made the right call but maybe Cam loses game 6 as well. We’ll never know.”

Will there be changes next year? We’re hearing a lot of rumors about a rebuild?…
“Where are those rumors coming from? Aren’t you guys the rumor mill? Look, we haven’t even started exit interviews yet. It’s no secret that this team was built to win and we will assess what we have going forward. We’re a little behind because we went so deep. I see a lot of teams talking off-season moves but the reality is that absolutely nothing can be done until after the season ends so if teams are out there making deals behind the scenes, they’re jumping the gun by not exploring all of their avenues and they’ll only hurt themselves. We will take our time, assess the full roster and move forward from there. Trust me, we won’t keep our intentions secret much longer.”

So does that mean you have intentions? Is there a plan?…
“Isn’t there always a plan?”

Regardless of whether Jones has a plan or not, we can outline what he has in front of him as far as the Amerks Roster shakes out for next season. New York currently has 13 forwards, 4 defensemen and 1 goaltender under contract for next season. They have RFA rights to forward, Colton Sceviour, defensemen, Stephen Johns and Jake McCabe and goaltender, Connor Hellebuyck. Forwards Jonathan Marchessault and Michael Grabner are UFA’s, as are defensemen Jeff Petry and Jared Spurgeon. So while Jones eluded to knowing what direction he would take the team in, we’ll have to assume changes will be made this summer, but to what extent?

[Scott-New York]

AMERKS LOOKING AT CHANGES IN THE OFF-SEASON

A lot has happened since New York played their final game of the season on May 20th. Exit interviews were completed and lockers were cleaned out. The feel around the Americans front offices is that many of those lockers were cleaned out for the last time. It would seem this organization is headed in a new direction but the off season will undoubtedly be a challenging one. The Amerks are faced with some tough decisions. They currently have no picks in the first two rounds of the draft which makes ‘rebuild’ a very inappropriate word to use. A lot of players that are here love playing in the Red, White and Blue but that certainly doesn’t mean there will be a spot for them on next seasons version of the Amerks. Some of the challenges GM Jones faces are injury related, some are career related and some are just plain old not winning related. The current roster has an average age of almost 28 and the organization would like to see it’s roster get younger. Will the likes of Mark Giordano, Phil Kessel and others be on the move this summer? Will Jones try to sign any of his Unrestricted Free Agents? Jonathan Marchessault, Jared Spurgeon, Jeff Petry and Michael Grabner will all be available for the 30 other teams to talk to this summer. Breaking news on the health of the club has emerged in the past 10 days. Team MVP Patrick Eaves has been diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which could land him on LTIR for the final year of his contract and quite possibly end his career. Eaves scored 40 goals, racked up 67 points and was a +25 this season, by far his best career stats ever, and that production will certainly be missed. Add in 43 point seasons from each of Marchessault and Spurgeon and that’s 153 points off the roster with just 3 players. On top of that, Mike Fisher’s career is a question mark. He told the team that he was very uncertain about his future and while he’s still contemplating another season, another 60 point campaign from the 38 year old veteran is highly unlikely and his 3.969M salary hit would be a hindrance for a team in the Amerks position, making Fisher a likely buy-out candidate. All told, the Amerks stand to lose 233 points from their roster in the 6 players mentioned. This will force youth into the line-up, which is the teams goal, but are Joel Eriksson-Ek, Arturri Lehkonen and Madison Bowey ready for full time roles? It does appear that one veteran could step back in next year with team captain Ryan Callahan expected to be healthy when the season starts after missing the entire past season due to injury. However, Callahan is 33 and a bottom 6 role player so while he will be welcomed back with open arms, how much production does that replace from a line-up potentially losing over 200 points. We expect the Amerks to be busy this summer but will there be viable trade partners on the market looking to swoop in and add some of the veterans to their rosters? Although Jones hasn’t officially released a trade block, he was adamant about the fact that he is not willing to part with any youth. He specifically mentioned that current RFA’s or players on their ELC’s would lkikely not be dealt in any deal. Expect any trades to include draft picks or young talent coming into the Amerks organization. We expect a trade block to be established by the Amerks in the coming days.

[Scott-New York]

BREAKING NEWS OUT OF NEW YORK

New York Americans GM, Scott Jones, has committed himself and his team to the rebuilding process.

“We feel that the time has come to rebuild. We’ve known it was coming, we’ve known that our team was starting to age out and this year was probably our best shot. We took that shot by bringing in a veteran laden roster and we didn’t get it done. Now we have quite a few pending UFA’s and it’s time to turn the roster over and start bringing up the younger guys in the system and add to the youth, whether we do that through the trade process or the draft, we will be committed to the process. We’ll ask the fans to stick with us in this effort to change our roster and bring in the pieces that will bring us to our ultimate goal. With that being said, I’d like to inject a little optimism by saying that this approach is not what it used to be in taking a huge amount of time. We feel we have a solid base of youth and in a couple years time, this process will pay off and we’ll be right back in the hunt, which is something our fans have definitely grown accustomed to. We will not give up on the tradition of winning that this organization has built. Of course we can’t and won’t trade everyone. We have players on the roster that would just be very difficult to move out. By that I mean that the chance of getting the value it would require to move them is simply unlikely. We are not holding a fire sale. We will get what we think our players are worth. If we don’t, they will still be Americans. Plain and simple.”