Amerks Report 22-23

[Scott-New York]

Trade rumors are already starting to stir up around the Amerks front offices. We started hearing a dull buzz yesterday surrounding New York's 25 year old pending RFA power forward, Jordan Greenway. Today, however, that rumor seems to have gained some traction. Amerks GM, Scott Jones, took a call from a Report beat writer this afternoon. "I will confirm that there are talks going on and we have been keeping Jordan in the loop. He is fully aware of where we are, but according to league rules, I am not at liberty to confirm any trade talks at this time. As soon as the league re-opens the trade window, any deals that we finalize will be announced. There is no secret that we are looking to recoup a few picks in the upcoming draft. We have very high ambitions for the upcoming season, but we also have to balance in the future of the organization as well, and we highly value the draft process". Jones did not comment further, and we are unsure if a deal is in place, but we do know that talks are certainly underway.

[Scott-New York]

As the GHL ramps up for the 2022 entry draft, the New York Americans have been busy, with the team announcing three trades thus far. Despite heavy rumors RFA Jordan Greenway, however, remains Amerk property at least for now. Fellow RFA Kale Clague was moved in the first deal which swapped the young puck moving defenseman for depth scoring winger, Nathan Walker. The Amerks then shocked the fan base when they dealt elite offensive forward RFA Elias Pettersson and workhorse goaltender Connor Hellebuyck in a deal with Moncton which brought in big minute munching defenseman Matt Dumba along with a trio of picks in this year's draft, a 1st rounder (#12), a 2nd (#35) and a 5th (#159). The most recent deal sent big veteran forward Boone Jenner along with young up and coming goaltender Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen and depth forward Dominic Toninato to Edmonton to bring in promising goaltender Michael DiPietro and Dylan Larkin.

"We were looking for a way to recoup a few draft selections while not sacrificing what we feel is a very good opportunity this season to make a run at the cup". Said GM Scott Jones this afternoon. "We gave up a couple of top 6 forwards, but I think we definitely got a good return in these deals. Dylan will make up for a ton of the offense we let go and we were able to fill a big hole in our top 4 on the back end. Matt will be huge piece of this run and it's way harder to find a right-handed D of his caliber in the free agent market than it is a top six forward. Or at least that's the theory. We believe that gaining a couple very high draft picks will land us two top notch prospects. We had extensive talks with our scouts, and they felt it was very important to see if we could grab a few picks, especially at the top half of this draft. I'd like to see if we could maybe grab at least one more in the top three rounds at some point before we sit down at the draft table Friday. Overall, we're very satisfied with what we've done this past week. Of course, you never want to lose guys like Petey (Pettersson) and Boone, but we hope and believe that we were able to bring in a return which will offset the loss of the talent we had to part with in order to do what we feel better's the team as a whole".

After his brief statement at the podium, Jones was seen entering his office with his head scout in tow. It is no secret that Jones is motivated by the entry draft and values his scouts' opinions extremely highly and the proof of that is no more evident than in his recent moves, especially that of Elias Pettersson, so Jones must feel that a combination of pick #12 and Larkin will make up for Pettersson's absence.

[Scott-New York]

AMERKS DRAFT CONCENSUS #1, SIGN PAIR OF FORWADS

Is this what GM Jones was up to the entire time? Is this ultimately why Elias Pettersson was traded? It would appear so. Jones was able to find a dance partner at the draft table. With pick #12 in hand, he started conversations with many of the teams holding top picks and was able to move up to pick #3. Risky? Calculated? Jones Spoke this morning after adding newest Amerk, Matias Maccelli, with pick #35 last night. It is that #3 pick, however, that Jones was asked about.

“We may have taken a pretty big risk” chuckled Jones “but it paid off, so I guess management is pretty happy right now and I’ll get to keep my job” Jones takes a sip of coffee while reporters get a laugh. “We had Owen (Power) ranked #1. We felt he was the stud of the draft. Not to take anything away from these other kids. Listen, we would have been very happy with Raymond if Justin (Corbo, St. Paul’s GM) had selected Power, but I’m not one to pull punches so I’m not going to sit up here and tell you that our group wasn’t elated when Justin announced his pick. We wanted Owen and we were trying to figure out a way to get as high as we could to select him. We talked to Syracuse and St. Paul but couldn’t get them to budge. In the end we found the right team as it turned out with both of those teams passing up our guy. Good for us. They will both be happy with those picks. They got two GHL ready offensive talents at the top, no doubt, and that’s the way we would have gone at #3 also if things had panned out differently. We are very content waiting a year for Owen while he fills his commitment to Michigan. We hope to see him next year at training camp”.

While league rules don’t allow any signings to take place before the official signing periods. Our souces tell us that both Mason Marchment and Logan O’Connor have agreed to matching two year deals with the club. They are each coming off minor league contracts and per league rules must either be signed by the club which owns their minor league rights or be released to Unrestricted Free Agency after each played in their first GHL season last year.

In other news, rumors have started to swirl around veteran winger, Jaden Schwartz, who we hear has asked for a trade, which could explain Jones checking his phone on a couple of occasions during this morning’s press conference.