By Warren Kozireski —
It has been 11 months since hockey was last played at Rochester Blue Cross Arena and the season that begins Feb. 5 will stretch the imagination of being close to normal.
Extra players who would normally be in an Amerks uniform are part of an insurance taxi squad in Buffalo. The schedule has been reduced to 32 games and all against either Syracuse (12 games), Utica (14) or Cleveland (6).
The AHL has changed a bit with three teams not competing in Charlotte, Milwaukee, Springfield with Stockton playing in Calgary. Florida will instead send some players to join Tampa Bay in Syracuse while St. Louis will help Vancouver stock Utica as temporary dual affiliates.
It’s been 11 months and it hit me this morning,” first year head coach Seth Appert said of this week’s opening game. “It’s like Christmas Eve when you were a kid. To have it on the doorstep is really exciting.”
Expect to see plenty of roster fluctuation in Rochester with players going up and down to the taxi-squad and a larger-than-normal contingent of AHL contract players to supply depth.
Newly signed forward Steven Fogarty, who spent five years in Hartford as a New York Rangers draft selection out of Notre Dame, was named captain along with assistant captains in third-year forward Andrew Oglivie (pictured above) and veteran Dalton Smith.
“Our leadership group is strong,” Appert said. “There are some guys on the taxi squad who would be a part of that with us as well.”
Though not all will be available for opening night, other returning forwards expected to contribute offensively during the campaign include C.J. Smith, last season’s leading scorer Jean-Sebastien Dea, Rasmus Asplund, Remi Elie and Brett Murray.
Rookie forward Matej Pekar will make his pro debut after his final OHL season in Barrie last year was cut short due to a broken collarbone[WK1] . Arttu Ruotsalainen also arrives for his first North American season after putting up solid offensive numbers in the Finland over the past few seasons.
The defense should be a strong-suit with second-year pro Jacob Bryson and newly signed Nick Welsh quarterbacking the two power play units. William Borgen, Brandon Davidson, Casey Fitzgerald plus highly touted rookies in second round draft pick Mattias Samuelsson and third rounder Oskari Laaksonen will also see plenty of ice-time. Buffalo native and former second round draft pick Dylan Blujus was also signed.
Samuelson played two years at Western Michigan University under former NHL head coach Andy Murray and is the son of former Philadelphia Flyer blueliner Kjell Samuelson.
In goal it looks like Dustin Tokarski will get the nod as long as an extra goaltender (Jonas Johansson) needs to be on Buffalo’s taxi squad as well as Michael Houser though it was announced that prospect Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is returning from loan to HC TPS in Finland.
Tokarski is a two-time Calder Cup winner most recently with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins where he posted a 9-5-2 record with a 1.97 goals-against average and a .924 save percentage in 18 games. Houser appeared in 26 games with the Cincinnati Cyclones (ECHL) last season, posting a 16-5-5 record with two shutouts. He ranked fifth among qualifying ECHL netminders with a 2.27 goals-against average and tied for 14th in wins (16).
