Weekly Update: Jan 5 - Keeping Up With The Joneses

Max Jones (16) brings the puck in against the Ontario Reign. Credit San Diego Gulls.

Max Jones, Adam Cracknell and Troy Terry have helped turn things around for San Diego as they ride a 8 game point streak

Things are definitely picking up for the Gulls in an eerily similar fashion to last year soon after they obtained Eric Fehr’s services – this year’s team appear to be repeating the exact same success thanks to Adam Cracknell, among some other key acquisitions.

News and Observations:

Trades and Moves:

A lot of roster movement has happened since the last update. Here it is in timeline form.

Tyler Soy released from one-year AHL deal: The Cloverdale BC native had fourteen points in nineteen games in the ECHL with the Tulsa Oilers, but as the Gulls continued to sign other more experienced ECHL players to PTOs rather than call him up, he more than likely decided that is original pre-season decision of going to the University of Alberta made better sense long-term. I wish him luck in his career and hopefully he does not give up on hockey entirely.

Lundestrom loaned to Team Sweden for the WJCs: The 19 year old had two points in fifteen games with the Ducks and six points in twelve games with the Gulls. At the tournament in BC he put up very good numbers with four points in five games, but Team Sweden were bounced in the Quarter Finals by Switzerland. Reports have come out that he is looking to rejoin his former SHL team Lulea rather than return to the Gulls, and given that AHL Transactions as other bounced countries players returning to their teams such as Martin Kaut for the Eagles and Necas to the Checkers but no sign of Lundestrom for the Gulls, that could be the case.

Cracknell and Correau depart for Spengler Cup: Both players have since returned; however in their absence, in the case of Correau, a player that was acquired to cover has since managed to supplant him.

Steve McParland signed to PTO: The twenty-seven year old Ontario native had twenty three points in twenty eight games for the Idaho Steelheads in the ECHL. He scored a goal in his first game with the Gulls, but despite strong play has yet to register another point. He has the one point in four games thus far.

Jake Marchment signed to PTO and then released: Just a quick cup of coffee for the nephew of former NHL tough guy Bryan Marchment. He got in another two games with the Gulls before being returned to the Grizzlies of the ECHL. Memorably, he did have a spirited bout in the game against San Jose last week.

Giovanni Fiore traded to Arizona for Trevor Murphy: It was sad to see Gio go, but the twenty-two year old was plagued by the same scoring inconsistency we saw in his rookie year last season. His 2.09 points per game was trending lower than the 2.16 he put up last year, and despite initially responding well to a healthy scratch stint earlier in the year, he had fallen back into the same skid. The Roadrunners likely wanted him for his size and were able to give up Murphy due to their defensive depth. The left shooting offensive blueliner perfectly solves the problems the Gulls faced whenever Andy Welinski was called up – with Mahura now permanently up until Cam Fowler is back from injury. He already has two points in three games with the Gulls while Fiore has yet to get anything on the board in two games with Tuscon.

Welinski recalled, Sustr returned: The Anaheim power play is still failing to launch, and Jake Dotchin appears to have been made a scapegoat for some of the poor defensive play displayed in the Ducks’ current six game losing streak. Andy Welinski was recalled to take Dotchin’s place but strangely was not used on the man advantage. We’ll see if that changes in the next week’s games. Sustr meanwhile has come back down and played the same game he did before his recall to sit as the 7th defence man – that is to say he doesn’t stand out a whole lot, and he has at least one brain fart per game.

Gulls sign Johno May to PTO: The 6”5’ 205 lb right shooting twenty five year old forward has thirty points in thirty five games with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (the what?) of the ECHL. He has yet to see a game with the Gulls, but that could change tonight.

Anaheim trades Coreau to St Louis for Future Considerations: As mentioned previously, the acquisition of Jeff Glass to cover for when Coreau went to the Spengler Cup appears to have made him expendable. He had a 3.57 GAA and 0.895 SV% while in San Diego and although the numbers for Glass in a smaller sample size aren’t looking much better (3.33 GA and 0.863 SV% through two games), he has made saves when he needed to in this recent point streak. It was also likely much easier to deal Coreau than it was Glass, and one of the two had to go.

San Diego acquires Jared Thomas from San Antonio for Future Considerations: This is the other half of the Coreau deal. Essentially (like last year with Tokarski) Coreau is on an NHL deal and Thomas is on a AHL/ECHL deal, so each side of the deal had to be “future considerations” as you cannot deal an NHL contract for an AHL/ECHL one. He is third on the Tulsa Oilers in points with twenty and will likely remain with them as injury cover for San Diego down the stretch. Speaking of injuries..

Walking Wounded:

With Kalle Kossila going down last week, the Gulls now have four different players out with various ailments.

Kalle Kossila: Upper Body (it looked that way from a hard check sustained against the Condors in the overtime session last week)
Deven Sideroff: Broken Hand (I am assuming this – sustained in a fight against Ontario last month)
Corey Tropp: Unknown (I didnt see where or how he got hurt but he hasnt returned since his one-game suspension given during the game against Ontario on Dec 21st)
Jack Kopacka: Wrist Laceration (Still out since the first week of the season, no update or sign of when he is returning)

That does not include Kevin Roy who has yet to see any action this season with either the Ducks or the Gulls.

Terry Leading The Way:

Troy Terry had a brief respite from his initial torrid pace of scoring when he was first sent down, but he is picking it back up again of late. He now co-leads all rookies in scoring with thirty-one points in twenty-seven games and co-leads in assists with nineteen. He is second among rookies in Game Winning Goals with three. Terry also leads the Gulls in scoring, and it has been recently announced that he has been selected for the All Star Game.

Max Jones coming on strong

After starting out slow, the 6”3’ 220lb winger has now amassed nineteen points in twenty-seven games. He is also contributing where it doesn’t always show on the scoresheet, routinely drawing a call with this speed and size, forcing opposing teams to either trip or hook him as he busts around their zone. Given his ability to completely take over a game, that has been evident in at least two or three of the last six games, I don’t think it will be long before he earns himself a call up to Anaheim. At this point he is definitely first, if not second, in line for a Left Wing recall.

Standings and Special Teams Update

The recent ten-point streak has given the Gulls a healthy boost up the standings, where they now sit in a three-way-tie for third in the Pacific with Bakersfield and Colorado, just four points behind Tuscon and eight points behind the division leaders and tonight’s opponent San Jose Barracuda.

League-wide- they are positioned in the middle of the pack, with fifteen overall in points percentage, ahead of traditional powerhouses like Wilkes-Barre and Toronto.

The Power-Play has also climbed, now sitting fourth overall in the league with a 21.5% conversion rate- again among esteemed company and just one percentage point above Toronto.

The Penalty Kill has an 80.2% kill rate, but is only good enough for twentieth overall in the league.

No ECHL Affiliate No Problem

Earlier in the season when I initially inquired with Andy Zilch (as a question posed to the Gulls Cast Podcast) about the lack of ECHL affitiliate, his answer was along the lines of “its not a big deal, they can still call up players from the likes of Idaho and Tulsa.” At the time I didn’t completely understand the advantages of that, but given the quality of players the Gulls have been able to sign as PTO’s of late, I can now see why a lack of agreement with any particular ECHL club is actually a smart move. It means San Diego can grab from any one team in the league so long as the player is not under contract with an NHL club – Steve McParland and Johno May are recent examples of this.

Final Thoughts:

In the last edition of MOTF I tried to guess at what could be the cause of the Gulls’ lack of success to start the season compared to last year – landing on either coaching change or lack of “Fehr Factor”. Given the last ten point stretch – which directly correlates to the arrival of Adam Cracknell- I think it is safe to say that veteran leadership and presence in the forwards is an often underrated- but vastly important- key to an AHL squad make-up. It also goes a long way to explain the recent PTO signings out of the ECHL: all players in the mid-twenties range with more than a few years pro experience.

Up Next:

Finally back at home – facing the San Jose Baracuda in an attempt to keep the points streak going and claw some ground back on the division leaders.

Then it’s off on the road again hitting the Reign on Sunday, Stockton on Wednesday and then heading east to for the annual Midwest swing of Milwaukee, Iowa and Texas.