2016 AIHL Season

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FedEXFalls

Losing makes you grow
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Apr 25, 2011
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Dallas Stars, Melbourne Ice
Pre-season kicks off this week so I may as well get this ball rolling for another year.

It's the year of the comeback for a few clubs and players.

The Sydney Ice Dogs have fixed their management issues and confirmed that David Dunwoodie and Thomas Manco have returned after playing for CBR Brave last season. Two great players that were part of their 2013 cup winning side. on top of that they've announced two Manchester Storm players as imports. 22 year old big defensemen Paul Swindlehurst and power forward Grant Toulmin have been added.

The biggest story in quite a while was revealed last night as Melbourne Ice are likely welcoming back two of their departed sons in Joey and Vinnie Hughes. Both brothers left controversially before the 2014 season where they went on to win a cup with the rival Melbourne Mustangs.

They've also added former Denmark national player Lasse Lassen as their first announced import for the season. If the stars align and they get back their import goalie from last year in Alex Leclerc then it should just about be a cup year for the squad.

CBR Brave have announced that former Kitchener Rangers 'tender and Blackhawks draft pick Josh Unice will be their head coach for his 2nd season in a row. He nearly took them to the grand final after taking over last year, but one mishandled puck from the goaltender saw their season end in their semi-final.

Michael Flaherty takes over the coaching position at the Melbourne Mustangs. They lost their Goodall cup winning coach Brad Vigon to the Australian team. Wouldn't be surprised if Brad's departure had something to do with the Hughes brothers leaving. It's a defining year for them I believe, they did well to get themselves to the top of the competition but have struggled since. Losing a coach and two leaders could make the fall even worse. I think they're going through a lot of the pains that Melbourne Ice went through a few years ago.

Newcastle North Stars, Sydney Bears and Perth Thunder haven't really announced anything special so far as far as I know. Squads and such for the year should start pouring in over the next few weeks.

Oh, and there is the likelihood that the Adelaide Adrenaline won't play the season due to issues with their only rink.. But I'm not getting bummed about that until it's announced.

HUGHES!
VINNIE_HUGHES_325.jpg

1315172023677.jpg
 
There's some entrepreneur looking at building a few O'Brien Group Arena-style rinks in Adelaide over the next couple of years - but the first one won't be ready until December 2017. They're also looking at setting up something temporary for the Adrenaline so they can compete. I hope they do because from what I can see Ice Arena management are sitting on their hands doing bugga all to fix their large ice (which is used for Adrenaline games) - they were pretty much shamed into doing the current repairs by a 7 News article.

The Adrenaline are carrying on as business as usual for now. I really hope either the Ice Arena management get their arse into gear or this entrepreneur gets something up for them - always great seeing local live ice hockey.
 
Initial Melbourne Ice roster announced:
http://ice.theaihl.com/leagues/newsletterarchive.cfm?clientID=6092&leagueID=25327&page=94392

Notable absences:
Hughes brothers (Club possibly playing funny buggers, will know more with the 8:45 pm Mustangs announcement.)

Alex Leclerc - Looks like he won't be returning after the announcement of Troy Davenport.

Jeremy Brown - His Canadian club is still in the playoffs so I assume that's why he isn't announced, he usually joins the team later.

Tim Johansson won't be returning from what I understand - is playing Div 3 in Sweden.

Notable inclusions:

Lasse Lassen - Already mentioned him in OP.

Troy Davenport: Played NCAA for Cornell University. Has been playing division 1 hockey in Sweden.

Chris Yule: Played hockey in Japan and the "Asia League" - Can't say I know much about it. He isn't counting as an import which is interesting.

For some reason Lliam Webster is listed as a defender in the squad.
 
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Mustangs roster announced the other night:

http://mustangs.theaihl.com/leagues/newsletterarchive.cfm?clientid=6099&leagueid=25386&page=94393

Notable absences:

Vinnie and Joey Hughes - Huge loss of experience that will likely be announced for Melb Ice at the first exhibition game next Thursday.

Viktor Gibbs-Sjodin - 2014 Finals MVP in a championship season, big loss. Appears that he only tried out for the Ice this season and wasn't successful. Think there are issues with his work ethic. He's still in the country though so I wouldn't be surprised if he lands on a team somewhere.

No real notable inclusions in the sense that they have shocked me. They haven't announced their imports yet aside from Patrick O'Kane who is a stud. The biggest thing for them is that Vadim Virjassov is now considered a local. It means his spot can now be filled by a much needed import defender. I think they'll go big on import defenders this year. If they sort their defence they could be anything, if not then I don't see them as a worrying Goodall cup threat.
 
Vinnie had his 3rd lowest penalty minute total out of his 11 AIHL seasons last year. In a Goodall cup winning season the year before he had double the penalty minutes of the 2015 season. Jamie bourke had 91 PIMs compared to Hughes 46.

If anything the defence is weakened by the loss of Paul Kurceba, who I don't necessarily rate compared to other import d-men around the league. If we get desperate we can add an import D-man and rotate players like we did when we added Leclerc mid season last year. Mustangs also lost their d import from last year in Jeff Grant.

Todd Graham seems to have had a good year in College hockey after missing lot of it before last season.

Which of thew new guys in Charlie Moore, Phillip Bakatsoulas and Michael McMahon are making Mustangs D better? It'll come down to their imports. I'd guess they'll bring in two, unless they're still working towards that "All local Goodall cup winning team" dream....

I'll take the depth and experience an aged V.Hughes adds any day. Especially when he's only taking the spot of Cheprakov who only played 1 pre-season game last year.
 
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Looks like some positive news on the Adrenaline front. Apparently the Ice Arena has the parts to fix their ice and it should be good to go in a couple of weeks, just in time for the AIHL season.

EDIT - new ice surfaced just confirmed on the Ice Hockey SA Facebook page. Should be up within weeks.
 
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It would want to be big because this will be the most stacked season to date:

- Last years league and finals MVP, former LA Kings 3rd round pick Geordie Wudrick has moved from Newcastle to Canberra.

- Newcastle have re-signed Scott Swiston and he's brought teammate Connor Mclaughlin to the club. Both are CCAA players.

- Sydney Bears have brought Australian rep goaltender Anthony Kimlin back to the country. He won a cup with the Ice Dogs in 2013.

- Sydney Ice dogs welcome Australian rep forward Scott Stephenson back to their club. He averaged nearly a point per game in their 2013 Goodall cup winning season, which was the last he played.

- Perth still haven't announced anything at all.
 

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Hopefully the last rink battle they need to win with the new plans.

Ice host Mustangs tonight at O'Brien Group Arena. Good to have a (likely) competitive pre-season game as usually the Ice are missing the bulk of their squad to the Australian team.

Should be the first we see of Lasse Lassen.
 
5 - 1 Ice in the pre-season game.

Both teams went hard tonight, felt like the hitting was better than what I saw in games last year.

Mustangs ran 3 forward lines and the Ice ran 4, helped us run over the top in the 3rd period. Though we very easily could have ran away earlier if we could bury our chances.

Imports Lasse Lassen and Troy Davenport didn't play so there's more to add to our stocks... Oh, and that Todd Graham fella.

So much depth, if only Jeremy Brown was back this year.

Joey Hughes grabbed 2 goals. Branazelli had 2 and Delsar 1, great to see those two hit the net.

Now we wait a few weeks and support the Australian men's team. Then business begins.
 
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PalaceGun said:
This should be an absolutely fantastic day.

image.png
Click to expand...
april fools?
adelaide for the last couple of years have had an outdoor rink during winter but the ice is not very good and even the AIHL would have standards for conditions of ice, and that doesn't meet it.
 
Fuzzy Happy Poo said:
april fools?
adelaide for the last couple of years have had an outdoor rink during winter but the ice is not very good and even the AIHL would have standards for conditions of ice, and that doesn't meet it.
Click to expand...

Also that outdoor rink is tiny, you couldn't even fit a junior ice hockey rink on it.
 
As expected, the Mustangs have started to plug their gaping defensive holes with an import signing.

http://mustangs.theaihl.com/leagues/newsletterarchive.cfm?clientid=6099&leagueid=25386&page=94564

CBR Brave re-signed their goalie Aleksi Toivanen, otherwise known as the bloke that gave them a glimpse at a grand final last year, before dropping a puck that now team-mate Geordie Wudrick put in the back of the net as the game winner.

Holding on to their tempers will be an interesting point for the CBR Brave this year. Coach Josh Unice put on a show of his own in last years semi final.. Constantly standing on the bench and screaming.. And let's not forget the actions of re-signed import Stephen Blunden, who attacked a North Stars player after the match had ended.

Now they've signed Blunden's mate from the LNAH Mathieu Guertin who had 129 PIM and 29 points from 33 LNAH games recently.
They've also signed d-man Art Bidlevskii from Division 1 in Sweden, he seems to have had 80 fights dating back 2007.
Balancing that out a bit they have signed young and speedy winger Nicola Brandi.

I recall a game with the Melb Ice last year where both teams were brutal with each other. They've definitely added to the toughness and skill since then.

I think they're the team with everything to lose this year in regards to the Goodall cup, I'm sure they'd see a grand final appearance as a win but anything less than a cup should really be a disappointment for their list.

Perth Thunder signed former San Jose Shark goalie (he actually barely managed any games for their AHL team) Thomas Heemskerk. Not sure if he's a major upgrade on Mark Guggenberger from last year but he's a nice addition.
Today they also announced former Buffalo Sabre draftee Ben Breault who seems to have been a very handy QMJHL player in his day. Looks like he's been playing in Poland and France recently.
 

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