Recalled/Assigned: 2023-24 Colorado Eagles and Utah Grizzlies (ECHL)

[forsbergavs32]

New season, new thread.

 

[Metallo]

Looking forward to an Eagles season where the younger players have a bigger role. Is it a sign of things to come and a refection of a new philosophy from McDonald's influence?

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Free to watch AHL tonight. looking forward to the boys dominating

 

[Metallo]

Eagles off to a good start, 5-2 after 2. Kaut 2, Hudon 2, Foudy. Maltsev with 3 A.

Eagles lines

Hudon Maltsev Foudy

Bowers Megna Kaut

Olausson Smallman Ranta

Wagner Burke Beaucage

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Mostly dominant. Looks like an Avs game. Good passing, good creatively and skill.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Only 3 Powerplay opportunities after 2 periods? That cant possibly be right!

 

[Metallo]

Kaut has had 2 breakaways to complete the hat trick. One stop, one post. Plus EN post lol.

 

[Avsboy]

AHL champs this year?

 

[Tommy Shelby]

AHL champs this year?

Don't think the D is strong enough for that

 

[Metallo]

Rough period by the birds.

 

[tigervixxxen]

Hope y’all didn’t miss the 11 power plays in the second game.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

They do say 5 is the new 11!

 

[The Merchant]

Sounds like a well-deserved demotion after none of their hopefuls made the Avs yet again.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Sounds like a well-deserved demotion after none of their hopefuls made the Avs yet again.

Ya director of special project just means, we're retiring you with full pay.

 

[Hasbro]

Ya director of special project just means, we're retiring you with full pay.

Roy always liked working with Billington on goaltending, but Parkilla is pretty good.

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

It's a pretty transparent move (at least publicly) moving Billington to this new job when he hasn't done anything particularly goalie related since the 02/03 season and if you want to give him credit for developing Avs goalies he gets credit for Peter Budaj and Calvin Pickard. Meanwhile the Isles have Mitch Korn running their goalie dev department and the Panthers have the two Luongo's plus Tallas and a couple well known consultants.

 

[Pokecheque]

It's a pretty transparent move (at least publicly) moving Billington to this new job when he hasn't done anything particularly goalie related since the 02/03 season and if you want to give him credit for developing Avs goalies he gets credit for Peter Budaj and Calvin Pickard. Meanwhile the Isles have Mitch Korn running their goalie dev department and the Panthers have the two Luongo's plus Tallas and a couple well known consultants.

Isn't Budaj the guy in charge of developing goalies anyway? I'm sure Parkkila has a say in that as well. Feels like this is just sending Billington out to pasture.

 

[henchman21]

I think people forget how old Billington is... dude is in his late 50s and has been in the front office for ~20 years. It simply could be that he wants to take a step back in his life.

 

[barriers]

 

[AnimalMother73]

Helm and Landy back? Just saving $? Disappointed in their play? Or all of the above?

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

Isn't Budaj the guy in charge of developing goalies anyway? I'm sure Parkkila has a say in that as well. Feels like this is just sending Billington out to pasture.

Budaj is in charge of the AHL/ECHL prospects for the most part. Parkkila most likely sets the standard but neither runs a goalie department on the Avs. More like a partnership where Parkkila is more in charge. We don't have a goalie department on the Avs and even with Billington's new position I still don't think we do.

I think people forget how old Billington is... dude is in his late 50s and has been in the front office for ~20 years. It simply could be that he wants to take a step back in his life.

Optically it's hard to argue though that a guy who hasn't been involved in goaltending in ~20 years suddenly ending up head of goalie development looks like just giving a guy a job to ride out his contract in. It'd make more sense for taking a step back by just being head of player development or special assistant to the Hockey Ops Pres or whatever.

 

[henchman21]

Budaj is in charge of the AHL/ECHL prospects for the most part. Parkkila most likely sets the standard but neither runs a goalie department on the Avs. More like a partnership where Parkkila is more in charge. We don't have a goalie department on the Avs and even with Billington's new position I still don't think we do.



Optically it's hard to argue though that a guy who hasn't been involved in goaltending in ~20 years suddenly ending up head of goalie development looks like just giving a guy a job to ride out his contract in. It'd make more sense for taking a step back by just being head of player development or special assistant to the Hockey Ops Pres or whatever.

He likely is riding out the last of his deal. If you know his history and how he got involved on the AHL side in general, the special projects part makes a ton of sense. Higher level, more process and system rather than day to day.

Results wise, the Eagles have gotten a lot better and the AHL program is as good as it has been in a very long time. With the ground work put in there and the foundation a lot better than it was in Cleveland, maybe he’s just ready to not handle the day to day of managing an AHL team. It is a lot of work with basically no reward.

The speculation (and it really is that until we know more) is negatively biased because people don’t like him.

 

[AvsWraith]

Huh? What is going on here? Landy wasn't even skating yet, right?

 

[barriers]

Huh? What is going on here? Landy wasn't even skating yet, right?

Kaut has been recalled. Not sure who else wil be

 

[tigervixxxen]

Running the Eagles was the only thing Billington cared about, that would be the last thing he’d let go of if it was personally motivated. The Eagles are better than the previous versions because their org is better, they have a great home ice advantage and they finally do not have a lame duck head coach. Spending 300-500k on vets helps that product too but those guys turn over every 2 years or so.