First part...Of ALL of the players you named... ALL except 1 were Vegas Golden Knight contracted players and truthfully you could argue about that 1...Vegas traded a player under contract to them to Winnipeg( Jimmy Oligny) and in return Manitoba traded a player on a minor League contract back.
As for Hague and Glass...LOL...Hague played on the Top D pairing all year with Zach Whitecloud and Glass was on the #1 power play unit and centered a line with 2 of the players (McKenzie and McGinn) you said got BIG MINUTES in the Calder Finals...LOL doesn't wash especially with how good Glass was throughout the playoffs...easily one of the best players on the team so why would a team that's "all about winning" sit one of their best players???
Ok, fine. I can admit I'm wrong here.
Nowhere in any of the "articles" you produced does it have any quotes from anyone in the Wolves organization where they say the prioritize winning over development...and if you have those quotes please post them
I embedded those comments because thats not what the Checkers have been about. Winning is great, but the organization wants their players to succeed at the next level too.
Do the Wolves want to win...sure....why the hell play if you aren't trying to win.
Sure, and that's their right to want to do that.
Based on your comments then last year was an awful year for Carolina prospects because they won...so they mustve put winning ahead of development. Why bother playing then if you dont want to win? Might as well change the name of the league to the ICL... and work on triple axels and looking pretty right? You fans down there are giving back the Calder Cup from last year right...you don't want it right because after all it's about developing not winning.
Not at all. Yes, I can admit I was excited as hell about them winning the Calder but for me, it goes beyond just that. What really was great about last year (and the year prior) was that we could finally see some development and progress in the younger guys. To make a long story short, we in Carolina have been burned many many times in the past w/ prospects that don't look anything NHL material when called up. Why that is, is another story. That started to change when guys like Foegele, Necas, Wallmark, and even Hayden Fleury (whom we thought was trending towards 'bust' territory) started getting more time in Raleigh. Their development in Charlotte was a big step in their development to the next level. For once we were not dealing with the "You can take the player out of the AHL but you can't take the AHL out of the player" scenario. The last few seasons has been probably the best progression from AHL to NHL the Hurricanes have seen since, maybe ever.
Regarding the last comment. Having those aforementioned prospects get valuable playoff experience was a dream for me and others. The better drafting led to better results for both clubs and watching the two go on their playoff runs last season has led to the brightest future the organization has had.
With regards to changing affiliations....4 in 20 years and 3 in the last 10...ok so...Vancouver told Chicago they were sending certain players to the Wolves and so Chicago didn't sign players to fill those spots and then Vancouver didn't send them and the Wolves had to scramble...not the best way to treat your affiliate.
St Louis...who by the way did pretty well last year with a number of players "developed" in chicago...can't seem to get out of their own way...they are on their 2nd affliation that has ended badly...the Wolves who told them they didn't want to be with them anymore after some things that went on...player personal decisions the Wolves werent happy about like bringing Ty Rattie back and sending him to Chicago to sulk...we know where he is now...
AND San Antonio who felt so strongly about the affliation that they sold the team out from under the Blues and didn't even tell them until 30 minutes before it was announced...not the signs of a really healthy relationship dont you think?
Fair enough, again, I can admit I'm wrong.
The blackhawks...well now there's an interesting but yet long story...there have been conversations between the 2 teams and the Wolves have rebuffed the hawks every time. It's pretty simple back when the Wolves were starting out in the early 90's the owner of the hawks tried to put the Wolves out of business because he saw them as a threat to his team. Because of his treatment of hawks fans. He told then Rosemont Horizen owners etc that if they allowed the Wolves to play there he would instruct his liquor distributorship to no longer service the building and was trying to get all the others to do the same. At one point during the "rivalry" the Wolves actually outdrew the hawks on a number of dates...including the now "infamous" sunday afternoon in march. ESPN came to chicago to do a featur on hockey in chicago...coincidently....both teams were taking on the florida organizations...the hawks the Panthers at 3 pm and the Wolves their then affiliate San Antonio at 4 pm...the Wolves granted ESPN access to the building etc...the hawks denied them any access inside the building...the Wolves also outdrew the hawks that day. relations between the 2 teams have never been friendly and only now are they "cordial" per say so affiliate... I'll never say never but I will say HIGHLY unlikely to ever happen. in fact one last "story"...during the lock in 05...then hawk Steve McCarthy planned on signing a deal with the Wolves to play that season and "stay in shape" per say...hawks owner bill wirtz found out about it and told McCarthy that if he wanted to play for the Wolves go ahead but he might as well sell his house in chicago because he would never play for the hawks again...McCarthy confirmed this story to me years ago when he finally did play for the Wolves. BTW McCarthy never played for the hawks again, he was in Vancouver in 05-06
I was not aware of this. Thanks for sharing that. It gives me a better insight to the situation.
Keep in mind Don Waddell has a long history with the Wolves ownership...a relationship that worked out very well and lasted 10 years and might still be had the team not been sold and moved to Winnipeg, a team that already owned a minor league team in the AHL...So this might also work out well.
Yep, I'm aware of the relationship. The thing is, it just catches me off guard because the Canes/Checkers are both finally starting to be successful at the same time, and the sport of Hockey is getting more attention in the state because of it. To me it's insanity that the two want to break it off, but that's their right. I also worry about the future of the game in Charlotte. Hockey is by far my favorite sport to watch and attend and the Checkers are much better entertainment for my dollar than the NBA and NFL teams here. I'm concerned that whoever moves in, be it Florida or whoever will decide to do what Vegas is doing w/ San Antonio and we may not see Hockey in the city again. I think the Hurricanes should re-consider what they are doing, but it's their right to make their own call.
Btw...one last thing...you mentioned Charlotte having Brown and Carrick playing...why were they playing? What was their purpose?
I brought that up because I figured you or whoever else would state the obvious and say "every team does this" or something, and we all know every team plays AHL contract players. But I'll give you the lowdown here. Mike Velluchi was the Checkers coach the last two seasons and he did an admirable job of balancing giving minutes to the two groups (Vets and prospects) and letting the younger guys work their way up the depth chart. That doesn't mean he got everything "right", but his line-ups were a dream for those of us who follow both teams. That contradicted Jeff Daniels whom I and many others thought was playing "favorites" and thus stunted the development of some players. He (Daniels) could coach to win but his development style wasn't working, although to be fair to him that wasn't all his fault as the Hurricanes drafts have gotten better in the past 4-5 years, and he wasn't always given the best hand. We never really got to know the two guys in-between (Mark Morris and Ulf Samuelsson) because they were only here for a season each, and the Hurricanes were deep in their rebuild.
Now with regards to Brown and Carrick, this goes back to Velluchi. We as Canes/Checkers fans didn't think those two guys and the others like them (the vets) were being given minutes that should have been going to the 21 y/os breaking into the AHL. With Daniels that wasn't always the case, and it hurt at the next level. So for me and everyone else, there was no problem with the vets being where they were in the lineup, everyone got to benefit and the guys who got called up looked the part when they did. And that's what we've been wanting for a long time with the two clubs, Calder Cup or not. Better development leads to better players and better chips to flip for trades.
