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Prospect Info: Hartford Wolf Pack (AHL)/Maine Mariners (ECHL) Thread: Part XI

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Seriously, the quality of the AHL coaching crew assembled has exceeded my expectations by a mile and then some. Love it. I bet that it took a lot of money, but that just shouldn’t be an issue.

This is step 1.

Step 2 is just as important and — nothing — has been done about it. And that is giving KK and co a — roster — to work with. I think many good players are in place, it’s not that. But we can’t expect a coach at this level to just get what’s thrown at him, decided by who we happened to have in the system from BPA drafting, and then make it work. From 4th line to 3rd D pairing to PP to PK a coach will require certain things. Kenny G was certainly not even remotely involved in roster decisions. He could watch a kid we signed for 5 minutes and decide to hate him.

The AHL is a competitive league. You need to do everything you can and then some — to be competitive. Under Kenny G we threw a total random roster at him and said BTW, don’t forget that you got a job because you are a company man so play exactly like the NHL Coach does in the NHL. The AHL is a different league than the NHL. The best skilled guys are in the NHL, many of the better checkers are in the AHL. No openings for them in the NHL. You will get a disaster result if you have an unrealistic plan how to play in the AHL combined with a poorly fitted roster for that plan.
 
GeorgeKaplan said:
I get that Hartford ended up being bad last season, but I’m still not seeing this narrative that the Rangers weren’t trying to make it better :dunno:
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Yeah, seriously. It's not like they don't sign high-caliber AHL players to help out. McCambridge, I have knocked him previously but he wasn't a bad hire. You can argue things like not having a full time goaltending coach was a problem, and maybe McCambridge needed some more seasoned help, but it's not like Hartford was neglected.

It wasn't until the mid part of this decade that they became a tire fire. And even then, 14-15 they were in the conference finals.
 
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GeorgeKaplan said:
What exactly are they doing differently that makes it seem like they didn’t care about Hartford before?
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Hiring much more staff? Aka investing much more money?

Also, to be clear... I don't think that this has always been the case during Sather's tenure. The focus was pretty good in Hartford during the mid-late 00s. It just seems to have slipped over the last several years.

In the article from The Athletic, Knoblauch says as much too.

“I think in the past the Wolf Pack haven’t been a priority – the development has been maybe neglected a little bit,” Knoblauch said. “But I certainly think the changes they’ve made the last few seasons, it’s becoming more of a priority.
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Tawnos said:
Hiring much more staff? Aka investing much more money?

Also, to be clear... I don't think that this has always been the case during Sather's tenure. The focus was pretty good in Hartford during the mid-late 00s. It just seems to have slipped over the last several years.

In the article from The Athletic, Knoblauch says as much too.
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But Knoblauch's quote addresses both issues--he says in the past maybe they weren't a priority, but that over the past few seasons, it's become a priority. The team was in the conference finals in 2014-2015, so what period of time is he referring to, then? We all know Gernander got stale, so you can point to a few years there where they probably should have made a move, but beyond that, IDK. I think they tried to make Hartford a good franchise. Maybe their attempts were misguided, but I never got the sense that they were neglecting things down there.
 
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Tawnos said:
Hiring much more staff? Aka investing much more money?

Also, to be clear... I don't think that this has always been the case during Sather's tenure. The focus was pretty good in Hartford during the mid-late 00s. It just seems to have slipped over the last several years.

In the article from The Athletic, Knoblauch says as much too.
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Ok, here’s where I think I miscommunicated, I don’t think Hartford has been neglected like some people are saying it has been the past season or so, even if the results were what they were.

As for the coaching staff, McCambridge was hired as a veteran AHL coach, with Drury only a few years into being a front office guy, and even earlier into his stint as Hartford’s GM, what we don’t know (or at least I’ve never seen any report on this) is whether they just refused to spend the money to hire the extra coach or if McCambridge preferred it with one assistant and Drury trusted/deferred to him.

But other than hiring one more coach, they’re doing exactly what they’ve been doing the past 2 years: they’re spending money to bring in AHL stars to lead the team, but still relying on rookie or inconsistent goaltenders
 
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GeorgeKaplan said:
Ok, here’s where I think I miscommunicated, I don’t think Hartford has been neglected like some people are saying it has been the past season or so, even if the results were what they were.

As for the coaching staff, McCambridge was hired as a veteran AHL coach, with Drury only a few years into being a front office guy, and even earlier into his stint as Hartford’s GM, what we don’t know (or at least I’ve never seen any report on this) is whether they just refused to spend the money to hire the extra coach or if McCambridge preferred it with one assistant and Drury trusted/deferred to him.

But other than hiring one more coach, they’re doing exactly what they’ve been doing the past 2 years: they’re spending money to bring in AHL stars to lead the team, but still relying on rookie or inconsistent goaltenders
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Yeah, and re: goaltending, they didn't have a dedicated goaltending coach. They brought on Raymond full time last season. They also have Malcolm doing stuff. So they tried to fix the goaltending problem (from an instructional perspective) pre-JD. Again, it wasn't being ignored. Allaire handled it all, all throughout the system. Hartford, to my understanding, was also not the only team without a dedicated goaltending coach. That's not to say that things couldn't be improved, but some of the articles I've read (mainly from bloggers) and the comments I've seen here make it sound like they were being run like the Danbury FHL franchise or something.
 
nyr2k2 said:
But Knoblauch's quote addresses both issues--he says in the past maybe they weren't a priority, but that over the past few seasons, it's become a priority. The team was in the conference finals in 2014-2015, so what period of time is he referring to, then? We all know Gernander got stale, so you can point to a few years there where they probably should have made a move, but beyond that, IDK. I think they tried to make Hartford a good franchise. Maybe their attempts were misguided, but I never got the sense that they were neglecting things down there.
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You can have something be neglected and become more of a priority, but still not be a high priority. I interpreted that as saying "until now, it wasn't a high priority, but it's needed to be with the changes they've made in the organization and now it is."

On-ice results do not indicate the level of priority or resources put into the AHL team with the purposes of maximizing their utility to the big club. They could be neglected as a farm team and still have on-ice success.

My impression so far is also that they're bringing in more developmental staff, as well as developmental staff that better fits the overall organizational goals. There's a difference between going out and saying "let's hire a developmental staff" and saying "let's really try to find the right people for us."

When you compare the approaches, from the little that we truly know about this stuff... the way it was previously seems much more like the appearance of trying, where now it seems like a true effort.
 
Pack preseason:

9/25 @ 7:00 PM vs. Springfield (at Danbury)
9/27 @ 1:00 PM vs. Bridgeport (at Trinity College)
9/28 @ 1:00 PM at Bridgeport

Season opener is 10/5 @ 7:00 PM vs. Charlotte, the defending Calder Cup champions.
 
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nyr2k2 said:
Pack preseason:

9/25 @ 7:00 PM vs. Springfield (at Danbury)
9/27 @ 1:00 PM vs. Bridgeport (at Trinity College)
9/28 @ 1:00 PM at Bridgeport

Season opener is 10/5 @ 7:00 PM Charlotte, the defending Calder Cup champions.
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Oh nice. I'll be there.

Wait, nope. Nevermind. The way that was written seemed like it was in Charlotte, but it's not.
 
Tawnos said:
You can have something be neglected and become more of a priority, but still not be a high priority. I interpreted that as saying "until now, it wasn't a high priority, but it's needed to be with the changes they've made in the organization and now it is."

On-ice results do not indicate the level of priority or resources put into the AHL team with the purposes of maximizing their utility to the big club. They could be neglected as a farm team and still have on-ice success.

My impression so far is also that they're bringing in more developmental staff, as well as developmental staff that better fits the overall organizational goals. There's a difference between going out and saying "let's hire a developmental staff" and saying "let's really try to find the right people for us."

When you compare the approaches, from the little that we truly know about this stuff... the way it was previously seems much more like the appearance of trying, where now it seems like a true effort.
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This all sounds like splitting hairs. Hartford has struggled since Drury has taken over but they haven't been the desolate wasteland that some people describe. They started upgrading the staff, they continued to sign 4A players both to NHL and AHL SPCs, they hired a decent coach in McCambridge, etc. Yes, now they have someone in charge who wants to make this close to priority one, which is great. But what Drury was doing before wasn't neglectful, again as some describe. That's really all I have to say on it. Happy with where it's headed, don't think it was as bad as people make it out to be.
 
nyr2k2 said:
This all sounds like splitting hairs. Hartford has struggled since Drury has taken over but they haven't been the desolate wasteland that some people describe. They started upgrading the staff, they continued to sign 4A players both to NHL and AHL SPCs, they hired a decent coach in McCambridge, etc. Yes, now they have someone in charge who wants to make this close to priority one, which is great. But what Drury was doing before wasn't neglectful, again as some describe. That's really all I have to say on it. Happy with where it's headed, don't think it was as bad as people make it out to be.
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Well no shit it's splitting hairs! Nuances make a big difference with this stuff.
 
I'm not sure Hartford had a ton of young talent to work with in recent years...most of it graduated pretty quick or was still really raw (Chytil, Andersson). Not a lot of young talented guy with a few years experience leading the way. Hopefully that'll change a bit her
 
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