The 2009/2010 season for the Rochester Americans is finally upon us. It seems as if everyone from youth hockey all the way up to the NHL has started except for the Amerks. The Amerks will open training camp on Thursday morning from 10am – Noon at the ESL Centre.
The camp roster is supposed to be released at some point during the day on Wednesday September 23rd. I’ll have it posted here later in the evening. If you don’t want to wait you can obviously keep an eye on Amerks.com all day for the roster. If you’re on Twitter you can follow @letsgoamerks and you’ll be notified when it’s available.
Some players that are expected to be at camp outside of the already signed players include: Ross Carlson, Mike Sgroi, Trevor Gillies, Cleve Kinley, and Lee Jubinville (more info below).
In case you missed the exciting summer of news you can get a recap here, “Amerks Summer News Stories, Getting Caught Up.”
The Florida Panthers are expected to make their roster cuts on Wednesday or Thursday as they return to Florida after a lengthy travel schedule for the preseason. The Panthers are heading to Finland to finish their preseason and start there regular season so we should get back a lot of players earlier than normal. The team is allowed to bring 24 players and an additional goalie. That extra goalie will be either Tyler Plante or Alexander Salak. My bet would be on Salak.
A couple other players that we’re familiar with expected to make the trip will be Shawn Matthias and Michal Repik. Based on reports from the Panthers camp it sounds as if Matthias has earned himself a full time job with the Panthers. Some fans in Rochester would be happy if he never played for the Amerks again. Jeff Taffe is a third player that could be going along for the trip.
The defensive duo of Keaton Ellerby and Jason Garrison will likely end up back in Rochester as well. The Panthers 2009 first round draft pick Dmitry Kulikov has been having a great preseason with the team. He is currently working out visa issues so he can travel to Finland. It’ll be interesting to see what happens with the 19 year old.
The Panthers heading to Finland should help the Amerks out with players being returned earlier than usual. Typically more players remain with the big club to get more experience and show off to the coaches and management what they’re worth.
The Florida Everblades recently signed Lee Jubinville, a Princeton graduate and former Ivy League Player of the Year. Jubinville will be attending the Amerks camp trying to make an impression for the down the road if a callup is needed. I’ll be honest in saying I’m not familiar with the level of play in the Ivy League but he put up some good numbers. From NaplesNews.com:
Jubinville also became Princeton’s first-ever nominee for the prestigious Hobey Baker Award, college hockey’s most accomplished player. The 5-foot-10 forward was consistent in scoring, recording goals in 20 out of 22 league games, including nine multiple-point efforts. With 12 goals and 27 assists, he nearly quadrupled his freshman year stats of 10 points.
Last season, he was ranked third on his club in scoring, netting 10 goals and 11 assists for 21 points, including the game-winning goal against Union College in the opener of the ECAC quarterfinals.
Jubinville graduated this year with a career 131 games played, 36 goals and 63 assists for a total of 99 points.
I’ll be at camp all morning on Wednesday posting updates here as well as talking to the coaches and as many of the players as possible. If there’s every a story you’re interested in or a question to be asked simply let me know.
