Roster Turnover Big Part of AHL

By Dan Sernoffsky, Lebanon Daily News, Pa.

Oct. 23--When the puck dropped to open the American Hockey League season, the Hershey Bears were instantly regarded as one of the favorites to capture the 2009-10 Calder Cup championship.

No one is about to concede anything to the Bears, and any talk about championships in October is about six month premature. But there was no disputing the logic behind picking the Bears to become the first team since 1991 to win back-to-back championships -- in an era in which American Hockey League rosters generally see a 50 percent or higher turnover on an almost yearly basis, the fact that the Bears returned 19 players who were part of last season's Cup championship team bodes well, at least on paper, for a repeat.

Consider, after all, that the Bears did return a sizeable number of players from the 2006 championship team in 2007 but there were a number of key players who didn't come back. Still, the Bears did return to the finals before losing to Hamilton.

But the roster changes in Hershey simply point up the volitality of AHL rosters. Hershey's 2009 championship came just three seasons after the 2006 title but only three players on the 2009 roster, Dean Arsene, Chris Bourque and Graham Mink, had been regulars in 2006, and Mink left after 2006 before returning for the 2008-09 season. This season, just four seasons after the 2006 championship, none of the players on the 2009-10 Hershey roster were part of that team.

So what happened to the 2006 team? Eight members are in the NHL, Tomas Fleischmann, Eric Fehr, Mike Green, Boyd Gordon, Dave Steckel, Brooks Laich and Jeff Schultz with Washington, Bourque now with Pittsburgh. Eight more are in the AHL, Arsene in Springfield, Mink in Rochester, Lawrence Nycholat in Manitoba, Jared Aulin in Syracuse,Louis Robitaille in Lowell, Deryk Engelland in Wilkes Barre/Scranton, Mark Wotton in Bridgeport and Boyd Kane back in Hershey.

Six members of the team have retired as active players, Kirk Daubenspeck, Maxime Daigneault, Jeff State, Doug Doull, Jonas Johansson and J.F. Fortin. The remaining eight are now in Europe, including Frederic Cassivi (Austria), Joey Tenute (Germany), Jakub Klepis (Russia), Kris Beech (Switzerland), Owen Fussey (England), Martin Wilde (Italy), Colin Forbes (Germany), and Jakub Cutta (Czech Republic).

Hershey's 2006 championship came nine years after the Bears won their eighth title in 1997. This season, only five of the players who celebrated in Hamilton that year are still playing. Josef Marha is in his ninth season with Davos in Switzerland, Pascal Trepanier is playing for Alder Mannheim in Germany, Rob Shearer is with Linz in Austria, and Sinuhe Wallinheimo is with JYP in Finland. The biggest surprise? Wade Belak, a player known more an an enforcer than anything else, is playing for the Nashville Predators this season, his 14th NHL season. Belak has played in more than 500 games in the NHL and is closing in on 1,200 career penalty minutes.

COMINGS, AND GOINGS: Keith Aucoin barely had time to unpack after being returned to the Hershey Bears from his first recall by the Washington Capitals when he was called back up.

Aucoin and Alexandre Giroux, two-thirds of Hershey's No. 1 line, were both recalled by Washington Thursday. They will likely remain with the Caps through the weekend.

The week that was:

PLUS: LW Alexandre Giroux scores overtime goal to lift Bears to 3-2 win over Binghamton Saturday.

MINUS: C Andrew Joudrey part of penalty kill that allows first power-play goal of the season, also on ice for second Adirondack goal in 2-1 loss to Phantoms Friday.

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