Trying To Understand The Clear Day Roster, Part The Second

As you might recall from my post the other day, I was a bit puzzled by some of the Clear Day Roster decisions made by the Aeros. Specifically the addition of Tony Hrkac to the team and the failure to add Jason Ryznar to that roster. So I took a little time after the loss to Quad City last night to ask Kevin Constantine about some of the thinking that went into the creation of the roster.

The primary thinking behind the roster involved which players were contracted to which team. Constantine said that looking “at the 22-man list, the first thing that you’ll recognize is that every single Minnesota Wild contract is on it. That’s probably the first basis.”

John Lammers, Mitch Love, Matt Beaudoin, Jason Ryznar, and Bryan Lundbohm are not under a contract with the Wild, so decisions had to be made on this basis. “A player that is under contract to the Wild is going, in general, to carry a slight priority over other guys. After that, there was room to put a couple of guys on.”

And anybody who has spoken to Constantine knows that, just as Mitch Love has become a favorite of the fans, he has also become a favorite of the coaching staff. The coaches like having Love on the ice because he doesn’t make mistakes, he hits, he doesn’t mind the dirty work, and he brings energy to the team and the fans. So in many ways, the decision for Constantine and the staff was an easy one.

“The number one guy that we felt deserved to go on there was Mitch Love because of the sacrifices that he makes,” Constantine said. “It’s not easy to be a guy who defends a team…Mitch has done that all year. He earned the right to be on the permanent list.”

Tony Hrkac is on the list because he has to be on the list. That was the only way the Aeros could sign him, “So,” according to Constantine, “that was a necessity.”

That left one spot, and the staff went Matt Beaudoin over Lammers and Ryznar because of the role he’s played on the team’s power play, and Constantine didn’t want to screw around with what has been one of the team’s high spots.

“At the end of the day,” he said. “You run out of numbers.”

But Constantine made it clear that Ryznar and Lammers will continue to see lots of ice time with the team, especially with Peter Olvecky and John Scott up in Minnesota. “The list means less in reality than it does on paper,” he said. And with the expectation of more players being called up to help Minnesota to help them as the season comes to an end. Lammers has been playing, and Ryznar has been out due to an illness, but Constantine felt that he should be healthy enough to return to play tonight against San Antonio.

As for Hrkac, Constantine isn’t sure about what they’re going to get.

“I don’t know,” he says. “I hope we get a bit of the player he was for twenty years when he played the game. Because he was a pretty talented guy….we hope that there’s still a little of that magic left.”

Constantine expects before the season that the Wild will call up Benoit Pouliot or Corey Locke or Krys Kolanos. When this happens, Constantine is hoping that Hrkac, “a very gifted guy,” can provide the team with depth at the skill position and on the power play.

And he was a risk worth taking because he’s not costing the team anything. They don’t lose a draft pick, nor did they have to trade a player.

Hrkac isn’t expected to join the team until Sunday, and he won’t play until next weekend against Peoria at the earliest.


File photo of Mitch Love courtesy of Fred Trask