Just got the word that Patrick O'Sullivan cleared waivers and will report to the Aeros in time for this weekend's set against the Grand Rapids Griffins. In his last regular season game for the Aeros, he recorded three assists in a 5-3 win at Iowa on April 16, 2006. Dan Ellis was the goalie that night for Iowa. Ha. Dan Ellis. In O'Sullivan's last-ever game as an Aero, he scored both goals in a shameful 4-2 loss to the Milwaukee Admirals. In all that, year, O'Sullivan scored 52 goals (regular season and playoffs) to set the franchise record in that category.Obviously the big elephant in the room is "So what is he going to do here now?" At 11 a.m. he got official word that no other team in the NHL wants him. And the Wild, already devoid of scoring and offensive creativity (unless you count Clutterbuck, who needs all that just TO score) have said some pretty mean (but true) things about him in recent weeks. I don't see him headed back up that way unless the Wild trade a bunch of players by the deadline and need bodies to play out the year.
I can pretty much see three possible scenarios playing out.
A) He plays for a bit and maybe signs to play in Europe or Russia.
B) He plays well in enough in Houston to get a call-up or two to Minnesota (This would be the best case scenario for Aeros fans.)
C) He spends the rest of the season in Houston (a la Mattias Weinhandl a couple of years ago) and parlays that into another shot with another team next year, or goes to Europe and makes good money tearing up the Swiss A League.
I have to be honest, although there is no way he wants to be here, I am kind of looking forward to how this plays out. No matter what, there are a few young players on the team that will watch how he handles this demotion. I'd like to think Sully is thinking about his future, and will do his best to make this work.
Corey Lock and Krys Kolanos were the last two players the Aeros had that were as good, offensively, as O'Sullivan.
We'll see what happens, eh?
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It really depends where his head is.
He could view this as an opportunity to market himself afresh and change things up a bit, or he could view this as his career being nearly over, so why the hell try.
He was quite promissing his rookie year here (fourty-five goals is Giroux territory). What happened? Injury? Just not able to translate to the NHL? Attitude?
Offensively, I just don't think he's had the tools around him in Edmonton, Carolina and Minnesota, to succeed. He had moderate success in Los Angeles, espcially for a second year player, a few years ago ... but he was not able to develop the "other" side of his game.
According to reports, he is not willing to take a beating in front of the net. But he was the fourth-leading scorer on the Kings back in 07-08 behind some guys named Kopitar, Frolov and Dustin Brown.
He is gifted, though, and should be able to average a point per game with all of the good situations (PP time) he'll get from Yeo.
In my post, I compared him to a Mattias Weinhandl. He was demoted to the Aeros for being too soft in the NHL and recorded 45 points (18 goals) in 48 games.
In O'Sullivan's last AHL stint, he had 39 points (18 goals) in 41 games with the Manchester Monarchs and then had another 17 points (8 goals) in 16 games during the playoffs. That was in 2006-07.
Well, I'm certainly not going to look a point-per-game in the mouth - as long he isn't a problem in the room, and no indication he is.
I feel bad for Sully but look forward to seeing him play again. I do think he can make it in the big dance if he's with the right team.
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