Paul Albers signs with Nuremberg Ice Tigers

Got a tweet this morning that Paul Albers, my favorite fearless shot blocker, has signed with the Nuremberg Ice Tigers in Germany. Paul was an RFA heading into free agency but was not given a qualifying offer by the Wild.

Photo by Fred Trask

Here's sort of a clumsy-but-funny translation from the original German on the Ice Tigers site:

The 23-jährigen defenders Paul Albers of the Houston Aeros from the American Hockey League (AHL) obligated Thomas Sabo Ice of tiger. It receives an in annual contract.

The 1,86m large and 86kg heavy Canadians created 2007 the leap from the ECHL to the Aeros, the farm team of the NHL team Minnesota game. In the AHL completed it altogether 163 plays and can a balance of 9 gates and 24 Assists exhibit. Before it was with the Vancouver Giants in the Western Hockey League (WHL) the second-best Scorer of its team and belonged to the all star team of the Memorial Cups, the final round of the WHL.

Albers looks forward to the new challenge in Nuremberg: „I wanted to come to one time in my career in any case once to Europe. The fact that it folded this year already is the better. The DEL belonged to the best leagues of Europe and already brought some good players out. I am sure me that the larger ice surface of my fast play way and concomitantly my passport play will come to meet. “

Ice tiger manager Lorenz radio is glad that Albers decided for a change to Germany: „Paul Albers is considered as very talentiert and is with security a player for the future. “

Anyway, congrats to Paul. Sounds like an exciting adventure!
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BTW, totally off topic, but as I was looking for a photo of Paul to put in this post, I was combing through Fred's shots. Man, it really brings back some fun memories. Next time you've got an hour and are having a fit of hockey season nostalgia, click the Photos link in the Top Topics section of the right-hand column. You won't regret it.

Wild qualify 6 of 10 restricted free agents (updated)

As we've mentioned before, restricted free agents become unrestricted free agents and the team loses their rights to a player if they are not given a qualifying offer by the deadline, which was today.

Here's the list of players who were qualified, with Aeros bolded:

C Kyle Brodziak
LW Robbie Earl
G Josh Harding
RW Danny Irmen
LW Benoit Pouliot
D Clayton Stoner

The Wild did not make qualifying offers to:
D Paul Albers
LW Riley Emmerson
LW Dan Fritsche
LW Peter Olvecky

Not entirely surprising on any front, though I always liked Paul and will miss his fantastic shot blocking. I thought they might keep Olvecky around, but I guess the new regime doesn't see a fit. Will add more later if clarity around the decisions is made public.

On Wednesday, NHL free agency begins. It's also Canada Day and really the most exciting day of the off-season, typically. Though teams are so burdened with salary cap issues, it will be interesting to see what GMs can pull off with such constraints. I, for one, take the day off and just follow the flow of signings and trades like a kid at Christmas, but I'm kind of a dork for hockey. :)

UPDATE: From Russo's blog, it appears the goal is to keep Olvecky but avoid having to sign him to a one-way (NHL-only) contract.

About Pouliot, Fletcher said: “We’re excited to see where he is come training camp. He’s had his ups and downs along the road, but (new coach) Todd Richards is excited about seeing him in camp. We want to see if he can push his career forward, take the next step. It’s up to him, but we want to give him that opportunity.”

He said not qualifying Fritsche and Olecky was a roster “flexibility” issue. About Olvecky, Fletcher said making him a qualifying offer might possibly have “made him eligible for a one-way contract. We wanted to keep the option open of a two-way contract.” So, by not qualifying him, Fletcher said he still held out hope that he could reach agreement on a two-way deal and keep Olecky in the fold. Fletcher said it was important for the franchise to have as much financial flexibility as possible heading into free agency.

And of no particular consequence to the Aeros but might be of interest if you were a fan of his, John Lammers has not been qualified by the Dallas Stars organization, so he, too, will become a UFA on Wednesday.

Aeros vs Iowa 4/2 -- Photos

Let's start with some pre-game warm up shots. Here's a face we've not seen for a while, Barry Brust.
Due to call-ups and injury, we have the new face (one that has Ms C dreaming) of Rejean Beauchemin.
From the comments - On one side of Rejean's mask is guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine/Audio Slave/Nightwatchman etc and on the other side there (I don't have a good shot of that side) appears to be a tribute to a fellow hockey player Todd Davison who succumbed to cancer on 12/2/06. YouTube video of the Todd Davison story.


An old face is back, without a cage and just a little bit of bruising still visible, Mitch Love.
Unfortunately Barry Brust, coming back from a month long injury without the benefit of even a full team practice, had some rust and timing issues. Here the expression on Paul Alber's face says it all as the Chops score a soft goal 5-hole on their 2nd or 3rd shot of the night.
Mitch Love decides to tempt the nasal Gods with a pugilistic exhibition against one of the longest names in the AHL, Charlie Kronschnabel. His name goes from bicep to bicep on his jersey.
Barry had trouble all night with bouncing pucks and making clean saves. Clearly his timing was off and that was understandable, even if it was frustrating to watch.
A stunned Brandon Rogers has a look of disbelief as Barry had a bouncer "short hop" over the glove in the 2nd period. These things happen from time to time but the timing was awful.
Tomas Mojzis got the Aeros on the board in the 2nd period.
Jason Ryznar has a great chance in front as the shot gets in on J. P. Lavasseur. Ryz never seems to get the credit he should. He does a great job on the checking line and I think he has good enough hands to move up. In any case he does a great job in things that don't always get mentioned or show up on a stat sheet.
For the Tony Hrkac crowd, crank up the circus music as this was one pretty goal to tie the game at 2.
Unfortunately Benoit Pouliot takes a high sticking penalty not long after and Marco Rosa clears a puck into the stands taking a DOG penalty and giving Iowa a 5 on 3 chance that pays off as Brust never saw this one coming from Brian Salcido, through the screen.
At the end of the 2nd period (still down one man) Barry loses his mind and takes a poke at Iowa's Adrian Veideman. Fortunately Iowa's Brennan Evans drank from the same water and took a double minor for an attempted spear on Danny Irmen.
The Aeros were able to tie the game for a second time on this beautiful goal by Marco Rosa.
Unfortunately the Chops got the go-ahead goal and followed it with an empty netter to give the Aeros a 5-3 loss.
All Photos:Fred Trask

Aeros 3, Quad City Flames 1

Andrew and John covered the game well with their words. I would only add that the Aeros had many good chances to score, some on open nets, that they failed to capitalize on. If you want to take the "half-full" viewpoint that means they are doing good things and the goals will come.

I'll add a few photos to illustrate some points already made.

Here is the QC goal by Brandon Roach. It appeared that Schaefer may have been screened on the shot and it beat him glove side. I think it might have squirted between his arm and body or gone in off the outside of his arm.. You can see the puck as it is about to cross the goal line.

Here are a few shots of the Benoit Pouliot goal that tied the game at 1. This was a rocket from Pouliot that beat Irving stick side and came right back out of the net on the glove side. Great pass from Schultz. What you don't see is the Aeros had great spacing on this one. Schultz was coming up the middle with Pouliot on his left and Locke was coming hard on the right. Irving had to respect all 3 and I think the spacing on this play really helped to open the spot for Benoit who nailed it.

Add a little head rub from Jesse Schultz and you have a pretty nice goal to tie the game.

Kolanos had another goal that was in and out in a hurry. Here you see a dejected Irving with the puck already out of the net and Kolanos doing his fist pump.

Matt Beaudoin celebrates with Kolanos

Nolan Schaefer had some big saves on the night.

Here are a few shots of one example of the kind of "near misses" the Aeros had. In this one Kris Kolanos had a fantastic wrap around chance in the third period. Corey Locke is tied up out front and Leland Irving has no chance on the play. Unfortunately Kolanos was not able to get it to go in and is sailed through the crease.

Here is your first star - Krys Kolanos

And your second star - Benoit Pouliot

I'll throw in a Paul Albers celebration too. Lost in the 6-1 debacle vs Rockford was an awesome goal from Paul Albers. Here is the celebration of the goal with Matt Kassian and Mitch Love swooping in for a group hug.


All photos : Fred Trask