Meet Your 2010-11 Aeros: Nate Prosser

Nate Prosser
Defense

Born: 5/7/1986 (24)
Elk River, MN
6'2" 210

Shoots: Right

Prosser is another in the handful of college free agents the Wild picked up earlier in the year as he just finished his senior year at Colorado College.

He's a big fella and has a decent touch for setting up goals, having put up solid assist numbers throughout his career. According to this article from the Wild, he's a mean cuss gritty player who can provide that all-important physical spark.

One of the things the Aeros really lacked in last year's roster was that spark, so he if can provide that while playing a solid defensive game, he's going to be a grand addition to the team.

As I recall, he had a solid pro debut with the Wild at the end of last season, and being a Minnesota boy, he's fired up to play for the local club. But I don't think he's at the top of the depth chart. He's almost surely behind Scandella at the moment, but there's loads of opportunity for that to change. My point being, I would expect him to be sporting the bomber instead of the... "wild thing"... most of the season. Go ahead and get attached.

And if he regularly comes to the defense of his goalie like this, I know I will:

Also, according to Russo, Wild d-man Brent Burns nicknamed him 'Stiflemeister' thanks to his uncanny resemblance to actor Seann William Scott who played Stifler in the American Pie movies (and is also a Minnesotan, for what that's worth). Thanks to http://gocctigers.blogspot.com for the side-by-side comparison.

Houston Aeros/West Division Season Preview

Tonight the Aeros' regular season gets into full swing with the first of three games in three nights. Last weekend was just a tease as the Aeros essentially played a tune-up or glorified preseason game against an OKC team that was fully together for just the second time.

On the record, I think OKC gets their first-ever win tonight, tomorrow is a toss-up as Peoria is the most talented team in the division ... and then on Sunday, the Aeros improve to 1-1 both at home and against the Barons this season.

Matt Hackett goes tonight and suffers a tough loss, a rusty Anton gets drilled tomorrow night and for the sake of getting him some work, I think Mike Yeo has to play Anton again Sunday in what I think will be a win.

As for the rest of the season? Well, to be fair, and I say this every year, you need to see the team 20-25 games before you really know what they are about and what they can be capable of. We know this team is younger, more aggressive team with a new system. But as it has been pointed out before, they did not add any major AHL upgrades when it comes to scoring.

They are going to rely on Jon DiSalvatore's 20-22 goals, Warren Peters' 30-35 assists and the netminding of Anton and Hackett. What they hope to get is breakout years from guys like Joel Broda, Petr Kalus and Robbie Earl.

Who knows, right? Maybe Yeo comes in, changes the entire culture and Hackett ends up the rookie of the year. If that happens, I can see the Aeros not only making the playoffs, but being a serious contender, too.

I think there is hope, and I don't think Yeo is to let anyone off the hook as far as taking a random night off because they don't like being in Houston instead of St. Paul. Or using a ton of excuses about having to play a ridiculous number of three games in three nights.

But here is what worries me.

The Aeros don't have any, not a one, elite AHL player on their roster. There are other teams in the West that have essentially bought a playoff spot. The Aeros have spent the least amount of money in the entire Western Conference on salary, and if you look back at AHL champs of old, you commonly see teams with a mix of AHL snipers and talented rookies. (Excluding Chicago, who often does not even need talented rookies.)

On paper, Peoria, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Chicago are better teams that the Aeros. I think the Aeros, Milwaukee and Texas will be fighting for a playoff spot. The least talented team in the division is the Rockford IceHogs, and even they spent some money (nearly $2,000,000) and could be a factor when teams start calling up players because of injuries, etc.

Who IS going to carry the weight when injuries happen and when guys get called up? It's the guys you spend some bucks on to play at a high level in the AHL (see Darren Haydar, Alex Giroux, Corey Locke and Joel Perrault).

Here is a chart from another blog that has a wonderful breakdown of what all the AHL teams in the West spent for their teams. It will be interesting to see, at the end of the year, what all this money did or did not do for them.

(Thank you Copper and Blue for the information!)

The Aeros are one of three teams who do not have a $200,000 dollar player.

The Chicago Wolves have a total of 12 (!!!) who make more than $100,000. The Aeros have four.

Just roll that around.

To be fair, I think Jim Mill did a very good job of putting together a decent roster with just $1.4 million. But we'll see how that translates in mid December, when we should have a decent indication of where the Aeros will be come March.

Predictions are meaningless this time of year, but if someone put a gun to my head and told me to give them an order of finish for the AHL west this year, this is how I would go:

Peoria

Chicago

San Antonio

Milwaukee

Houston (gets in as No. 5 team)

Oklahoma City

Texas

Rockford

One of my colleagues that covers the West has this as his predicted order of finish for the West:

Chicago
San Antonio
Oklahoma City
Peoria
Houston
Texas
Milwaukee
Rockford

And then Patrick Williams of The Hockey News has this as his AHL West rankings:

Chicago

San Antonio

Peoria

Oklahoma City

Milwaukee

Rockford

Texas

Houston

As you can see, there is a fair amount of consistency at the top, and not so much after that. Patrick is a bit more biased toward the North Division and Eastern Conference and he must have done these rankings before Rockford sold the farm. I can see several scenarios where Texas might get in ahead of the Aeros or even Milwaukee, but that is because of Brent Krahn. The Stars lost a ton of their mojo (with four of their key players either joining San Antonio (3) or Houston (1). Crazy.

Again, it's WAY to early to make a good prediction, but I think the Aeros will be good enough to squeak in as the cross-over. I think they will be playing Rochester or Manitoba in the first round of the playoffs, so that would be kind of neat.

What are your thoughts? What do you think of the Aeros going into their 17th season in Houston?

Meet Your 2010-11 Aeros: Casey Wellman

Casey Wellman
Center

Born: 10/18/1987 (22)
Brentwood, CA
6'0" 173

Shoots: Right

We kept putting off writing about Wellman because, gosh, the Wild just love this guy. They want him up in Minnesota, but they also want him playing meaningful minutes, and if there's not room for him to do that in MN, then they said he's going to be in Houston where he can.

Soooo, don't get too attached because I suspect if there's an injury among the top 6 in Minnesota, he's headed north. Plus, the Wild are in a cap pinch and he's able to be moved up and down without waivers, so they may be doing that a lot to manage the numbers.

Wellman was one of the first college kids picked up by the "new" Wild, just finishing up his sophomore year at UMass-Amherst, and was one of the most highly sought after undrafted college players this off-season. And he's lived up to the hype having played very well in his jump to the pro ranks.

Of all the guys that were on the bubble, he's the one I'm most excited to see drop to Houston. While he's here, he should be able to Make Shit Happen and that's exactly what the Aeros need.

Also, he's just looks like a nice boy, doesn't he? I'm warm to him already.

Meet your 2010-11 Aeros: Marco Scandella

Marco Scandella
Defense

Born: 2/23/1990 (20)
Montreal, Quebec
6'2" - 190

Shoots: Left

Scandella is the Wild's 2nd round pick from 2008 and we've seen him here a bit after his junior seasons have finished the last two seasons. Expectations are high for Marco and he seems to have fulfilled them thus far in the eyes of the Wild. I've heard nothing but good things about him coming from prospect camps and tournaments.

I've been somewhat skeptical, because he seemed lost at times during his stints with the Aeros, but maybe that's just me being a jerk. No matter how good you are, it's a jump to the pros, and especially at defense where mistakes show up on the scoreboard almost as glaringly as for goalies. So now he'll get his chance to jump into a fresh batch of players, and not a team that's been gelling (or, like last year, NOT gelling) all season.

Couple of things on Marco:

• He got a little break last season to the tune of 15 games for just about taking some poor kid's head off in an open ice hit. No big deal.
• He played on the Canadian team in the World Juniors Championship in January that took home the silver. 
• He's a shutdown defenseman, but can put up a few points.
• He won both the fastest skater and hardest shot (95 mph) at the Aeros skill competition.

I'm eager to see him play now that he's all ours and not just visiting at the end of the season. I think he's been in enough pressure situations and had enough tastes of the pro game to come in with a knowledge of where he needs to be and what he needs to do to succeed. He's progressed his game every year and is pretty sturdy, so I think he can be a great asset as long as Minnesota lets us keep him. 

Also, I promise not to call him the Italian Stallion all season. Maybe.

Aeros In The Mothership

For any of you who are interested, I went out to SLICE yesterday and spoke Mike Yeo, Matt Hackett, and Brandon Rogers. You can read some of their thoughts here.

So Guess Who Went To Aeros Practice Today

Spent some time up at SLICE this morning as the guys practiced. And I've got a few notes and observations to share as the team preps for its first of many three-in-three's this season.

First: Matt Hackett will get the start in Oklahoma City on Friday night. Anton Khudobin will get the Saturday start at the home opener. Sunday's starter is to be determined, though Mike Yeo is saying that he hopes to have a rotation kind of system going for the first part of the year.

Second: the team is busing up to Oklahoma City tomorrow and returning by bus on Friday night/Saturday morning directly after the game. But whereas Kevin Constantine liked to put the team up in the Courtyard Marriott by Toyota Center on these kind of occasions, the team is instead returning to Sugar Land and will spend the time in their own beds before heading up for Toyota Center.

Third: I'm getting old. I couldn't believe how young Hackett looked as I talked to him -- read the mothership tomorrow for more on that.

Fourth: The guys did look like they were having more fun on the ice, and there was some excitement around them that I didn't see last season. Once again, check the mothership on that tomorrow as I talked to Brandon Rogers about that.

Fifth: Speaking of Rogers, he's number 38 this season.

Sixth: I was freezing at SLICE this morning, which means they must have fixed the compressor.

27th out of 30?

The Hockey News came out with their AHL team rankings today and the Aeros did not fare well in the eyes of their AHL expert.

To Patrick's credit, I suspect this was written prior to all the business going down with Theodore being signed and Khudobin coming back to Houston once the Wild return from Finland.

I think Khudobin/Hackett is a stronger tandem than Hackett/Tordjman, but it's true that a lot does rest on this and it's not so big a difference as to negate his point. The Wild didn't exactly open the wallet to get the Aeros some top notch offensive help, so it will have to come from within.

And seeing how bad the Wild are thus far, I wouldn't be surprised to see them give some chances to guys down here who are playing well.

What do you think of the ranking? Fair or foul? How jacked for the season does that get you? :)

Aeros Poised For Liftoff

My latest post on the Aeros is up over at the mothership. I talk with Mike Yeo about goalies, about his and the staff's enthusiam for the season. So go it a read.

Aeros On The Radio

The Aeros announced yesterday that their games will be returning, once again, to 1070. There will be 78 games on the radio this season, and nothing was mentioned about any of the games being joined in process, which happend on occasion last season.

David, Kaip to join Bakersfield

Two recently-released Aeros hopefuls will join the Bakerfield Condors.

JF David and Rylan Kaip, who played for the Chicago Wolves last year, will spend at least the first part of the season in California.

Here is the press release.