By Tom Witosky | AHL On The Beat Archive   Take one look at 6-foot, 8-inch Iowa Wild defenseman Joe Finley and the question arises immediately.   Why hockey and not basketball?   After all, Finley’s father, Ray, is a highly successful girls high school basketball coach in Minnesota. His older sister, Kelly, got an […]

By Don Laible/Mark Caswell, Jr. | AHL On The Beat Archive   In a game played two days into the New Year, the Utica Comets roster is barely recognizable from the memorable 2015 Western Conference Championship roster. Nine of the twenty names written down by head coach Travis Green on the official roster sheet are […]

By Bob Crawford | AHL On The Beat Archive   Veteran forward Jack Combs has already made a couple of trips back and forth this season between the Hartford Wolf Pack, with whom he signed an AHL contract August 5, and the Pack’s ECHL affiliate, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits. That’s nothing, however, compared to what […]

By Lindsay Czarnecki | AHL On The Beat Archive   What a difference a year makes.   Gone are the Jordan Weals, the Nick Shores, the Colin Millers.   In are the Nic Dowds, the Justin Augers, the Kevin Gravels.   The Los Angeles Kings’ affiliate in Ontario, California, is harboring second-year AHL talent and […]

By Christopher Forman and Kevin Zalaznik | AHL On The Beat Archive   No one quite knew where to place the Albany Devils in the preseason rankings. Although Head Coach Rick Kowalsky was back behind the bench and much of the leadership was the same, there were still a lot of new faces–in the front […]

By Nick Hart | AHL On The Beat Archive   Some days after the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins practice, music can still be heard blasting throughout the hallways of the Toyota SportsPlex at Coal Street. Practice ended over an hour ago, and most players have cleared out of the room, yet the music blares on. That’s because […]

By Jason Pearson | AHL On The Beat Archive   Grand Rapids Griffins’ rookie defenseman Robbie Russo always seems to make productive use out of the opportunities presented to him. The 22-year-old Illinois-native has traveled the world playing hockey and is well on his way to realizing his National Hockey League aspirations, but accompanying him […]

By Evan Stockton | AHL On The Beat Archive   Put yourself, for a moment, in the shoes of Matthew Peca. You’re a bright-eyed 21-year-old forward who has just completed his senior season at Quinnipiac University (Connecticut), having posted your fourth straight season of 30 points or more. You were picked in the seventh round […]

By Alex Thomas | AHL On The Beat Archive   If you’re looking for the good spots in an American Hockey League city, you might want to ask Springfield Falcons forward Jon DiSalvatore about them. On Friday, December 11th, the veteran skated in his 800th career AHL game—no small feat.   A career that started […]

by Marc Ciampa | AHL On The Beat Archive Note: This is an excerpt from a story that originally ran on EdmontonOilers.com on Dec. 20, 2015  Nobody has more fun.   That’s the marketing slogan of the Bakersfield Condors. But it’s more than just a slogan. It’s a guideline for minor-league hockey in the Southern […]