This will be my fourth season in the ECHL (my opinion might be a bit biased) and this is by far the coolest mascot I have seen in this league. The only problem is we don't have a name for him yet. The Road Warriors are having a contest to find his name, and you can find the entry form by going to our home page.
The mascot unveiling was the big event for the first part of the day, but I also want to share with you some cool information from later in the day. Like I mentioned in yesterday's post Coach Dean Stork returned to Greenville this morning after spending a few days attending the Hartford Wolfpack's and Adirondack Phantoms' training camps. More than a handful of Road Warriors are skating in those camps and Dean was kind enough to share with me his thoughts on what he saw.
On goalie Dov Grumet-Morris:
He said that Dov looked solid in helping Hartford pick up a 3-0 exhibition win over Albany last night. Alabama-Huntsville alum Cameron Talbot started and turned aside 10 Devils shots in the first period. Dean knows Dov well from the two seasons the Harvard product played in Cincinnati where Stork was an assistant coach. He likes Grumet-Morris' wealth of experience, and leadership abilities that go along with that experience. The netminder has won two professional championships (one in the CHL and one with Cincy in the ECHL) and Coach Stork believes he will be a very strong asset to the Road Warriors.
On the forwards:
The positives that Dean highlighted were that the forwards are a skilled bunch with good quickness and hands. This is most likely going to be a youthful, and talented, group to start the season. There might be an adjustment curve to not only new teammates, but also to the pro game. With some of the more veteran presence in goal (Grumet-Morris) and in the d-corps (T.J. Reynolds) will there be a forward that steps to the forefront to provide leadership? Someone I think worth keeping an eye on is Andrew Carroll. He led Charlotte with 30 goals last season and piled up 94 penalty minutes. If he can bring that same grit and scoring to the Road Warriors it will be a huge plus. I've also heard good things about Brendan Connolly impressing the folks in Hartford with his speed. I saw him play a few times with Elmira while I was in Johnstown and he is a burner. Also watch out for Mark Voakes. He was dinged up a bit last season, but notched 50 points as a senior in 08-09 with his Canadian University team. I think he's got the potential to be a point-per-game guy at this level.
On the defense:
This group is really going to help the Road Warriors shine this season. T.J. Reynolds, to me, is the leader of this group (and maybe the whole team). He's just a hard-nosed veteran who opposing forwards will hate playing against. I wouldn't be surprised to see him take some of the younger d-men under his wing and show them the ropes a little bit. The Warriors also seem to be set with a couple of top-notch power play quarterbacks in Julien Brouillette and Wes Cunningham. Both finished top-10 (Brouillette 10th and Cunningham 6th) among ECHL defensemen in scoring. They also know how to win. Brouillette (and Checkers teammate Reynolds) helped Charlotte finish as the top regular season team in the American Conference in 09-10 while Cunningham made two straight playoff appearances with the Elmira Jackals and won an OHL Championship with Plymouth in 2007. Coach Stork believes that the Road Warriors could have the most talented and deepest pool of defensemen in the league this season. And we're not even sure yet what players we'll receive fro the affiliates.
Tomorrow is a big day folks. We'll be announcing our training camp roster along with the other players that have been signed to contracts for this season. A vast majority of the players signed by the Road Warriors are still skating in AHL camps so we won't know for certain who all will be in attendance for the start of camp until after this weekend. Stay tuned, though, because developments will be coming quickly throughout the next few days, and I'll do my best to keep you all informed.
Only 21 days until the home opener!
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