The Komets announced Thursday that three more players have been added to the preseason roster with 40 days remaining until camp opens on the 60th anniversary season of Komet Hockey.
Added were goaltender Kevin Beech, right winger Bobby Chaumont and rookie forward Eric Yngwe.
Beech, who turns 25 this month, has appeared the past four seasons in the CHL. The netminder was a sixth-round draft choice by Tampa Bay in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft and made his pro debut with Springfield posting a 3.13 goals-against average in six games at the end of the 2006-07 AHL season. Beech will be entering his fifth full season as a pro. He has appeared the past four seasons in the CHL serving stints with Laredo, Youngstown, Mississippi, Corpus Christi and, last year, Texas and Wichita. The Brantford, Ontario native has an overall CHL goals-against average of 2.71 and a save percentage of .901 during his four-year CHL career.
Chaumont, 26, will be entering his sixth pro season and fourth in the CHL. The right winger skated CHL stints with Laredo (2006-07) and Mississippi (2008-09, 2009-10) before electing to travel to Europe last season and appearing in 54 games with Braehead posting a team fourth-best 53 points (22 goals, 31 assists). During his CHL career, Chaumont has registered 75 goals and 159 points in 177 games.
Yngwe, 23, hails from Sweden and will be looking to start his pro career with the Komets. The 6-foot, 3-inch, 212-pound forward was a prospect at the Komets' tryout camp at the World Hockey Centre in Toronto this past summer attended by Komet head coach Al Sims. Yngwe has skated the past two seasons with Alvesta, division 2, in Sweden, accumulating 16 goals and 31 points during his two year stint of 53 games.
Comments
Chaumont and Beech look to be solid additions. The good thing about Chaumont that even after 5 pro seasons he is still not a veteran. And obviously he's played in the CHL before so he knows the lay of the land and what to expect.
I'm kind of thinking the same thing, Y2K.
Let's see who else the Franke's will bring in as Bouchers backup. I've got a feeling their may be some solid goaltenders available after all the cuts are made from various league camps.
Bobby Chaumont appears to be a nice addition. Seems like he knows what to do with the puck. I'm not only impressed by his goal totals but also his assist totals. I think he's a very encouraging signing. I'm going to have a wait-and-see attitude, however. I still rmemeber CHL scorers like Jason Sessa who had great stats, and a blistering shot, but left the team.
I thought Yngwe had already signed a contract. I thought he and Fredric Kordner had both been added to the pre-season roster. Does the wording of this mean that both Kordner and Stanislov Dzakhov will not be here for the camp?
Pleased with this.
Luke Warm on these signings. JMO.
Looks like a steady decline in Beech's stats and he has played on a lot of teams in a short time.
Chaumont looks good. To me though, we have a roster full of this guy right now. Which is ok. A 20 goal scorer with consistant numbers over his 5 year career and still a tweener. This is OC basically. Which is ok. I am good with this sigining.
My only problem at this point....where are our topline players?
We might have 2 topliners right now, both are lifelong Centers...they will be great passing the puck back to one another, but you really need 2 topline scoring wingers...in my opinion.
Who are those 2 topline scoring Wingers?
I could go with Chaulk and Smith on the topline...as long as they have a 35-40 goal scorer up front with them. I think Chaulk is good for 20 goals and 45 assists. Smith probably close to the same in a perfect world. Really need a thumper up front to pound the puck home. I don't see him yet.
We have alot of 2nd and 3rd liners going to kill one another in camp for 6-8 spots as it seems.
The Defense should be solid offensively and defensively as well as special teams go too.
Goaltending is a question mark to me. Boucher is a #1. Once we get the 3rd guy to camp, then we will see how it shapes up.
To me, we are a Big Goal Scoring Wing away from being solid from top to bottom.
Will they go get that guy?
Again IMO, we are looking like Mudbugs North with the way this team is being put together.... One 35 goal guy and a bunch of guys who can potentially put up 20-25 goals... Alot of guys falling into that 50-70 point range.
I think they are banking on either PC or Thomas being that 35 goal guy with a comeback season....
Solid defense and solid goaltending....
Nothing flashy, just out work the other team, kinda fly under the radar and be set up nice for playoff hockey...
Quad City Mallards have signed Justin Chwedoruk.
I agree with Hit Somebody!!! that the K's still need a couple of snipers. The Chaumont signing is the most positive signing (forwards) that has been announced for a while. Two more really would make for three complete lines. They still need to sign someone who can cause trouble in front of the goaltender. Maybe that will come from one of the kids.
Mightbite said "big Komet news the week of September 8th". I hope that the news will sew everything up once and for all.
My only question would be this:
Do you put Leo on the topline with Chaulk and Smith making 3 centers on that line, or do you put PC on that topline.
Honestly, as it sits now, I put APOD on the topline and roll the dice and try to load up a 2nd line and 3rd line of guys like you say could chip in 20 goals each.
I just hope we aren't saying the samething around Christmas time again this season...which is....they should have gone and got a stand in front of the net scoring winger. It takes alot of pressure off the whole team if you have that guy who will plant himself infront of the net and pound all night long and get garbage goals and beautys too with the passing we will have on the top line. You fill that slot with a scoring beast, and then guys like APOD can skate the other team's to death on a second line and might sneak in 25 or 30 goals.
I am just thinking out loud.....really, the roster looks good. And there are going to be some battles in camp this year as long as they keep to their word.
Maybe they are looking for a in between guy that falls out of a NHL camp that could play in the ECHL, but the Komets tell him come to FW and you can play on the topline in front of 7000+ a night and we can get you on a 2-way with an AHL team.
It could work. An Aquino type situation would be ideal.
There might be a surprise like that coming. None of us saw the Aquino thing coming, and it was a nice surprise watching him score alot of goals.
Looks to me like Beech could be a solid #2 guy. Decent stats. Chaumont looks decent enough too. But I gotta agree with everyone here. It would be nice to see that 1 guy who you know is going to get his 30-35 goals a year that everyone on the other team is always going to look for to see where he is on the ice. Or actually I would be just as happy if they were able to bring Syro out of retirement and let him park his rear in front of the net. JMO
But I like these signings and I think the roster is coming together nicely.
One thing that keeps pinging here. We arent paper champs by no means. Look at who should have won last year. Just because a player has 100pts ever season doesnt mean he'll have 100pts with 3 other players. Impossible. You need chemistry and sacrifice roles. 3-4 players on this roster are going to be good if not great as compared to their peers on other teams. Around xmas, ok, its fair to break down what the Franke's are doing and we may analyze who made the mistakes(s). IMO, its time we knock off the judging. What paper champs did we sign 2002-2003 season? What paper champ scorers were on the mudbugs last year? Its how these players play on a team together. No bragging rights if we miss the playoffs but had 3 players who scored 30 plus goals. Lame.
The thing that worries me about Beech is that his goals against average and save percentage have both been going in the wrong direction the last two seasons....
Orange Koolaid.....
No one is saying paper champs.
They are saying give us one proven scorer at this level. A SYRO type guy, a Ulanski type guy, not a team full of them.
We have a team full of role players as it looks now.
You add that one guy who can stand in front of the net and take punishment and dish it out as well and score goal, it makes the whole team better, and it defines everyone's roles alot easier.
The one role player we still need, Big Strong, or even Short Strong guy that can take out the garbage in front of the net.
Maybe there is a young guy on the roster that fills that role....we shall see.
That is the one spot that is a question mark.
And Our topline is not complete yet.
I think the problem is that there are none of those guys out there. The Komets talked to Ulanski and they talked to Wes Goldie and everybody else who was available/open to talking whatever, and they all decided to stay where they are at -- except for Robinson who went to Evansville under special circumstances.
Go through all the ECHL, CHL scoring lists, and there aren't those guys out there any more. I talked to almost all of them this summer who werent' already under contract. There weren't that many of them.
There are no more Jim Duharts, Frank Littlejohn, Robin Bouchards out there in minor league hockey any more. The closest is probably Chad Woollard. Everybody wants a 40-goal scorer and they don't seem to make them any more.
That means the Komets and other teams have to work hard on those NHL affiliations, which are almost always guys no one has heard of before.
I am anxious to see Hit's updated lines. Should be fun.
Blake, with all due respect, I'm a little confused.
A few weeks ago you gave the impression that players of this magnitude were out there, just playing a waiting game to see what the market would bear, and we should have patience with the system and let things sort themselves out. Now you are saying that ALL have been talked to and ALL are going to stay put?
Which is it? As I said, I'm a little confused.
Off the subject a little bit. May have already been brought up or talked about, but how may teams make the playoffs this year. Does anyone know what is Garrett Klotz status for this year? Big guy, garbage goals, takes punishment & will drop the gloves if needed. Put him in front of the net or on the power play. If I remember right, think he scored a hat trick against us last year, might be worng. What about James DeLory from the Mudbugs? Just a thought.
Alan, I'm not going to play your games because then you'll just change the question. You were also the one who said I was dead wrong when I said Robinson would sign with Evansville.
Try to find someone out there who has scored 40 goals and see if they are free agents. There are only like five players out there who have done it, and none of them are free agents because they all re-signed with their old teams. The Komets talked to most of them, and the players decided to stay where they were.
In this, Snuff is right, it's time to move on to younger players.
Drop, I know only 8 teams make the playoffs this year. As far as Klotz, I think he is signed elsewhere already.
Thanks KK
If I put together lines at this point, I would leave some people off that still have a chance to make the team. I think I will hold-off until I have seen some of these guys play, then I will put together lines. I do have a good idea who the topline will be.
Chaulk, Smith, Apod.
I would agree with top line so far. The other 2 should be interesting to see how they play out. Should be good competition in camp this year. Also looking forward to "Big" news the week of the 8th according to Mightbite.
I dont see them putting both Smith and Chaulk on the same line... Their both 'feild general' type players....
Hit....You need to keep the line like the off -ice guys do, Some nights Al puts everyone of them with everyone else. If you actually didn't write them done you haven't a clue what line is where. Some games we are astounded at just how many combinations there can end up being.
I dont understand how Alan is playing any games with his question. I was wondering the same thing as he is. You said one thing and got on people for being impatient, then a few weeks later you pull a complete 180 on your opinion and go the "they just dont exist" route. What is the harm in his question?
I agree RK, I thought Alan asked a legitimate question...
I do agree with going younger though... create the next crop of Komets favorites... If its a tie in camp between guys like Thomas and Drouin versus two younger players, I would like to see them go with the youth...
Dennis.....dont get us started on the revolving door line combos...that could end up in the 200 posts range...lol
Don't go changing the questions.. You don't even know the answers. You can't handle the answers!
I am not going Krazy, I read Franke when he said Smith is Venedam....and Chaulk and Venedam were on the same line.
We have so many Centers, there might be 2 or 3 on every line.
The way linesmen like to throw people out of faceoffs it isn't a bad idea to have more than one center per line.
see this is "stressful" this was announced with out me knowing it first :(
I hope on opening night that Makaway & Sgroi beats the **** out of the Komets, this would be great, to show Al Sims that he does not know how to use a "tough guy" :)