Saturday, September 15

As I write this, barring a last-minute save later tonight, it appears that the NHL lockout is inevitable. To call it unfortunate would be an understatement. I won’t give my analysis of the dispute, you can read that elsewhere, but I find it hard to believe that either side is allowing this to happen. The NHL has made some real traction in recent years in terms of popularity, but both sides are apparently willing to risk how a lockout will affect the NHL fan base.

With the deadline of the CBA approaching, teams have begun reassigning prospects and young NHL veterans to the AHL. Not that it really means anything, likely every eligible player will be sent back to junior or to the AHL, but there are some interesting players that could at least begin the season in the A. Among the names that may play in the temporary top professional league in North America are:

Winnipeg:  Alex Burmistrov (St. John’s)

New Jersey:  Adam Henrique, Adam Larsson and Alexander Urbom (Albany)

Edmonton:  Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, Justin Schultz and Magnus Paajarvi (Oklahoma City)

Carolina: Jeff Skinner, Justin Faulk, Zach Dalpe and Jeremy Welsh (Charlotte)

Chicago: Marcus Kruger, Nick Leddy, Andrew Shaw, Jimmy Hayes and Brandon Saad (Rockford)

St. Louis:  Jake Allen, Evgeny Grachev, Vladimir Tarasenko and Jaden Schwartz (Peoria)

Calgary:  Sven Bartschi, Roman Horak, and Max Reinhart (Abbotsford)

Minnesota:  Jonas Brodin, Charlie Coyle, Matt Hackett, Marco Scandella, Johan Larsson and Mikeal Granlund (Houston)

Vancouver: Zach Kassian, Eddie Lack and Jordan Schroeder (Chicago)

Anaheim: Peter Holland, Kyle Palmieri and Devante Smith-Pelly (Norfolk)

Dallas: Jack Campbell and Cody Eakin (Texas)

Los Angeles: Andrei Loktionov and Tyler Toffoli  (Manchester)

Phoenix: Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Brandon Gormley, David Runblad and Chris Summers (Portland)

New York Islanders:  David Ullman, Nino Niederreiter and Travis Hamonic (Bridgeport)

Philadelphia:  Sean Couturier, Brayden Schenn and Erik Gustafsson (Adirondack)

Pittsburgh: Beau Bennett, Simon Depres and Joe Morrow (Wilkes Barre/Scranton)

Boston: Jordan Caron, Ryan Spooner, Jared Knight and Torey Krug (Providence)

Toronto: Carter Ashton, Joe Colborne, Nazem Kadri and Jake Gardiner (Toronto)

Tampa Bay:  J.T. Wyman (Syracuse)

Washington: Stanislav Galiev, Dmitry Orlov and Braden Holtby (Hershey)

I listed only the top prospects and players projected to make the roster that have been announced up until now. Most junior-eligible players will be returned to their respective teams, so no need to list them. Now, let’s just hope that the television networks choose to air AHL games in place of the cancelled NHL games.

Thanks for reading.  For more, feel free to follow me @RichDillon17.