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Portland Pirates Mid-Season Updates

By William Grigsby

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The Portland Pirates mid-season Check-in

Checking in with the Portland Pirates may be the positive light at the end of every Coyotes fan’s tunnel vision this season.

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Looking back at the Blackhawks' trades involving Andrew Ladd
Looking back at the Blackhawks' trades involving Andrew Ladd /

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    • The Arizona Coyotes themselves are still in a rebuild phase, with Max Domi still in the minors and no contract extensions being handed out until the season comes to a close.

    The Portland Pirates are poised to be the perfect development club, though. The AHL affiliate is in second place in their division and seventh in the conference, sitting on a 19-15-1 record for 39 points in their first 35 games.

    Leading the Pirates in scoring for a second season is Alexandre Bolduc, who has 10 G and 11 A in his first 27 games with the club. He has four power play goals on the season, and sports an impressive 16.7 shot percentage — unsustainable for the forward at the NHL level, but impressive as an AHL veteran presence.

    Bolduc was recalled by the Coyotes on 12-12-14, where he spent a brief period with the club before being returned to Portland on 12-23-14. He was one of the numerous Portland skaters who has been called up by the parent affiliate in Arizona  in hopes of finding some offense, getting the call immediately after forward Jordan Martinook was returned to the Pirates. Martinook himself is the second leading scorer for the Pirates with 8 G, 12 A for 20 points.

    Between the pipes, Mike McKenna has performed well, posting a 14-12-3 record for the season with 2.22 GAA and a .930 SV%. He’s done an impressive job helping the team remain stable in the absence of regular starter Mark Visentin, who has been out with injury all season, and in the place of Louis Domingue, who has been split between the Pirates and the ECHL’s Gwinnett Gladiators in Georgia.

    Domingue himself, drafted in the fifth round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, has only appeared in seven games for Portland — but boasts a 5-2-0 record and a .922 SV%. His ECHL record is even better — since heading there earlier in January, he posted a 1-1-0 record… but made 46 saves in those two games, averaging 1.01 GAA and leading the team to a 4-0 shutout in his Gwinnett season debut. He was the starter for the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL prior to coming to Portland, posting a 23-8-4 record in his final junior season under head coach Patrick Roy. In the instance that Mark Visentin remains injured, Domingue has proven to be a valuable asset in his stead.

    Coyotes have recalled Lucas Lessio from Portland for a second time this season; after failing to record a point with the team in his first 3 NHL games, it’s likely the club is hoping that Lessio’s 16 points in 26 games will eventually translate to success with the parent franchise.

    In other news:

    –The Coyotes acquired defenseman Philip Samuelsson from the Pittsburgh Penguins for Rob Klinkhammer and a conditional fifth round draft choice in the 2016 NHL Entry Draft (awarded to Pittsburgh if Samuelsson plays in a minimum of forty games in the 2014-2015 season). Philip is the older brother of Henrik Samuelsson, who is in his inaugural season with the Pirates. Philip was assigned to the Pirates after the Coyotes acquired him.

    -The Pirates are on a four game winning streak of late. Of the top six scorers, only one player (Dylan Reese, likely left in Portland due to Arizona’s lack of a need for defensive call-ups) has not been called up at some point by the Arizona Coyotes, although only Tobias Rieder has remained with the NHL club long-term.

    -With the news that Andrew Barroway was approved as the majority owner of the Arizona Coyotes, things could change. With the possibility that the team’s influx of capital will eliminate the privately-funded loan used to purchase the team, GM Don Maloney  may have some additional payroll to work with in the coming season. It could be used to bring in free agents, of course, but more importantly — it will give the team the financial security to extend contracts for pre-existing players. Antoine Vermette has been the talk of trade rumors all season; financial stability could change that, but would also give the team some flexibility when signing players from within the team’s own system to better contract extensions.

    –Henrik Samuelsson has started to pick up the pace at the AHL level, suggesting that he’s finally starting to come back from a concussion sustained earlier in the year. Should he finally hit his offensive stride, the team could give him a shot at the NHL level — and of course, everyone is eagerly awaiting the day both of the giant Swedish brothers make it on the roster together.

    Doggie Biscuits: Over the Christmas holiday, the Pirates were asked if they could name all nine of Santa’s reindeer.

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