Nailer News Is Now... Basement News

It's kind of hard to place a blame for being in the basement.

Sure you can say Call-ups, Injuries or Coaching and all three are cop-outs really.

All teams deal with injuries and call-ups during the season. It's part of the game.
When it comes down to brass tax, the players are the ones that need to execute and they can't even get the puck beyond the red line without puking all over themselves.

We all place blame somewhere, I place blame on adversity.
It's been our biggest enemy this season and it started by not being able to win on the road. It was only a matter of time before we either got our game together on road ice or it would start to take it's toll on the friendly confines of Wes Banco Arena.

I think these next few pictures says it all about where we are in our season.

This is a must read for the team. Thanks R.L. Stine

A few pictures came our way the past couple days..
This is rumored to be Martin Houle.

Maybe the bag is screening the shots?



Jim Brooks? Rob Brooks?


This is me at the bar after the game, because the basement is too cold and dark to not be hammered.


Put me in coach... I'm ready to play.

Things are looking uglier than Jeremy Roenick.

And that's pretty ugly.

As a Nailer fan, we've all been trying to find ways to cope... this may help.

At least there's still moondog bobble head night to look forward to.

Bissonnette Named To ECHL Allstar Team

Other than Paul Bissonnette has been named to the 2007/2008 ECHL Allstar game for the second straight season, not too much news today.

Whoever runs the Nailer website must not know who Paul Bissonnette is because this is the picture that they had online to go with the story.

Justin Chwedoruk... nice. Maybe they are really in love with their photoshop, or maybe they put Chwedoruk's head on Bissonnette's body? I don't know, but if that's the case, I say we take both players and create Paulstin Chwedonnette. That'd be one intense mofo.

Speaking of intense players... The daily Gino Pisellini fight is:
Gino Pisellini vs. Scott Todd - Round 1

On this day in 1992 former Wheeling Thunderbird Darren Schwartz scored the fastest three goals in ECHL history against Roanoke Valley.
(17:51, 18:03 and 18:21 in the 3rd period) 30 seconds.

The Nailers are back in town tomorrow night to face the Elmira Jackles, who last time came to town to relax and go home with an easy win. The most action in that game was the fans giving them the business as they sat in the entrance way between periods. I guess they wanted to lengthen their stay this time and stay for two games.

Time To Make A Run...

No time like the present to make a run at moving up the standings as the Nailers play seven of their next nine games on home ice where they’ve compiled a 7-3-1-1 record. Consiquently, the Nailers are 2-10-0-1 on the road.

On a positive note,if you look at the ECHL North Division standings, the top five teams make the playoffs and the Nailers are tied for that final spot. That's a good sign considering our top six scorers have missed large parts of the season because of early season call-ups and an injury or two, not to mention that we've had more goalies start in net than Pam Anderson has had husbands with six.

"I get around"

Coach Patrick gave word earlier today that Nathan Marsters will get the nod tonight. In his debut with Wheeling on Saturday night, he stopped 50 of 52 shots to record the victory. Here's to hoping he's in beast mode tonight and the word from Marsters is that he's ready to go...

"Beast mode activated!"

Wilkes_Barre/Scrantons leading scorer Jeff Taffe has received a call-up from Pittsburgh. Not entirely sure as to why, my guess is that they're banking that Ryan Malone's (flu/leg infection) or Erik Christensen (Neck) might not be able to play or maybe Connor James is being sent back down. If James comes back down, it would have to happen today because the NHL's Christmas roster freeze begins. If James isn't sent down, one of the Nailers might get a look.

Nailers who could get a call-up if Connor James isn't sent down: Joe Jensen, Aaron Boogaard, Ned Haven, Kevin Croxton.

Besides the call-ups, injuries have begun to take their toll. Defensemen Seamus Young and Curtiss Patrick, along with rugged forward Gino Pisellini are all currently on the injured reserved list.

Curtiss had a checkup on his finger this morning and Seamus Young should be back in the lineup tonight after he received a scare a couple games ago when he took a stick between the eyes. If the stick would have been a couple inches to either side, Young’s career could have been over. Pretty serious stuff.

Francois Leroux has been placed on the 3-day IR. He's probably just out of gas and will catch back up with the rest of the team when they head back to Wheeling. We'll let you know if it's anything more than just being fatigued

Pisilleni’s injury seems to be a little more severe as he has been placed on the 30-day IR with a concussion.

Perhaps this announcer needs a beating for mispronouncing Pisilleni.



Get it right! It's PISS-ill-LEAN-E fool!

The Nailers also added forward John Burton to the team. Burton took part in Nailers training camp this summer before he was cut. In the past two seasons played 8 games in the UHL between Flint and Chicago. 0 goals, 0 assist, 0 points.

The Marsters Mash

Wheeling finally ended a 9-game skid this weekend. Nathan Marsters made his Nailer/2007/2008 season debut a memorable one as he turned aside 50 of 52 shots in the Nailers win. His save percentage is a staggering .962.

That's disgusting.

Was it just me or is Justin Chwedoruk as intense as they come? He's bringing some much needed energy to the team... and that's definitely something we've lacked since Adam Henrich was called up. By the way, looks like someone in the Nailers front office had the great idea to photoshop Chwedoruk's head on one of the other Nailers body. Nice photoshop, Picaso..




Obviously, The Champ does not approve...

"I don't like it!"

Wheeling has claimed forward Patrick Bordeleau from the Charlotte Checkers off of the waiver-wire. Bordeleau has played in 10 games for the Checkers this season and has three points on a goal and two assists.

To make room for the Bordeleau, both Jon Foster and Joe Santilli were put on waivers today.Australian for you've just been cut...

I'm kind of puzzled by this move, they could've just released Santilli, but none-the-less, they didn't and I'm puzzled, especially since Gino Pisellini is not yet ready to come off of the IR.
We really should post a daily Pisellini fight video every day until his return just to tide us over. So here it goes.

Gino vs. Louis Robitaille

Lets stay out of the basement.

With the basement looming, the Nailers have been busy tending to their depleted roster. There will be more new faces than Michael Jackson this weekend.
"weee heeee"

Former Wheeling Nailer/Thunderbird, Vadim "The Russian Rocket" Slivchenko will be suiting up for the Nailers by the end of this week, as his paperwork finally went through. Even though Vadim's 37 years of age, he's still faster than most of the players in the ECHL. He played 51 games in Germany last season for Crimmitschau ETC where he led the team in scoring with 39 points (17G,22A). It's good to have the rocket back. Hopefully he can add some scoring to our Nicole Ritchie like offense.
The Nailers have also signed rookie forward Joe Santilli. Santilli is in his senior year of college at Northeastern University. In 17 games played so far he has 11 points 2G,9A). Last season with Northeastern, he had nine points on five goals and four assists in 20 games played.

Wheeling also claimed goalie Nathan Marsters off of waivers from Augusta. Masters has spent time in the AHL for Portland going 2-3 in 5 games last season in the AHL. He was a victim of a numbers crunch as the Anaheim Ducks have too many goalies under contract in their system. Marsters was 4-3-2 for the Lynx.

Hell Froze Over

In some good news today Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin and former Nailer Joe Jensen has been assigned to the Nailers earlier today. Jensen should help our offense who're been more anemic than Nicole Ritchie lately.

Jensen, has appeared in 18 games for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton accounting for two points (1G,1A) and 23 penalty minutes. The second year pro spent half of his rookie season with the Nailers in 2006-07. He scored 29 points (11G,18A) in 28 games for Wheeling while registering 11 points (6G,5A) in 26 games with the Penguins.

Pittsburgh has also recalled the peoples champ, Paul Bissonnette. I guess hell has froze over.

Biss seemed to be in the doghouse with the Penguins organization this past offseason as he was told not to report to Penguins training camp or Wheeling because they were pursuing a trade.

Kyle Rank was also assigned to the Baby Pens. Rank played 10 AHL games last season with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers scoring 4 points (2G,2A)

Garbage Day!

I forgot today was garbage day when I woke up. In unrelated news, the Nailers claimed goalie Brett Jaeger off waivers from Utah. He's 0-5 this season so far, but he did win 40 games in two seasons for Fresno.

Here's a look at Jaegers time with the Falcons. Not too shabby.

Season  Team           GP  GA  SO   GAA   W   L   T   Pct
04-05  Fresno Falcons  37  85   2  2.49  19   9   6  .927
05-06  Fresno Falcons  37  98   0  2.63  21   6   8  .912

Here's to good luck... don't bomb.

Say goodbye to Michael Handza, as the Nailers traded him to Bakersfield for forward Justin Chwedoruk. 
This actually seems to be a great trade for us on paper.  Chwedoruk's been pretty beast this year too,
scoring 11 points in 19 games (7G,4A) and racking up 37 penalty minutes. Handza had 3 points with the Nailers, 
all assist.

Curtiss Patrick's two game suspension is over after he was assessed a match penalty for Deliberate Injury of an opponent. What the heck do you call fighting? You don't just punch someone without trying to inflict pain, do you?

Gino Pisellini has been placed on the 7-day injured reserve he's a little banged up.

Skidding out of control

When you saw warm-ups today you noticed two things.

You were glad to see David Laliberte back with the team and then you noticed that you threw up all over yourself when you saw that our two goalies were Ray Jean and Billy Higgins. Or as they're known in hockey circles...
Billy JeanDisgusting.

Well they say that hindsight is 20/20 my friend. So who would've thought that two trades would come back to haunt us this very moment? When we traded Jason Tejchma and Terry Denike we were stacked in net and we were pretty set offensively. Tejchma has 12 points in 14 games with the Mississippi Sea Wolves right now and Denike is the go-to-guy in Reading with a 2-0 record.

To quote Lloyd Christmas,"We're in a hole, we just need to dig ourselves out."

Word out of Pittsburgh is that Marc-Andre Fleury will miss two-to-four weeks with his ankle injury. This means that Dany Sabourin will carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders for a little while, while John Curry and Dave Brown do the same in Wilkes-Barre. That being said... Martin Houle cannot come back fast enough from a groin injury. There's only one person who can help us now...
Barring the second coming, we're in serious trouble.

Since Lane Manson's retirement, the Nailers have won a grand total of two games.

Francios Leroux is a minus-7 and he looks gassed every time he comes off of the ice.

Frustration's setting in. Nothing is going right lately. Nothing.
So we're changing things up here at Nailer News. While others may go green, but we're going black with a new site look to help get outta this funk. Anything helps. Right?

Goalie Swap Continued...

With Marc-Andre Fleury day-to-day with an ankle sprain, the Pittsburgh Penguins recalled goalie Ty Conklin and reassigned John Curry from Wheeling to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. So it appears that the Baby Pens will go with the rookie tandem of Curry and Dave Brown until Fleury is healthy. It's a great chance for the kids to show what they can do. Too bad we traded Terry Denike a week too early.

You Cant Touch A Flame When It's, Red Hot

With Marc-Andre Fleury suffering an ankle injury tonight in Calgary, Ty Conklin may awake to a phone call telling him to get up and fly to Vancouver to back up former Wheeling Nailer, Dany Sabourin... This kind of makes you wonder if the Baby Pens will sign someone or call Curry up for a while. If they call Curry up the Baby Pens will have two rookie keepers with very limited AHL net time.
Check out this 1987 video with the Calgary Flames... Look close and you'll see Pittsburgh Penguin Gary Roberts. Good Stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9eF6DVI0tk&feature=related

Goalie Swap

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have switched around their goalies as they sent John Curry to Wheeling and called up Dave Brown to take his place.

WBS picked kind of an odd time to take Brown, as he probably has played his two worst games of his brief professional career, but none-the-less it's a good thing for Brown to experience life int he AHL and to get some time facing higher caliber players.

Curry, assigned to the Nailers in the preseason, was sent by the parent Penguins to the Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL to get some playing time. While playing for the Wranglers Curry put up impressive numbers going 4-1 with a 2.81 GAA and a .905 save percentage earning him his first AHL call-up.

Curry has played in 3 AHL games for the Penguins going 1-2-0 with a 2.66 GAA and a .901 save percentage.

Curry had also played for the United States National Team this season at the Deutschland Cup in Hannover, Germany, posting a 1-0-1 record with a 1.92 goals against average and a .946 save percentage.

The Nailers then sent goalie Terry Denike to Reading for "undisclosed considerations."

Hang on, Help Is On It's Way

The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins assigned Ned Havern back to Wheeling today as well as defenseman Jonathan D'Aversa. Both players will be in uniform tonight as the Nailers travel to take on Johnstown.
D'Aversa, 21, spent the previous four seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with Sudbury. He scored 26 goals and 150 points over that span. In his rookie season with the Baby Pens, D'Aversa, has played in 6 games scoring 1 goal and adding an assist.
To make room, Vin Hellemeyer was waived after scoring the lone goal for the Nailers in a 3-1 loss at Trenton last night.

Here's a Quarter, Call Somebody Up to the AHL

- Former Wheeling Nailer and current Youngstown SteelHound goalie, Andy Franck has been called up to the Providence Bruins of the American Hockey League today.

Franck, 26, is 11-2-1 in 14 games for the SteelHounds and he leads the Central Hockey League in wins. Earlier this season Franck won seven straight games to lead the Hounds to the best start in franchise history.

In two years with the Nailers Franck compiled a 60-41-9 record with eight shutouts and was named to the ECHL All Rookie and All Star teams in his first season.

- Yesterday, Wheeling Nailer Adam Henrich has been signed to a professional tryout contract by the Norfolk Admirals. Henrich has been the top offensive producer for the Nailers this season as well as one of the top producers in the entire ECHL despite being suspended for the first three games of the year. Henrich has accounted for 10 goals and 10 assists in just 12 games.

- David Laliberte has been recalled for a second time this season to the Philadelphia Phantoms and has already played in two games with the Nailers AHL affiliate this season.

Turkey Lurky Dee and Turky Lurky Duh

Fresh off my turkey coma and here to smack ya with some news.

Sean Collins finally got one for the belt Wednesday night with his first goal of the season which he took off the chin... literally.

Francois Leroux debuted for the Nailers Wednesday. He looked a little sluggish, but did play the body well in front of the net, pushing Dayton forwards around like no ones business.

Does anybody find it odd that there have only been two fights at home this season and we have Bissonnette, Boogaard, Patrick, Leroux and had Manson? And they both came the same day against Dayton on October 27th? That tells you something about the teams discipline this season. Actually Wheeling is currently the least penalized team in the North division with 253 total PIM.

Adam Henrich is currently sitting number ten in the ECHL with 9 goals.

David Brown has the sixth highest save percentage in league (.928).

Former Nailer Joe Guenther was traded by Elmira to Florida for Thanksgiving.

Rookie winger Aaron Clarke, who has been on the 30-day IR is scheduled to come off the IR and get his season started underway. While defenseman Todd Spencer has been placed on the 7-day IR.

The Nailers will have two of their homegames broadcast on the NHL Network.
December 22nd Cincinnati at Wheeling from the game on December 15th.
March 8th Trenton at Wheeling from the game on March 1st

Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, Francois

News out of Wheeling is that former Pittsburgh Penguin Francois Leroux will suit up tomorrow night in Wheeling for the Nailers. Leroux, a 6'6" 270lb defenseman, is a former 1st round draft pick in 1988, played 249 NHL games between the Oilers, Penguins and Avalanche. He will be replacing Lane Manson who decided to call his career quits earlier this week. He's 37 years old, can he still go? Although skating and soft hands were never his main strength, Leroux is a very physical, defensive-minded defenseman who amassed 577 penalty minutes in his NHL career.
Here's a great youtube clip of a Leroux fight against Tony Twist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9ysnsV6fW8

Philadelphia also reassigned goalie Martin Houle. This will crowd the goal-tending situation for sure. The Nailers now have three quality starting keepers with David Brown, Martin Houle and Terry Denike, with Denike being the odd man out because of affiliations with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Philadelphia. Houle has been placed on the 3-day IR.

**Edit**
* There are some immigration issues with former Nailer/Thunderbird, Vadim Slivchenko. Coach Patrick said Last week that they were trying to get him into the lineup as soon as they can.

From Russia With Love... I think

Suspended Nailer forward, Alexei Smirnov is currently playing in the Russian Hockey Super League with a bunch of guys named Alexei, Dmetri (ending with an i or a y), Andrei and Alexandr(or ending in an er). I don't know if you've ever looked at a Russian hockey teams roster, but there's not a lot of name variations. He's playing for the Vityaz Chekhov so it appears that the immigration issue has been settled.

Along with Smirnov playing overseas, suspended Nailer forward, Kevin Du has accepted an offer to play in China.

**Edit**

*The Reading Royals were have a new name that Nailer fans may remember from his brief stint with the team last season before being traded to Texas. Goalie Danny Taylor was assigned to the Royals today from the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL..

That's about all, for real now.

The Nailers game tonight has been rescheduled until November 20th. The team was unable to make it to Cincinnati tonight to play the Cyclones because of a chemical spill in a traffic accident on I70. So not much news going on tonight besides the activations of Curtiss Patrick and Gino Pisellini. Kevin Du has also been suspended by the team. Which comes as kind of a surprise. I'm thinking it's more of a numbers issue than anything, but you never know I guess.
In four games with Mississippi, former Nailer forward Jason Tejchma has four points, (3G,1A). It would be nice to still have him, you can never have enough fire-power. It's always nice to have an extra scoring forward, especially since we've been playing Chris Snavely at forward instead of on defense. I just hope we can get something good in return for him with our future considerations.
That's all for now.

It's a game of give and take...

The Wheeling Nailers have announced that forward David Laliberte has been re-assigned to the team from their AHL affiliate Philadelphia Phantoms.
Laliberte played in one game for the Phantoms during this recent AHL stint, and has played two games overall for Philadelphia this season. He had zero points and four penalty minutes. Laliberte returns to the Nailers where he has seven points in seven games with two goals and five assist. Laliberte should be in the lineup tonight against los Cyclones de Cincinnati.
However one player who will not be in the lineup for the Nailers will be Ned Havern, who was re-called to the Nailers other AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
In nine games, Havern has six goals and five assist for 11 points.

Chris Snavely Does It All

Forwards Aaron Clarke and Gino Pisellini who have been on the injured reserve list will soon be back on the ice which is great news to the Nailers as they are a little shorthanded (even if the score sheet says otherwise) in the forward department.
Rookie defenseman, Chris Snavely has played up against Augusta Sunday since Clarke and Pisellini have been injured and Mark Letestu and David Laliberte have been spending time in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Philadelphia respectively with the Nailers' AHL affiliates.
Defenseman Curtiss Patrick is due to come off IR soon and may possibly get some ice time Friday in Cincinnatti. Patrick has also had professional experience at forward with Wheeling two seasons ago.

Cyclones Blowing Down The Doors

Last night the Nailers had their three game unbeaten streak snapped by the Cincinnati Cyclones via shutout, 4-0.
The team looked flat the entire evening. This was the first time the Nailers did not score a power play goal in a game this season. Subsequently, it was also the first time the team was shut out this season.
The Nailers' record now stands at .500, going 3-3-1 on the season. Wheeling has faired much better at the Hammerdome, going 2-1-1 while their road record is 1-2.
In the beginning of the game, the Cyclones were getting a lot of chances, but rookie Wheeling net minder, David Brown played beyond stellar, as he turned away chance after chance.
The Cyclones got the first goal of the game, as Jean-Michel Daoust found the back of the net, on (you guessed it) the power play. This seems to be a trend the entire season thus far. The last time Brown was in net, the Nailers gave up 3 PPG.
Cincinnati quickly put a dagger to the Nailers a minute and nine seconds into the second period, as Billy Irish-Baker scored his first goal of the season. The Nailers looked flat the rest of the period and Cinci scored it's third goal of the night as Thomas Beauregard lit the lamp at 11:01. The final goal came at 16:37, as Billy Irish-Baker netted his second goal of the night in the 3rd.
Despite allowing the three goals, Nailers' goalie David Brown played well, as he made some big stops to give the Nailers a chance to get back in the game.
If there have been two things the Nailers need to work on fixing, it would be the penalty kill and adapting to playing on the road.
The Nailers take on Reading this Friday night. It will be the first time the home fans get to see the much feared Aaron Boogaard.

Newsworthy Nuggets

• Former Dayton Bombers goalie, Terry Denike, signed a contract with Wheeling earlier today. Denike posted an 11-4-2 record with 2 shoutouts last season with the Bombers. Denike was placed on waivers last night.
  
• Defensemen Jeremy Swanson and Curtiss Patrick are closer to returning.
• Nailer defenseman Mike Vanelli left the team last week to use his education. Vanelli played two games with the Nailers, notching 2-points. (0G,2A).
• Former Wheeling Thunderbird, Vadim Slivchenko, has been practicing with the Nailers this past week. Slivchenko, last played for Wheeling in 1999. Between 1993-1995, Slivchenko scored 76 goals for the Thunderbirds. Slivchenko is awaiting the go-ahead on his immigration before he can suit up. He played last season for Crimmitschau ETC in Germany, scoring 17 goals.
  
• Forward Alexei Smirnov, who has been dealing with immigration problems, has been suspended by the Nailers in order to retain his playing rights.
  

I think I saw a Boogyman...

The Pittsburgh Penguins have reassigned center Mark Letestu from Wheeling to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL.
Pittsburgh also assigned toughman/right winger Aaron Boogaard from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to Wheeling.
Boogaard is brother of Minnesota Wild toughman Derek Boogaard and is as tough as they come.
Here are a few Aaron Boogaard fights for your viewing pleasure.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRPmcNOQhmE
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzTXRVfm14o
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQPnNCdKfRc
  

In another roster move the Nailers have traded forward Jason Tejchma to Mississippi Sea Wolves.

Nailers Win Season Opener 4-2

Big opening night victory for the Nailers tonight with a 4-2 over the Johnstown Chiefs. It was the 1st time in 16 years that the Nailers opened the year with a victory on the road.

The Nailers played a much more physical game than what we're use to seeing. Kevin Croxton, Mark Letestu , Paul Bissonnette and Ned Havern notched a goal each. David Brown got the win in his first professional start, while former Nailer Andrew Penner gave up 4 goals on 36 shots.

The Nailers look to make it two in a row when they travel to Elmira, NY to face the Jackals tomorrow night.

Tidbits before tonights opener.

* Jeremy Duchesne was recalled to Philadelphia Flyers late yesterday.
* Curtiss Patrick and Aaron Clarke were placed on the 30-day IR.
* Michael Handza was placed on the 3-day IR.
* Thomas Spencer was placed on the 7-day IR.
* Garrett Winder has signed with the Augusta Lynx

An AHL Invasion

The Wheeling Nailers roster keeps getting crowded with AHL talent as they have been assigned four players from their AHL affiliates.

The Pittsburgh Penguins assigned center Mark Letestu from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to Wheeling earlier today.
Also, the Philadelphia Flyers assigned 3 players to Wheeling. Forwards David Laliberte and Gino Pisellini as well as defenseman Mike Vannelli.

To make room, the Nailers released forwards Garrett Winder and Brendan Cook. Winder finished the preseason with 0 points and Cook lit the lamp twice one goal and one shootout goal.

Forward Mark Letestu has been a healthy scratch for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for every game this season. Last season he played in three regular season and two playoff games for the WBS Penguins but failed to record a point. He played his college hockey at Western Michigan. In his final season at WMU, Letestu played 37 games, Letestu amassed 46 points on 24 goals and 22 assists.

Foward David Laliberte spent last season with Prince Edward Island of the QMJHL where he played 68 games with the Rockets he tallied 98 points (50G, 48A). Laliberte played in one game this season for the Phantoms.

Gino Pisellini will be familiar with Nailer fans. Pisellini split last season with the Philadelphia Phantoms and the Trenton Titans. He has not dressed for the Phantoms this season. Pisellini had a goal and an assist, in 32 games with the Phantoms last season. With Trenton, he had 4 points (1G, 3A).

Defenseman Mark Vannelli, was the captain of the University of Minnesota last season. In 44 games with the Golden Gophers, Vannelli scored 39 points (10G, 29A) He has been a healthy scratch for the Phantoms in every game this season.

The Nailers have 9 players with time spent in the AHL. Kevin Croxton, Ned Havern, Kyle Rank, Adam Henrich, Curtiss Patrick, Paul Bissonnette, Jeremy Swanson, Martin Houle and Sean Collins.

Cuts and such

Henrich Suspended and Fined, Patrick Fined
The ECHL announced that it has suspended Wheeling left wing Adam Henrich for three games and fined him an undisclosed amount as a result of his actions in an ECHL Preseason Game against Johnstown on Saturday, Oct. 13.
Coach Glenn Patrick was also fined an undisclosed amount as a result of the actions of his team during the game on the 13th.

Wheeling Released three players from their tryouts.
Forward: John Burton
Forward: Peter Ferraro
Defensemen: Mike Burton

Meet your 2007/2008 Defense

Curtiss Patrick - One of three returning defenders from last season. He played 38 games in a Nailers uniform, registering 4 points 1G, 3A) and 129 PIMS. He also played 10 games in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, registering 2 points (0G,2A) This marks Curtiss's 4th season with the team. He'll provide plenty of physical play along the boards.

Paul Bissonnette - Back for his third season in a Nailer uniform, Bissonnette will provide plenty of toughness along the blue line, as well as providing some scoring chances from there also. Enjoyed career numbers with Wheeling last season playing 65 games and scoring 42 points (10G, 32A)

Chris Brooks - The Yale grad enters his second season with the Nailers. Last season he scored 3 points (0G,3A) in 49 games.

Lane Manson - 6'9" 250lbs, played last season with Dayton before being signed in the offseason by Pittsburgh (NHL). Known more for his size than his shot, Manson will provide the Nailers with plenty of strength.

Chris Snavely - A speedy, quick defenseman who added that dimension to the Michigan State Spartan defensive corps. Snavely finished his college career with 43 points (7G, 36A) in 132 games.

Jeremy Swanson - Split time last season with Florida (ECHL) and Rochester (AHL).
Played 16 games with Florida scoring 3 points (0G, 3A) and 41 PIM. Played 47 games in Rochester adding 2 points (0G,2A) and 47 PIM.

Seamus Young - Played 72 games last season with Victoria (ECHL) scored 22 points (9G ,13A) Will provide the defense with some decent offensive numbers.

Todd Spencer - Rookie, invited to try out after playing for Sacred Heart.

Meet Your 2007/2008 Forwards

Sean Collins - The Capitan is returning for his 3rd season with the Nailers. Collins had 76 Points in each of the previous two seasons.
Ned Havern - Played with Wheeling last year putting up 40 points (19G, 21A), Havern also spent some time in the AHL with Providence.
Jon Foster - Returning from last season, scored 12 goals and 15 assist last season.
Vin Hellemeyer - Also returning from last season 8 Goals, 7 Assist.
Kevin Croxton - Great offensive weapon. Played 52 games in Alaska last season and registered 46 points. (21G, 25A) Also played 13 AHL Games for Peoria scoring 7 points (2G, 5 A)
Kyle Rank - Played 10 games at the end of last season fresh out of college and into the AHL scoring 4 points 2G, 2A.
Brandon Cook - During the 2006-2007 season Cook played for three different teams in the ECHL. The first 10 games Cook played were in Pensacola with the Ice Pilots gaining five points (2G, 3A) Cook was then played 40 games for the Utah Grizzles where he had 20 points (9G, 11A) and ended his season with 12 games with the Columbia Inferno tallying 7 points (5G, 2A).
Jason Tejchma - Last seasons stats: 9 points in 16 games in Fresno (7G, 2A)
Brian Ihnacak - Rookie: From Brown University. Finished with four year totals of 28G, 48A.
Peter Ferraro - Rookie: Started 32 games for Sacred-Heart, scoring 12 points (6G, 6A)
Kevin Du - Expectations are high for this speedster. Had a great camp with Wilkes-Barrie/Scranton Penguins. He's only 5'8" 175, but possess great stick skills and doesn't mind passing the puck. His last season at Harvard he had 25 points (5G, 20A) in 33 games.
Garrett Winder - Spent last season overseas playing with Heereveen Flyers in the Netherlands where he scored 23 points (13G, 10A) in 26 games.
Michael Handza - Rookie: scored 8G, 16A in for years at University of Denver.
Aaron Clarke - Rookie: From Peterborough, ONT. Played his college hockey at Robert Morris University and Niagara University. His senior season at Robert Morris Clarke scored 36 points (11G, 25A)
Alexei Smirnov - Played 53 NHL games with Anaheim. Spent last season with Long Beach of the ECHL with Bo Cheesman. Scored 31 points in 38 games. (12G, 19A). Smirnov has great raw talent and offensive ability. He is a fantastic puck handler and moves very well through traffic. He also possesses an above average shot that could be deadly if he gets a chance to use it more.
Adam Henrich - A thorn in the side of the Wheeling Nailers over the past couple of seasons that will hopefully blossom into a standout player for the Nailers this season. Spent time with Johnstown scoring 34 points (15G, 19A) in 32 games. Henrich also spent 27 games in the AHL with Springfield scoring 9 points (3G, 6A)
John Burton - Past two seasons played 8 games in the UHL between Flint and Chicago. 0 goals, 0 assist, 0 points. Hopefully he can generate some offense this season with the amount of talent Wheeling possesses.