Commissioner Francios Leroux: From Laying the smack down, to laying the law down.

Former Wheeling Nailer and NHL toughman Francois Leroux will be the new commissioner of the Mid-Atlantic Hockey League. Leroux, famous for his being a toughguy in the NHL by bashing faces in with his fist will now be the man who puts his fist down when it comes to hockey operations.

Leroux was named commissioner of the recently formed league at a conference held earlier today.

According to the league press release, "Leroux will be responsible for refining the MAHL’s efforts to develop young talent and move players and coaches from the “A” level to higher levels of hockey including the ECHL, Central Hockey League and International Hockey League."

For those of you who don't know, the MAHL is a lower-level developmental league for former college and junior players looking to move up the ranks in the hockey world. Former Nailer Justin Depretis tore up this league last season by scoring 93 points in 29 games. That says a lot about the skill level of the league.

Leroux will have his hands full as commissioner mainly because of the financial situation of most of the teams throughout the league. The league canceled the remainder of the 2007-08 season and suspended operations on February 12, 2008 and the Indiana Ice Minors were declared champions.

Two teams folded (Mon Valley Thunder and Valley Forge Freedom) and two others have relocated since. The Wooster Warriors relocated to Trenton, Michigan for the upcoming season and the Jamestown Vikings have moved to Auburn Township, Ohio. Currently, the league has seven teams ready to play for the upcoming season.

Former Nailers Inking Deals Elsewhere

The Phoenix Coyotes have signed former Wheeling Nailers defenseman Drew Fata.

Fata, younger brother of former NHLer, Rico Fata, was selected in the third round (86th overall) by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2001 NHL Entry Draft, the 23 year old played for Wheeling in each of his first three seasons tallying 35 points (16G-19A) and 261 penalty minutes in 84 regular season games.

He has played with limited NHL experience over the past two seasons with the New York Islanders. Fata has two points in his NHL career, (1g-1a) and nine penalty minutes in eight regular games while also appearing in one Stanley Cup Playoff game.


Fata will join former Nailer Daniel Carcillo in Phoenix. The Coyotes won't have to worry about team toughness this season as they have signed Brian McGrattan, Todd Fedoruk, Daniel Carcillo, Drew Fata, Francis Lessard. I'd love to check out that training camp. Those could be some blood baths.

Adam Henrich is back in Nailers' organizations, kind of, as he signed a one year deal with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

In 12 games with the Nailers last season, Henrich tallied 20 points (10G, 10A). He was called up to Norfolk of the AHL and put up good numbers in 43 games with 31 points (14G, 17A)

WBS GM Chuck Fletcher believes that Henrich has the ability to play on any line in the AHL, weather it be a top-line power forward or a fourth-line grinder.

Nailers Ink First Two Players For 2008-2009 Season

The Wheeling Nailers have signed its first two players of the season as both forward Aaron Clarke and defenseman Mike Gooch resigned with the team today.

Clarke, 5-foot-9, 185 pounds, Peterborough, Ontario Navive dressed for 60 games for the Nailers scoring 19 goals, 17 assists for 36 points while accumulating 49 penalty minutes as a rookie.

Gooch, 5-foot-9, 180 pounds, played for the Nailers after finishing up his senior season at Neumann College near Philadelphia. Gooch dressed for 9 games with the Nailers last season, mostly on weekends because he was still enrolled in classes. During those 9 games, Gooch has one point and 8 penalty minutes.

Other Nailer tidbits.

Former captian Sean Collins will be playing in Finland next season and Curtiss Patrick will be playing for the Basingstoke Bisonof the Elite League.

Nailers Claim Rights To 3 Columbia Inferno Players

The Wheeling Nailers have cashed in on a few of their future considerations from trades they made earlier in the season as they have acquired the rights to defensemen Tyson Marsh and Julien Brouillette and forward Steve McJannet from the Columbia Inferno.

Marsh, a 23-year-old 6'1" 215lb defensemen is strong on the puck and uses his strength to his advantage. He appeared in 61 games for the Inferno with 3 goals and 14 assists for 17 points and 126 penalty minutes in 2007-08. Marsh is currently playing in the AHL with the Rockford Icehogs where in the regular season he played 11 games racking up 4 points (2G,2A). Marsh also has 2 points in the playoffs with the Icehogs both being assist. Marsh has 54 games of AHL experience between St. Johns, Toronto and Rockford.

Brouillette, a 20-year-old, 5'11" 185lb defensemen, had 17 points in 67 games in his rookie season with the Inferno. Brouillette had 4 points in the Kelly Cup playoffs with Columbia, all 4 were assist.

McJannett, a 26-year-old winger, had 36 points for the Inferno (16G,20A) as well as 105 penalty minutes in 54 games for the Inferno this past season. McJannett was second on the Inferno in points with 12 (1G,11A) during the 2008 Kelly Cup playoffs.

Former Nailer Goalie Danny Taylor Called up To NHL

The Los Angeles Kings recalled former Wheeling Nailer goaltender Danny Taylor from their American Hockey League affiliate Manchester Monarchs.

Taylor has a 13-5-2 record, a 2.40 goal-against average and four shutouts with Manchester this season.

Taylor, 21, was selected by the Kings in the seventh round of the 2004 draft.

The Kings brought up Taylor to fill the void left by veteran Dan Cloutier, who is suffering from a groin injury. As a result, Manchester signed Curtis Darling to a PTO yesterday.

Nailers claim defensemen Chad Brownlee

The Wheeling Nailers continued their recent trend of signing players toward the end of the year when they claimed the rights to defensemen Chad Brownlee after he had been released from the Idaho Steelheads.
Brownlee, a 23-year-old rookie out of Minnesota-Mankato, is a defensive defenseman who doesn’t shy away from the physical aspects of the game. Which is one thing Wheeling has lacked for the better part of the year. Brownlee is aggressive and has an in-your-face style of play. He has great work ethic and possesses great skating ability and his transitioning is decent and he also possesses very good passing skills. He's 6’2 195lbs so he has good size, but he could use a bit more weight.
Brownlee was transferred to the 30-day IR earlier this season by the Steelheads and was rumored to be heading to the Gwinnett Gladiators after his name appeared on Gladiators coach Jeff Pyle's white board on the same night that he expressed extreme dissatisfaction with his entire blue line.
Brownlee was a 6th-round pick of the Vancouver Canucks in 2003 and was named team captain of Minnesota State University – Mankato for the 2006-2007 season. He also received the Don Brose Leadership Award as a senior at MSU-Mankato.
While he sounds like a promising pickup, lets just hold our fingers crossed that he actually shows. We've been stiffed plenty this season.

New Faces

The Wheeling Nailers signed defensemen Jake Luthi to a contract earlier today. Luthi played 8 games for the Alaska Ace's last season and has not laced up for a single game this season. Luthi played his college hockey at RPI where he put up good offensive numbers in his four years.

As you probably already noticed, Sean Berkstresser has also recently signed with the Nailers. Berkstresser played his college hockey with current Nailer Aaron Clarke at Robert Morris University. This past season, Berkstresser was third in scoring for the Pioneers.

And what might be the biggest signing recently is 19-year oldMatt Dias a forward from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario who played his junior hockey with the Sudbury Wolves in the OHL. This season Matt has 42 points for the Wolves (19G,23A).

Dias was invited to the Pittsburgh Penguin's rookie camp this past September, but was unable to participate due to contractual issues so he was returned back to his junior team.

Dias has played with current Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin and former Wheeling Nailer defensemen, Jon D'Aversa as well as current New York Ranger defensemen, Marc Staal while playing for the Sudbury Wolves.

Shorthanded weekend.

Just when I said that it's been slow news-wise, it figures something would go down and the Nailers will be short a couple of players for this weekends games.

The Nailers' will be without the services of Gino Pisellini, Aaron Boogaard and Kelly Miller for the next couple games relating to their involvement in Wednesday nights game against Cincinnati.

Pisellini's suspension is the longest of the three as he has been suspended seven games and fined an undisclosed for leaving the players’ bench and fighting other than during the periods of the game.

Boogaard has been suspended three games and fined an undisclosed amount for fighting other than during the periods of the game.

Miller has been suspended two games and fined an undisclosed amount for instigating and fighting other than during the periods of the game.

An interview with Paul Bissonette (By Ben Lovejoy)

Typically I am not one for cutting and pasting, but this was rather good and well, news has been rather slow. This interview is from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguin, Ben Lovejoy's blog. I highly encourage you to check it out. It's a very good read. Very witty.

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Q: Tell me about your heritage, Paul? Where is your family from?
A: I live in Welland, Ontario, which is in Canada. As for my heritage, it is kind of a complex mathematical equation. I’m ¼ African-American, 1/8 Mike Tyson, 2/7ths Caucasian, 1/15 Black Wrapper, 1/16th Coyote, and the rest of me is Canadian-Savage.

Q: You have an interesting nickname. Can you tell us about it?
A: When I was nine years old, my first girlfriend broke up with me because she said I was too “nasty.” Just kidding, it is actually because of how horrible the tattoo on my arm looks. When I first came home with it, my mother was so disgusted with it she started calling me “Nasty.” When I started playing junior hockey, and was beating everyone up all the time, my teammates started calling me “Biznasty.”

Q: Tell me about your tattoos. Do they have any meaning?
A: The one on my arm is obviously a Halloween scene. It is really cool once a year, but the rest of the year, I really regret having it ‘cause it looks kind of dumb. I’m not really sure the significance of the one on my back. When Tiger Woods came on the scene, I realized it was cool to mix Black and Chinese cultures, so I had to get a Chinese symbol. I went to the tattoo parlor and asked for the biggest Chinese symbol I could possibly get. I’m not really sure what it means, but I also look pretty good without a shirt on.

Q: Many aspiring fighters often want to fight Dennis Bonvie because he was one of their role models growing up as young “meatheads.” Who were some of your role models growing up?
A: Apollo Creed.

Q: When you first came to Wilkes-Barre this year, you had an interesting haircut – a Mohawk. While you had this Mohawk, you seemed to be losing a lot of fights. Did you blame your lack of pugilistic success on that brutal haircut?
A: Much like the biblical character Samson, I seemed to have lost my strength when my hair was cut off. Luckily, hair grows quickly, and I am back to beating the crap out of people.

Q: You wear #20 for the Penguins. If you could wear any number, what number would you wear?
A: #103, but probably about #115 by the end of the year.

Q: Now that you are a skilled goal scorer, you have obviously stopped fighting. Imagine back to the days you were a tough guy and tell us, in a hypothetical fight between you and Dennis Bonvie, who wins?
A: I’d “one punch” that old man!

You say goodbye... I say hello to future considerations.

Coach Puhalski was busy as could be today by making a couple deals.

One of Coach Puhalski's deals had sent defensemen Chris Brooks and Jeremy Swanson to the Columbia Inferno for future considerations.

Swanson would not be gone long from the North Division, as later in the day, Columbia had dealt Swanson to the Cincinnati Cyclones.

Coach P's second move today sent Matt Johnson to the Elmira Jackals for more future considerations.