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Minnesota minor league hockey thread (1 Viewer)

Minnesota moves AHL affiliate to Iowa

Published April 22, 2013

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Des Moines, IA – The Minnesota Wild announced Monday that their American Hockey League affiliate will relocate to Iowa's capital city.

The Iowa Wild will begin play next season in Des Moines, moving the club's primary developmental affiliate much closer. The team's AHL club had been based in Houston.

"We are excited to announce that the Iowa Wild will begin play in the 2013-14 AHL season," said Wild owner Craig Leipold on Monday. "Des Moines is an excellent sports market. Wild fan support is excellent not just in the State of Hockey but throughout the Upper Midwest, including Iowa. We know fans in Des Moines will enjoy watching tomorrow's Minnesota Wild stars. Our team will be entrenched in this community, particularly in youth hockey."

The Houston Aeros were unable to iron out a new lease agreement with the Toyota Center, where the club had played since 2003.
 
Swear to Jebus I googled Minnesota minor league hockey and this was the first "news" result. :lmao:

Moorhead police investigate two minor league hockey players for reported sex video with 15-year-oldMOORHEAD – Police are investigating two minor league hockey players from Nebraska for allegedly circulating a video that shows one of the players having sex with a 15-year-old Moorhead girl when the team was in town to play the Fargo Force in February.
Court documents filed in the investigation say two 18-year-old players for the Lincoln Stars allegedly had sex with the girl at the Days Inn in Moorhead on Feb. 15, and took photos and video recordings during sexual acts with the girl.
A 10-second clip of one of the players having sex with the girl was distributed among Stars players and to other teams in the United States Hockey League, including the team in Waterloo, Iowa, according to a search warrant affidavit.

The girl planned to hang out with one of the players at the hotel after the game and told police the sex was consensual, but she was unaware the video was being recorded, according to the affidavit.

After learning about the video circulating among USHL teams, the girl tried to get the players to delete it. A few days later, she told one of the two players that the video was child pornography and sent him a copy of the North Dakota statute.

In interviews with Moorhead police, one of the players said no pictures or videos were taken of the girl without her consent. The other player admitted to watching the video of himself having sex with the girl and also sending it to a 17-year-old.

Moorhead police Lt. Tory Jacobson said the investigation is ongoing. He said Moorhead police took a complaint from a parent on Feb. 27 in reference to an adult being involved with their juvenile daughter in a sexual contact investigation.

The cellphones of both players have been seized as part of the investigation.

Though the victim was 15 at the time of the incident, under the age of consent in Minnesota, state law outlines that criminal sexual conduct occurs if the perpetrator is more than 48 months older than the victim.

Depictions of minors under the age of 18 engaging in sexual activity are prohibited in Minnesota.

No charges have been filed.

Jon Hull, president of hockey operations and general manager for the Lincoln Stars, said it is too early in the investigation for the team to comment.

Hull said team officials are aware two players are being investigated, and that it’s not really a “team issue” at this point.

If charges are filed, he said the team would “act accordingly.”
 
I am a box score reader. In fact I've read most of the box scores 3+ times, except the last couple games which are probably at about 2-3 each. I also watch the games religiously, and have recently gotten my wife into minor league hockey to the point where she's watched 2.5 seasons worth in the last 2 weeks (and I watch with her) so I have a lot of experience answering questions without spoiling future games. I hope to be an excellent advisor to those were are experience minor league hockey games for the first time.

 
I really feel like Nick Kuchera is going to break out in a strong way next year. Been scouting him for awhile. For those unfamiliar with his history, he was born at a very young age to his mother and played a lot of ice skating growing up. He has great puck to goal vision, and many say his clavicle rotation speed is on par with Sydney "The Bill" Cosby.

 
I am a box score reader. In fact I've read most of the box scores 3+ times, except the last couple games which are probably at about 2-3 each. I also watch the games religiously, and have recently gotten my wife into minor league hockey to the point where she's watched 2.5 seasons worth in the last 2 weeks (and I watch with her) so I have a lot of experience answering questions without spoiling future games. I hope to be an excellent advisor to those were are experience minor league hockey games for the first time.
:goodposting:

 
I am a box score reader. In fact I've read most of the box scores 3+ times, except the last couple games which are probably at about 2-3 each. I also watch the games religiously, and have recently gotten my wife into minor league hockey to the point where she's watched 2.5 seasons worth in the last 2 weeks (and I watch with her) so I have a lot of experience answering questions without spoiling future games. I hope to be an excellent advisor to those were are experience minor league hockey games for the first time.
You will be a welcome addition to the thread. :thumbup:

 
Wild: Stephane Veilleux's winding road brings him back to NHL playoffsBy Brian MurphyStephane Veilleux clomped into the Wild's makeshift locker room at Braemar Arena in Edina on Saturday, plopped on a cheap folding chair in the middle of the floor and stuffed his sweaty equipment into a bag while his teammates undressed in stalls bearing their nameplates.

Three weeks into his latest promotion to Minnesota, after yo-yoing for two years between the NHL and the minor leagues, the feisty left winger remains a transient despite securing a vital checking role on a team charging into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Veilleux couldn't have cared less. Not only is he earning NHL money again, he finally is valued at the most exciting and important time of the season.

Most of all, the 32-year-old hockey survivalist was at peace following years of rejection and the uncertainty that lies ahead as the Wild open their first-round series against the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night in Denver.

"Passion is a big thing for me. I'm still hungry," Veilleux said. "I never got anything easy. I always had to grind and grind. I went to the right school, the old school, where you've got to earn it. At the end of the day, I play hockey for a living, and enjoy playing."

Veilleux, who grew up working as a lumberjack for his father in the forests of eastern Quebec, is a lifer who will skate until somebody rips the last jersey off his back.

"Quitting or retiring is not an option -- until he can't get a contract," said his wife, Amy, who is from Hudson, Wis. "He'll probably play until he's 40."

Here is a guy with 494 NHL games on his resume, plus another 334 toiling in the American Hockey League and wilderness of Europe. He has a year remaining on a two-way deal that allows the Wild to pay him a rate of $575,000 in the NHL and $100,000 in the minors and shuttle him up and down indefinitely.

Eighteen times in the past 22 months, Veilleux has been recalled to Minnesota and demoted to the AHL, including three round trips during a four-day span last Christmas.

Veilleux is the Wild's first option to replace an injured player, the relentless penalty killer and fearless forechecker whose eight minutes of nightly energy are infectious.

He also is the most convenient to forsake in a roster crunch, his narrow role expendable to younger prospects with more refined offensive skills.

Never once has Veilleux griped to the brass in Minnesota or the minor league staff in Iowa and, before this season, Houston. Such dignity is in short supply in the minors, where grudges real and imagined can prove toxic in the dressing room.

"If anybody wanted to have that attitude, it would be Steph," Iowa Wild coach Kurt Kleinendorst said. "He's just a true pro who showed up every day with a great attitude and appreciates everything. He's good for hockey and the kind of guy every organization needs at this time of his career."

His history with the Wild stretches back 13 years. Veilleux's omnipresence on and off the ice mirrors that of Leonard Zelig, Woody Allen's enigmatic movie character who showed up smiling in newsreels at major events of the early 20th century.

There is Veilleux being taken in the third round of the 2001 draft, the same year Minnesota took Mikko Koivu sixth overall.

Look at him scoring his first NHL goal Oct. 27, 2002, against Colorado goalie Patrick Roy, now the first-year Avalanche coach facing his old nemeses from Minnesota.

Watch Veilleux lead the Houston Aeros in scoringen route to the 2003 Calder Cup championship before thriving as a checker under former Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire.

See him chaperon his father, Guy, a humble snow plowdriver and road grader, to California for the first time during the club's inaugural father-son road trip in 2006.

Wonder why he fired his agent in 2007 and played chicken with general manager Doug Risebrough and assistant GM Tom Lynn, hard-nosed negotiators who waived Veilleux and humbled him into accepting a one-year contract after no team put in a claim.

Here he comes in 2012, traded back to Minnesota, where he maintained a house to raise a family, having to prove his worth over again to new regime headed by GM Chuck Fletcher and coach Mike Yeo.

No favors asked and certainly none given.

"He's a hard-working character guy who's had to battle his whole career," Fletcher said. "I give him credit for embracing both roles with us and in the minors. That's hard to do when you're helping players who might replace you. That takes a special type of person to do that, even when he's disappointed about his own situation."

Veilleux refuses to portray himself as a victim, which is wise considering he created some of his own hard knocks.

Following his clash with Risebrough and Lynn, Veilleux signed a one-year, $862,500 deal with the Wild -- the most he has ever earned. But he became a free agent in 2008 after rejecting a two-year offer to return as a checking forward.

Instead, Veilleux signed a one-year, $750,000 deal with the Tampa Bay Lightning, hoping to play more minutes alongside scorers Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis.

That never happened. He scored three goals among nine points as the Lightning devolved into chaos in 2008-09, resulting in the firing of coach Barry Melrose.

Veilleux filed a grievance against Tampa Bay after the team refused to pay for shoulder surgery because of an injury the Lightning claimed he suffered playing tennis. The Lightning eventually agreed to pay Veilleux's medical bills, but a messy divorce was inevitable.

Suddenly, in 2009, Veilleux found himself without a contract or hopes for landing another NHL job at the worst possible time.

The Veilleuxs married in 2010 and had a son that year. So he, Amy and baby Rafael shipped off to Europe, where Veilleux played 25 games for a team in Finland and another seven for a team in Switzerland.

"That hit us out of left field," Amy Veilleux said. "He had a bad year at Tampa but was still pretty established. We were just talking about this a couple weeks ago, looking back at that year. From where we were to where he is now, not a lot of guys could make it out of that. It's amazing."

Veilleux eventually signed with the New Jersey Devils before the 2011-12 season and played all but one game in the AHL. The Wild reacquired him in a multi-player and draft pick deal in February 2012.

The shuttle has been running nonstop.

He and Amy are expecting their second child in July, and the time the couple has been able to spend in their St. Paul home since being recalled March 23 after commuting to and from Des Moines has been a blessing.

"You can't get wrapped up too much with decisions or why you're in that position," Veilleux said. "What you have to do is keep believing in yourself and things you can bring better at your position. Believe in your strength and keeping a good attitude, that's important."

Veilleux has listened to teammates over the years tell stories of bad luck, lost opportunities or raw deals, and he shakes his head.

"If this guy goes through what I've gone through, he'd be done," he said, speaking generally. "It would be easy to pack it in. Take full opportunity to do your best and bring it. You've got to find a way to stay motivated, and after that success tastes so much sweeter."

The appreciation comes from watching his father. Guy Veilleux, 66, still works full time plowing and paving roads in St. Georges de Beauce, a mining town near the Maine border.

When Stephane was growing up, his father also worked tapping maple trees for syrup. The son earned $10 per day climbing trees, chopping wood and swatting mosquitoes the size of leaves during hot summer days.

Now here is Veilleux, a 13-year pro, still fighting for respect and job security and drinking in the chance to sip from the Stanley Cup -- knowing there might not be another one.

"It's great to not only be in the playoffs but have the opportunity to do something special," he said. "I think we have a great group of guys here. It would be awesome. I feel we're really pulling in the same direction the last month or so. I'm really excited to contribute and be part of this group. It just feels great to be back in this situation."
 
Aaaaaand welcome to the Dooche-free Game of Thrones thread!

The arbiters of douchiness will be me and Tre. Belljr had his chance in the other thread but was overrun with douches. I will, however, try to learn from his mistakes and will be taking him on as a trusted advisor.

I believe we can open discussion at this point. Go! :pickle:

 
Feel free to discuss the toolishness in the other thread if you still partake. I've been skimming, and was able to avoid this week's teeribleness but I just flat-out don't trust it anymore.

 
Aaaaaand welcome to the Dooche-free Game of Thrones thread!

The arbiters of douchiness will be me and Tre. Belljr had his chance in the other thread but was overrun with douches. I will, however, try to learn from his mistakes and will be taking him on as a trusted advisor.

I believe we can open discussion at this point. Go! :pickle:
lolso for reals I forget J L can't or just doesn't want the top seed

 
Feel free to discuss the toolishness in the other thread if you still partake. I've been skimming, and was able to avoid this week's teeribleness but I just flat-out don't trust it anymore.
Sometimes those guys have the best of intentions and don't really realize what they're doing. Other times there are guys like FS.

 
Aaaaaand welcome to the Dooche-free Game of Thrones thread!

The arbiters of douchiness will be me and Tre. Belljr had his chance in the other thread but was overrun with douches. I will, however, try to learn from his mistakes and will be taking him on as a trusted advisor.

I believe we can open discussion at this point. Go! :pickle:
lolso for reals I forget J L can't or just doesn't want the top seed
If I'm understanding this correctly, he doesn't want it. Technically he couldn't get it, but the commissioner's office had the power to override those stipulations.

 
So whose turn is it next? Now that j is on season ending injured reserve we need a new center for our scoring line.

 
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Feel free to discuss the toolishness in the other thread if you still partake. I've been skimming, and was able to avoid this week's teeribleness but I just flat-out don't trust it anymore.
Sometimes those guys have the best of intentions and don't really realize what they're doing. Other times there are guys like FS.
As I said my biggest gripe is... just because I threw out a question. I don't need one of the top scouts coming in and giving me the players stats for the last 5 years. I wanted some of the rookies views before adjusting my game plan. Sometimes the top scouts know what to look at in the game film but they don't realize the rookies haven't developed their game that far. :unsure:

 

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