Steel Transactions: Hudson, Valleau, Ruelykke, McNamara, Eiserman

    With five separate transactions happening since I last properly updated this blog, I'll put them all into one big post. Here goes:

1/12: HUDSON ACQUIRED, RUELYKKE RELEASED

    Following their 2-0 loss to Omaha, the Steel finished a trade with the Indiana Ice to bolster their attack. The Steel sent 2nd round entry pick Joseph Widmar, a 1st round entry draft pick, and a futures pick to the Indiana Ice. In exchange, they received Ice captain Woody Hudson, a 3rd round entry draft pick, and a 4th round futures pick.

    Given the steep cost and his high skill level, Hudson figures to eventually find his way into the top six. A big bodied right winger who can score goals and throw checks, Hudson's mainly been skating depth minutes, seeing time on a line with Christian Heil and Danny Fetzer, and also playing the point on the 2nd unit powerplay.

    The Steel had to get to a 23 man roster, and 4 overagers, the victim of which was Danish defenseman Tobias Ruelykke. He was released, and eventually went back to the Rodovre Mighty Bulls, where he played before joining the Steel.

1/14: BILL EISERMAN SUSPENDED

    As a result of a hard check to Muskegon's Frederik Tiffels (or Fraulein Tiffels, as he shall be referred to from hereon out on here), Bill Eiserman received a 3 game suspension. The check, which nobody I talked to saw involve an elbow, lead to a 5 minute major. Eiserman's suspension is 3 games.  Fraulein Tiffels continued to play in said game. I could have maybe seen a charging call, but nothing more.

1/19: VALLEAU ACQUIRED, MCNAMARA RELEASED

     Still looking to bolster the team, and trying to find some extra bodies on D (Johnny Wingels hasn't skated since January 6th), the Steel acquired Nolan Valleau from the Des Moines Buccaneers for a 3rd round entry draft pick. Another '92, he gives the Steel 3 of their 4 overagers on the back end.

    Being an overager, the Steel had to cut someone. McNamara became the victim of the numbers game, and has presumably been released. No word on where he's going to play next.

Picking up on two weeks of slack.

    I'd like to start this post by apologizing for totally neglecting this. In the time since this has happened, the Steel have traded for two players, released two other players, and played four home games. Also of note is Alex Sakellaroplolous being added to the USHL/NHL Top Prospects game in Muskegon, due to an injury to Arthur Brey.

    I'll try to address all these things in separate posts in the next 24 hours or so, but here's an incredibly brief summary of what's been missed:

• Woody Hudson (F, '92), a 3rd round entry pick and a 4th round futures pick acquired from Indy for Joe Widmar, a 1st round entry pick, and a 1st round futures pick
• Nollan Valleau (D, '92) acquired from Des Moines for a 3rd round entry pick
• D Tobias Ruelykke ('92) and F Danny McNamara ('92) released
• Steel drop 3 of last 4 home games
• Second official sellout in team history on Mascot Night, a 5-4 loss to Green Bay

    I'll expand on all these things soon.

1/7-1/11 Roster moves

    This past week saw the Steel make a handful of moves. Emergency goalie Cody Karpinski was removed from the roster, as it can be assumed whatever was ailing Sak has cleared up. Defenseman Brian Leblanc was traded to Wichita of the NAHL, and Sam Piazza was dropped off the active roster, presumably taking Eric Sade's place on the affiliate list.

    The big move, however, was trading a 5th round entry draft pick to Sioux City for defenseman Mike Holland, who returns to the Steel after being traded during the 10/11 nightmare season. Holland will wear #44. The Steel will also have Tyler Hill join the team full-time, as they try to push for the playoffs.

1/16/13 - GB 6, CHI 3

    In their first home game without Joel Benson on the roster since April 3, 2010, the Steel hosted the Green Bay Gamblers, having lost to them 4-2 Friday night in the Resch Center. In that game, Sak stopped 7/9 in the first period before leaving the game. Obviously his ailment was enough to keep him out of the game, as the Steel called on Canadian '92 Cody Karpinski to back up Chris Nell on Sunday afternoon.

    The game got off on a less-than-ideal note, as about 3 1/2 minutes into the first period, Green Bay had an extended offensive push, which eventually lead to Ben Greiner getting a one-time pass from Barrett Kaib past Nell for an early 1-0 lead. About a minute later, Green Bay caught a break, as the Steel had the puck in Green Bay's end. The whistle was blown, and roughly half a second later, the puck trickled out from between Rotolo's pads, towards the net.

    Not a team to take a lucky bounce for granted, the Gamblers got back down in the Steel end. A Johnny Wingels turnover lead to an easy goal for Ryan Siroky, pushing the score to 2-0.

    In an effort to fire up his team, Danny Fetzer dropped the gloves with Brandon Kirk. The two threw a few punches that never landed before Kirk flipped Fetzer to the ground about 10 seconds in. Though it lead to a near-miss, the effort did seem to fire up the Steel, as Alex Roos just missed a wide-open net at the 10:08 mark of the period.

    Bill Eiserman would be the one to get the Steel on the board, with a blast over Rotolo's stick-side pad, netting his first career USHL goal. However, the momentum would be short, as the Gamblers would strike just as Christian Neumann's high sticking penalty ended, pushing their lead to 3-1. Kirk got himself a roughing call not too terribly long after, which lead to a faceoff outside the offensive zone for reasons unknown. The Steel couldn't capitalize, and the first period ended with the Gamblers up 3-1.

    The first half of the second period was rather uneventful, short of a failed Steel powerplay from a Nicholas Schilkey hook. Around the 12:30 mark of the period, Greiner had a breakaway, but tried one too many stick handling moves in front of an open net, and couldn't capitalize. Sheldon Dries did manage to later, however, bouncing a puck off Nell's pads from behind the net to push the Gambler lead to 4-1. On the Penalty Kill for a Brandon Kirk cross-check, Kyle Novak put home a 2-on-1 charge following a Steel turnover, the shorthanded goal getting the Gamber lead to 5-1.

    With time running out, the Steel mustered one last push. Knowing the buzzer was about to sound, Christian Heil fired a shot from just inside the blue line with literally one second left in the period, making the score 5-2 heading into the second intermission.

    Eiserman, who was having an all-around fantastic game, goal aside, decided that one goal wasn't really enough, and fired a blue line blast early in the third. While it appeared to be tipped by Charlie O'Connor, the scorekeeper said elsewise, and the Steel pulled to 5-3. This would end the Steel's scoring, but not the game's, as at the 6:15 mark, Nick Schmaltz flicked a shot through the 5-hole, getting the score to what would be its final at 6-3.

LINES:

MacEachern - Heil - Polino
Pigozzi - Ebbing - O'Connor
Widmar - Kubiak - Roos
Fetzer - Dodero - McNamara


Neumann - Slavin
Eiserman - Davison
Wingels - Leblanc

PP: Pigozzi - Ebbing - Roos - Slavin - O'Connor; Polino - Heil - MacEachern - Neumann - Davison

PK: Ebbing - O'Connor - Slavin - Leblanc; Pigozzi - McNamara - Eiserman - Davison


SUNDAY GRADES:

• Roster management: A-. If Ruelykke's dinged and not just scratched, this moves up to an A+. Hat tip on finding Karpinski, who would likely do better than Alec Derks.
• Coaching: B-. The Steel really could have used a time out at some point on Sunday to try and regroup against a relentless Green Bay attack. This never happened.
• Forward performance: C. With Sak out, the Steel don't have the back end to survive being outshot.
• Defensive performance: C-. Turnovers lead to goals, and the Gamblers were allowed 39 shots on net.
• Goaltending: B+. Nell didn't get beat on anything soft or stupid. As solid a performance as one can imagine for going 33/39.

Captian Joel Benson Retires

    Perhaps "retires" isn't the operative word, but bittersweet news today out of the Steel. Second-year captain and third-year defenseman Joel Benson is walking away from hockey, effective immediately.

    While this does answer the question about the roster logjam with Christian Neumann being activated from the IR, it's still a rather sad story.

    From a personal standpoint, I truly wish he'd gotten a scholarship before he had to give up on hockey due to medical reasons. Always an incredibly nice, hard-working member of the team, it's sad to see him go.

    Having talked to his parents, I know he was really excited about this year, too. Benson hadn't been a part of a winning team for many, many seasons. Presumably, Jaccob Slavin is now the lone captain on the team.

    Benson leaves the Steel with 116 games played, 12 goals, 14 assists, 228 penalty minutes, and as arguably one of the best long-term uses of a 1st round draft in franchise history.

    Best of luck to Joel in whatever he pursues. He's a good kid making a very tough decision, but one that will likely wind up being the right one in the long run.