Lockout at the top is sending a parade of youngsters to minors

Nick Christensen

Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2004 | 10:26 a.m.

Las Vegas Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan has seen the face of this coming season, and it's got peachfuzz.

With the NHL lockout officially under way, the shuffling down through the minor leagues has left the Wranglers with plenty of youth as Gulutzan starts to finalize his roster heading into next month's training camp.

The Wranglers, beginning a second season as the Calgary Flames' Double-A affiliate, will likely get five to seven prospects from Triple-A Lowell, which shares an affiliation with both Calgary and Carolina. The Flames sent 13 players to Lowell, and Carolina added 14. Including any players Lowell already signed, that leaves the Lock Monsters well over their roster limit and shuffles several of those prospects down to Las Vegas.

The prospects, who have yet to be named, will join a team considerably younger than last years' Wranglers. Joining Jon Krall, Morten Ask, Jason and Mike McBain, Marc Magliarditi, Doug Wright, and Jeff Attard, all players from last year's inaugural season, will be defensemen Regan Darby and rookie Troy Smith, as well as forwards Cam McCaffrey, Dan Tudin, and rookie Chris Stanley.

"We're putting together a team here that can skate and compete every night," Gulutzan said. "We may not have the skill we had last year, but hopefully we've got energy and a little bit more team speed."

Tudin and Stanley highlight the offensive newcomers. Both are from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Tudin played his rookie season last year with ECHL Columbus. In 66 games with the Cottonmouths, Tudin scored 18 goals and had 28 assists en route to a team-best plus-18 plus-minus rating. Stanley, named the Canadian College Player of the Year last season, had 18 goals and 30 assists for the Tigers.

Perhaps the biggest signing of the late summer for the Wranglers could turn out to be a non-issue. Ask, acquired near the trade deadline last year in a series of moves that was supposed to bolster the Wranglers' playoff roster, was injured shortly after joining the team and was a nonfactor for most of his time with the Wranglers. A 2003 ECHL All-Star, Ask had 21 goals and 30 assists for Toledo before joining the Wranglers.

Ask's upside, however, earned him an invitation to the New York Rangers' preseason camp, and if he impresses the New York brass, he may wind up spending this season with the Rangers' Triple-A team in Hartford. If he doesn't, though, the Wranglers will retain his ECHL rights.

"That was a big signing for us," Gulutzan said. "He's a guy that concerns me a little. He has a good chance of staying in their farm system. It's a hole for us, but good for Morten Ask."

With the roster starting to take its final form, Gulutzan said he's skeptical of the team's ability to come out to a quick start.

"We have a young team and I think we're going to go through some growing pains," he said. "Last year we were a little older and came out of the gate strong. I don't foresee that. I foresee us having to work for our goals but by the end of the year, hopefully we're a team to contend with."