To a fanbase starved for success, and shell-shocked from a 0-8 start to the regular season for the Columbus Blue Jackets, the 2015-16 Lake Erie Monsters were a breath of fresh air. It turns out that you can win hockey games! You can win a lot of hockey games! And if you win enough games, eventually they give you a shiny trophy. Exciting stuff.

Then the offseason happened, and wow, it feels like a lot of things changed, but when you think about it, there’s only three things different about the 2016-17 Monsters: their players, their coaching staff and their branding.

See? Not really a lot of change. We can easily get through it in a few paragraphs.

The Players:

Out: Oliver Bjorkstrand (F), Josh Anderson (F), Lukas Sedlak (F), Trent Vogelhuber (F), Justin Falk (D), Michael Paliotta (D), Michael Chaput (F), Kerby Rychel (F), Zach Werenski (D).

In: Justin Scott (F), Jordan Maletta (F), Paul Bittner (F), Dante Salituro (F), Blake Siebenaler (D), Aaron Palushaj (F), Jacob Graves (D), Gregory Campbell (F), Michael Houser (G)

The problem with loving an AHL team is that a lot of your players want to, well, not be there. Sure, they’ll play for you for a time, but most of them have got their eye on the bigger prize – a starting role in the NHL. After a stellar Calder Cup run, our graduation levels are high, which is good for Columbus, but less so for Cleveland. C’est la vie.

The Monsters are losing four players to the Columbus Blue Jackets this season: Forwards Oliver Bjorkstrand, Josh Anderson and Lukas Sedlak, along with defenseman Zach Werenski have all been named to the opening night roster for the NHL team. All four were key cogs in the playoffs, catching the eye of management and earning themselves their promotions.

Additionally, Kerby Rychel finally saw his trade request realised, and was shipped off to the Toronto Maple Leafs for Scott Harrington, a defenseman who has also managed to find his way onto the Blue Jackets’ opening night roster.

Centre Michael Chaput and Defenseman Michael Paliotta were both Restricted Free Agents at the end of last season, but the Blue Jackets decided to pass on re-signing them. Chaput went to try his luck in Vancouver, and Paliotta found himself a place in the New York Rangers organisation.

Finally, Trent Vogelhuber, beloved Ohio product, earned himself a two-way NHL/AHL contract with the Colorado Avalanche, and defenseman Justin Falk also parted ways with the organisation, heading over to the Buffalo Sabres.

As a result of all these departures, along with the inevitable injuries, there’s been a restock of players at all positions.

The most notable new addition to the roster is perhaps Gregory Campbell, who, after playing 82 games for the Blue Jackets last year, found himself displaced by the Czech Nightmare (yes, apparently that’s what Sedlak calls himself) in Columbus. Awkward.

After a pretty good performance at Blue Jackets training camp, Aaron Palushaj earned an AHL contract with the Monsters. He’ll probably slot into the kind of veteran forward role vacated by Vogelhuber, and should be a useful utility player to help insulate some of the young forwards who are breaking into the professional ranks.

Goaltender Michael Houser, who was invited to the Blue Jackets camp, has signed an AHL contract as well. He’ll back up Forsberg until Thiessen and/or Korpisalo are healthy. Additionally, the Monsters have added two defensemen – Frank Hora and Sheldon Brookbank – on Professional Try Outs. Eligible to play for the team for up to 25 games, they’ll be covering for injured defensemen Dillon Heatherington, John Ramage and Jacob Graves, along with surprise NHL opening night roster player Markus Nutivaara, who had been expected to start his North American career in the AHL.

Paul Bittner and Blake Siebenaler have both aged out of Juniors, and are making their professional debuts with the Monsters. Bittner is looking to bounce back from a disappointing 15-16 season – he played only 26 games before having hip surgery – while Siebenaler is hopefully going to continue developing his game in the professional ranks.

Finally, Jarmo hit the CHL free agent market hard last year, bringing forwards Justin Scott, Jordan Maletta and Dante Salituro, along with defenseman Jacob Graves, into the fold. Of these players, Salituro has the highest ceiling, but went undrafted twice due to his height. If he can successfully translate his offensive game from Juniors to the professional ranks, he could prove to be an extremely valuable player for Columbus.

The Coaches:

Out: Jared Bednar (head coach); Nolan Pratt (assistant coach).

In: John Madden (head coach); Steve McCarthy (assistant coach).

I was mostly fine when the Avalanche poached Nolan Pratt. I was a lot less fine after Patrick Roy dramatically quit and they poached Jared Bednar to be their head coach.

It was late August, Roy. Couldn’t you have thrown your toys out of the pram at a more convenient time? Like maybe when there were plenty of other coaching candidates your former employers could have chosen?

In all seriousness, this was fantastic news for Bednar, even if it meant that those of us here at the Loose Cannons stressed out for a full weekend about how close it was to the season to be trying to find a coach.

In the end, the new coach announcement was anticlimactically quick, coming the Monday after Bednar left. It turns out people in the hockey world have connections, not just the ability to google “unemployed hockey coaches”, and Bill Zito used his to perfection, snagging us former Florida Panthers assistant coach John Madden.

Madden was literally driving to Ann Arbor to complete his education and help out with their hockey team when he got the phone call from Bill Zito, so really, if you think about it, the Monsters saved him from having to go back to Michigan. I think we can all feel good about that.

As a player, Madden won three Stanley Cups. The Stanley Cup seems to be the NHL equivalent of the Calder Cup, so I’m sure he’ll be able to relate to our players.

The Monsters also added former defenseman Steve McCarthy to the team, replacing Nolan Pratt as assistant coach. A player for the Monsters last year, this is his first year as a coach.

The Branding:

Out: Lake Erie, most of the “wine” dark red.

In: Cleveland, an emphasis on gold that reminds people of the Cavs.

Hey, did you know that the same guy who owns the Cleveland Cavaliers (apparently some kind of… ball? sport team? They won something last season too. Good for them.) also owns the Monsters?

Well, now you do. Love it or hate it, the Monsters have changed their uniform, going from this:

To this:

They will still be wearing CBJ affiliate jerseys on home game Fridays, so we can maybe put away the pitchforks. Please?

The switch from Lake Erie to Cleveland makes the Monsters part of their identity a bit more vague, divorcing it from the context of the actual Lake Erie Monster, but it does help to clarify the location of the team for those of us who have the disadvantage of never having set foot in Ohio.

Our real regret here at Loose Cannons Headquarters is the loss of the nickname LEMs for the team. CleMs just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

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So, there you have it, the quick and dirty guide to the changes made by our beloved Monsters during their short off season. I’ll be here for all 76 games, win or lose (please let there be more “win” than “lose”), bringing you recaps and sporadic gifs (depending on how nice AHL Live chooses to be).



And, maybe, just maybe, this season will extend beyond 76 games, too. Wouldn’t that be nice?

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