Few years back it was quite common to loan players. Especially goalies. There were some agreements where half of the team could have been built in cooperation, like the Syracuse Crunch case back in time. The Edmonton Oilers, in 2006 or so, loaned a lot of players to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Guys like Rob Schremp and Marc-Antoine Pouliot played for our minor-league affiliate. Goalies also, did you know that Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers, Nolan Schaefer and Devan Dubnyk, all Oilers property, played for WBS?FLPensFan wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2024 11:34 amYeah, I'm a bit surprised at the Murashov to AHL...but it's a good thing for the org. It's not a good thing for Gauthier and Larsson. Because they often play 3 days in a row on the weekend, they'll likely need a 3rd AHL goalie...but he should be just that...a career AHLer on an AHL only deal. I would not be surprised to see Gauthier get moved at some point. Either thrown in a deal or an AHLer for AHLer type of swap. He has nothing to prove at the ECHL level, and with the clock ticking on him, waiting it out in the ECHL isn't really good for his career.largegarlic wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2024 10:53 amI do wonder if some of the lack of hype surrounding Murashov outside Pittsburgh is due to Russia being something of a black box at this point, especially after the Ukraine invasion. People are probably wary of traveling to Russia and skeptical about any drafted Russian player actually being able to come over, so they it's not worth it to try to get super knowledgeable about Russian prospects, and Russia might just be less well-scouted than it was before.
Now, we're getting some eye-witness reports that he looks like the real deal, but I can see why that hasn't filtered out yet to national media. I also think it's telling that (according to a Russian-language interview he did that I read somewhere...forget where) the Pens told him he'd be in the AHL this year. As we've talked about, Gauthier and Larsson are not total scrubs, and if he's getting elevated above them already, that shows the organization sees something with him.
Anyway, two years ago we loaned Jan Drozg to Grand Rapids, the Red Wings AHL affiliate. When Ty Smith was traded to Hurricanes, he remained in WBS.
That said, do you see a possibility of Gauthier being loaned to an AHL franchise? He has no business left in ECHL.