Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
As NHL teams continue their training camps, AHL clubs have started their own camps this week.
It will be a sprint for head coaches and management across the league, as the AHL preseason starts today. Players on tryouts and AHL contracts are largely on hand for now, but large waves of player assignments from NHL training camps are and will continue to arrive in the coming days.
Several established names at the AHL level are in training camp on professional tryout deals. Here is a look at them.
BELLEVILLE SENATORS
Experience on the blue line is always vital, of course, so the B-Sens have Scott Harrington in training camp with them.
Harrington, who had been in camp with the Nashville Predators, has played 255 NHL games. The veteran defender spent last season with the Springfield Thunderbirds, where he had a goal and four assists in 49 games. Belleville is also giving forward Tyler Angle a look. Angle, 25, had four solid seasons with the Cleveland Monsters before going overseas last season and finishing with 27 points (seven goals, 20 assists) in 47 games in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga.
CALGARY WRANGLERS
Defenseman Turner Ottenbreit, a mainstay in the Central Division, is in training camp with the Wranglers.
The 28-year-old logged 49 games last season for the Milwaukee Admirals and then dressed for seven Calder Cup Playoff contests. He has 228 games of AHL experience, mainly with Milwaukee and the Iowa Wild, along with a season in the Kontinental Hockey League as he tries to make a case for an extended opportunity with Calgary.
CHARLOTTE CHECKERS
Depth is going to be a major consideration across the Florida Panthers organization with long-term injuries to star forwards Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk.
As the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Panthers work to patch up their lineup, that trickle-down effect will test Charlotte as well. Fortunately for the Checkers, they have a strong group of hopefuls with them for training camp. Leading the way is forward Daniel Walcott, a mainstay with the Syracuse Crunch for the past 10 seasons. Walcott has played 495 career regular-season games at the AHL level. What he would bring to the Charlotte roster is no mystery. His leadership, dependability, and versatility helped him to earn those 10 seasons with the Crunch. After going to the Calder Cup Finals this past June, the Checkers saw considerable roster turnover this summer. They have brought in forward Josh Lopina (San Diego Gulls) along with help for the blueline in Cole Krygier (Ontario Reign), Andy Welinski (Utica Comets), and Bryan Yoon (Colorado Eagles).
CLEVELAND MONSTERS
Forward Justin Pearson will be getting a look in training camp with the Monsters.
Management, head coach Trent Vogelhuber, and the Cleveland coaching staff have familiarity with Pearson’s game, though. The 27-year-old has played 140 regular-season games across the past three seasons since turning pro out of the University of Connecticut. He had a 10-goal campaign in 2023-24 before going on to post 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in 14 games as the Monsters reached Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
PROVIDENCE BRUINS
The P-Bruins will have physical forward Shawn Element on hand for training camp. Element, 25, has played 208 AHL games with Syracuse and Ontario the past four seasons. He signed a deal with Providence’s ECHL affiliate, the Maine Mariners, on Sept. 21 and could position himself for an opportunity with the P-Bruins this season.
WILKES-BARRE/SCRANTON PENGUINS
As the Pittsburgh Penguins sort out roster choices at the NHL level, they will have significant experience on hand with their AHL affiliate in training camp.
Forwards Brett Murray and Cal Burke remain in the fold after going to training camp on PTOs with Pittsburgh. The 27-year-old Murray posted 27 goals last season for the Rochester Americans and was a selection for the AHL All-Star Classic. Burke, who is 28, has been a reliable AHL forward with both the Henderson Silver Knights and Colorado. Pittsburgh also assigned heady forward Kyle Criscuolo to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s training camp. Criscuolo played a prominent role with Charlotte last season with 19 goals in the regular season, a career high for him at the pro level, and he has exactly 500 games of AHL regular-season experience.
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.