ORLANDO, FLA – Throughout the off season, the Toronto Maple Leafs talked about their “all in” attitude in regards to using the Orlando Solar Bears to develop players. Now the fans know what all that chatter meant.
Wednesday night in front of an enthusiastic crowd of corporate partners and community leaders, the Solar Bears kicked off their fourth ECHL season by introducing the roster that new head coach Anthony Noreen and assistant coach John Snowden selected. The announcement came just ahead of Saturday’s season opener against the Greenville Swamp Rabbits at the Amway Center.
“When we started putting this team together, I talked to Jason (Siegel, team president) and Joe (Haleski, team chairman) and to a few of the guys in Toronto. We put a pretty simple plan in place: get a group of guys that are young, hungry, passionate about the game, want to become better hockey players and move on and want to become better men,” Noreen told the assembled group. “It was that simple.”
The process for Noreen was two-fold. He stated that recruiting players for ECHL-specific contracts was just part one of the puzzle. Part two – the part that he had far less control over – was how many players would be sent by Toronto through the AHL Marlies organization to Orlando via their contracts. It was easy to see at Wednesday’s event just how impactfull the Solar Bears affiliation with Toronto would be. No less than 14 of the 27 players introduced (one player, Mark Louis who was acquired in a trade had not arrived in time but had a roster spot waiting for him) came from the Maple Leafs organization.
What makes this group and situation into a stroke of genius is both the knowledge of the players by the coach and the familiarity between the players themselves. In an effort to get everyone on the same page, Noreen spent almost all of September in Toronto with the Leafs and Marlies. Additionally, many of the players spent as much time together through the Leafs annual rookie tournament, the start of the NHL training camp and finally the beginning of the AHL camp.
“There’s a lot of guys that I’ve been playing with with the last month to month-and-a-half. Guys like Brett Findlay and Patrick Watling (both of whom spent much of last season in Orlando),” forward Jack Rodewald said. “They’re all really good players. It’s going to be good to see how the first couple of games go and what lines we’re playing on.
Rodewald, one of the young guns sent to the City Beautiful to hone their skills, played a lot with Brady Vail, one of last year’s top performers for the Solar Bears. The pair were electric together in the rookie tournament and it carried over to the Leafs and Marlies camps.
Defenseman Brenden Miller, another of the Toronto prospects, will start the year in the ECHL because of a stacked blueline on the Marlies roster. He too had a month to get to know many of the players sent south.
“I know most of the guys already. It’s really nice coming in with a group of guys that you know,” he said. “We’ve all been learning the same system since September and we’re midway thru October now. I feel like we’re going to have a head start against a lot of teams.”
With all of the new faces comes a need to learn a new city. Thankfully for the Solar Bears, veterans Eric Baier and Scott Tanski have stepped up to provide the guidance that comes with being fixtures in what has seemingly become their “adopted homes”.
Not every player needed to be shown the ropes of living in Central Florida. Forward Matt Rupert got to experience Orlando last year thru the eyes of his brother Ryan, who began 2014-15 with the Solar Bears before an early call-up to the Marlies.
“We texted a lot last year when he (Ryan) was here so he told me everything, what was going on and stuff like that,” Matt said. “I feel like I’ve got a stepping stone for what to look for and how to play. It will give me a lot of help for this year.”
Needless to say, goaltending will play a major role in how the Solar Bears will fare this season. Realizing that Orlando needed to be able to have a solid netminder in the event of a revolving goalie situation, Toronto went out and signed seasoned veteran Rob Madore to and AHL-ECHL contract. By all accounts, Madore was slated to be the “steady” roster goalie until a trade changed the Leafs’ depth chart, immediately making Madore the odds-on favorite to be the number netminder.
Solar Bears fans still have vivid memories of how Madore almost single-handedly knocked Orlando out of the 2014 Kelly Cup playoffs while he was with Cincinnati. He said that he remembers the Amway Center crowds well and the idea of having them on his side is exciting to think about.
“It’s pretty well known in hockey that Orlando is a great place to play. It stems from the fans. They’re unbelieveable fans. It’s a great downtown area,” Madore said. “It seems like the city is starting to catch on to the Solar Bears and hopefully with some more success, it’ll be even better.”
Since he stands to benefit the most from the team in front of him playing well, Madore was asked about his thoughts on having a top notch squad in front of him. In true goalie form, he admitted the idea thrilled him but that his focus is more on his own contributions to the Solar Bears’ success.
“The best part of being on a good team is you get really good, quality practice. There are a lot of guys out there challenging every day and your job is to challenge them and try to make the team better,” he said. “How your team plays in front of you is one of those things you don’t control. No matter how good your team is, every team ia going to have a down night. Every team is going to be lights out one night. My job doesn’t change depending on what the guys are doing in front of me. Every time I’m out there my job is to give the team the best chance to win.”
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