Monsters Roster, Lines, Still Taking Shape

By Scott Harrington, 10/25/19, 2:00PM EDT

“High-Tempo” the buzzword(s) around RMF

As the Cleveland Monsters took their morning skate at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in advance of their encounter with the Rockford IceHogs Friday night, things were not as crowded on the ice as they had been through camp, pre-season and the first few weeks of the 2019-20 American Hockey League regular season.

On Thursday, forwards Maxime Fortier and Nikita Korostelev and defenseman Michael Prapavessis were sent to Jacksonville of the ECHL.

That still leaves 27 players on the Cleveland roster, but that is just fine with head coach Mike Eaves, who is still familiarizing himself with the personnel in the Columbus/Cleveland organization and was in no hurry to thin the herd.

“In reality it was the lack of games scheduled for the team in the ECHL,” Eaves said when asked why so many players had remained on the roster. “Management didn’t want them to go down and not play, they would rather have them with us and practicing and the benefit was I got to know them better.”

Twenty four of the 30 players on the Opening Night roster suited up for the Monsters last season but, while the fans may be familiar with much of the roster, Eaves was not.

“I don’t mind having five lines and eight ‘D’ as long as you are having high-tempo practices,” he said. “But in reality, that is too many bodies for games. These guys are players. They want to play.”

Monsters assistant coach Steve McCarthy

Monsters assistant coach Trent Vogelhuber

Eaves said his lines are starting to solidify a little bit, but he has certainly not cemented any combinations yet.

“I’m still getting to know these young men,” he said. “That’s a big part of the process right now.”

Eaves has excellent resources close at hand as he gets to know the AHL landscape.

“I have two outstanding assistants who know the league and I’ve been able to lean on them,” he said, referring to Steve McCarthy and Trent Vogulhuber.

The extra manpower can also be beneficial when considering the type of game Eaves wants to see his team play. He intends on using his whole lineup.

“We would like to be a four-line team because we want to play fast and we want to play hard and if you play that tempo you can roll through four lines.” He said after leading the team through a brisk skate.

The Monsters are still playing teams on the schedule for the first time but, beginning in two weeks, they will begin to see the likes of Grand Rapids, Laval and Rochester the second time around. That may give Eaves the opportunity to start being more strategic with in-game bench management but, for now, he wants to keep everybody involved as much as possible.

“As we get to know teams and get into certain situations in games maybe we’ll go to three lines if we need goal, or four D,” he said. “But for the most part we want to roll guys and play guys and keep that high tempo."

The Monsters and IceHogs will drop the puck at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, then be right back out on the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse ice for a 1:00 p.m. matinee on Saturday.

SCOUTING THE ICEHOGS

Matt Tomkins with Ohio State

Former Monster Nick Moutry is on the Rockford roster, as is former Ohio State goalie Matt Tomkins.

Moutry played 138 games for the Lake Erie/Cleveland Monsters from 2015-2018, including two games in the Calder Cup championship run in 2016 – his rookie season. He was a fourth-round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013 and is signed to an AHL contract with Rockford.

Just Scott, for one, is looking forward to seeing his former teammate out on the ice.

“Yeah, for sure,” Scott grinned. “It is going to be tough taking him serious out there.”

Tomkins is into the third year of his pro career, which he has split between Rockford and the Indy Fuel (ECHL). He played 54 games in the ECHL last season, posting a 29-19-3 record. With Colin Delia and Kevin Lankinen also on the roster, Tomkins has an uphill battle for playing time. Delia has seen NHL action with the parent Chicago Blackhawks each of the past two seasons and Lankinen stopped 75 of 76 shots over the final two games to backstop Finland’s gold medal run at the 2019 IIHF World Championship. He shut out a Russian team that included Alexander Ovechkin, Nikita Kucherov and Evgeni Malkin in the semifinals, then stopped 43 of 44 shots against Canada in the final game.

Another reason to go down to see the Monsters play Rockford this weekend: The chance to see 19-year-old Swedish defenseman Adam Boqvist in action. Boqvist was the #8 overall pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft and is one of the most skilled prospects at his position in the world. He scored 10 goals in 11 playoff games with the London Knights (OHL) last season and won’t be in the AHL for long.

--- Scott Harrington for Ohio Hockey Digest

Cleveland forward Justin Scott looks forward to tonight's tilt with the Rockford IceHogs and former Monster Nick Moutry

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