DAYTON MUSICMEN END OF SEASON PRESS RELEASE

****PRESS RELEASE****

MARCH 21, 2016

DAYTON, OH

(Embargoed until Noon, Dayton time...)

The General Manager of the Dayton Musicmen has released the following statement...

The 2015-16 season for the Musicmen was by all accounts a huge success. 

On the ice, we climbed to first place overall by mid-October and stayed there the entire season. We came within a few goals of setting a new CCHL record for all time fewest goals allowed in a regular season. Our goaltending tandem of Devan Dubnyck and Andrew Hammond lead the league by a wide margin for most of the year and deserve the Jennings Trophy they'll receive at the CCHL Awards banquet coming up later this Spring. Our offense was top notch all year as well with four of our forwards scoring more than 100 points. The team was a delight to work with, they did everything we asked of them and more and this year's squad will be remembered as one of the very best we've ever had here in southwest Ohio.

I want to take a moment and congratulate Eugene Yip and his Chinook on their victory in the Corfield Finals. Calgary gave us fits all season and were the team we were most concerned with in the conference. Mr. Price is a bad-ass, period...

Looking forward, the 16-17 version of the 'men will fundamentally remain the same but many supporting pieces will be playing elsewhere. At this time, we do not plan on resigning any of the current UFA's, which include Paul Gaustad, Matt Greene, Drew Miller, Mikko Koivu, Mark Streit and Mark Stuart. To my fellow General Manager's around the league, if any of those players interest you, give me a shout. We'd be looking for some reasonable cash in exchange for them as opposed to a draft pick at this time. (We're flexible on that, of course...)

We've informed Beau Bennett's agent that we will not be bringing Beau back next year. We had high hopes for Beau when we drafted him, but he's never really been able to put it together in such a way that forced us to use him. Hopefully, he can get a look from another CCHL team and make the most of that opportunity. 

I'd say our roster is pretty set for next year. Our top eleven forwards (Seguin, Spezza, Plekanec, Pavelski, Eberle, Tatar, Johnson, Hornqvist, Higgins and Pirri are pretty well set. Our blueline is also very stable with Carlson, Markov, Staal, Hamhuis, Beauchemin and Shultz projecting as our top six guys.

We'll see more of a group approach in nets next year with the addition of Al Montoya into the mix. Right now, I'd say Jake Allen, Devan Dubnyck and Montoya will handle the majority of the work. 

In terms of the upcoming UFA Bidding period, we expect to be on the hunt for a few complimentary 3rd/4th liners and maybe one dman who can play 3rd pairing minutes. We're not expecting the pool to be that appealling this season and we're pretty happy with the guys we already have on board. If the pool contains a few surprises, we'll re-evaluate the situation but the chances we'd like a FA more than of of our current players isn't very high.

Draft-wise, we have no picks and won't be pursuing anything meaningful to speak of in that regard. 

(FYI: There is no press availability for GM Corfield at this time, we hope to schedule a Q&A session for the press over the coming weeks...)