From the Toledo Walleye:
Walleye announce playoff roster
(Toledo, OH) – The Toledo Walleye announced today its list of players that will be on the 2018 Kelly Cup Playoff Roster. Twenty two players are on the roster with the first day of playoffs starting Friday night against the Indy Fuel at the Huntington Center.
Goaltenders Pat Nagle and Angus Redmond will be joined by eight defensemen: Simon Denis, Kevin Lohan, Trevor Hamilton, Jared Wilson, Ryan Obuchowski, Kevin Tansey, Beau Schmitz and Patrick McCarron. The 12 forwards on Toledo’s roster include: Kyle Bonis, Connor Crisp, Austen Brassard, Tyler Barnes, Christian Hilbrich, Shane Berschbach, Dylan Sadowy, Colin Jacobs, Mike Borkowski, Charlie O’Connor, Mike Embach and A.J. Jenks.
Defenseman Parker Reno is on injured reserve and defenseman Kevin Gibson has been released.
Playoff Rosters consist of a maximum of 23 Players – a 20-man active roster and a three-man reserve list. Upon submission of its Playoff Roster, each Member is required to include:
1. a minimum of 19 active, available (i.e. not injured or on recall) Players; and
2. a list of all other Players who meet the Playoff Roster Eligibility requirements, but who are unavailable at the time that Playoff Rosters are due to the League Office due to recall to the AHL or NHL. The Playoff Eligible List may only list Players who are unavailable due to recall. All other players (i.e. injured Players) must be listed on a Member’s initial Playoff Roster (active roster or reserve list) in order to participate in the Playoffs.
Throughout the Playoffs, but prior to the start of the Conference Finals, as the recalled Players listed on a Member’s Playoff Eligible List become available (due to assignment, release from PTO or their respective AHL teams’ seasons having ended), Members shall be permitted to supplement their initial Playoff Rosters with Players listed on their Playoff Eligible Lists, up to a maximum of 23 Players total. Once a Member has named a total of 23 Players to its Playoff Roster, or the Conference Finals have begun (whichever comes first), the Member’s Playoff Roster shall be fixed for the duration of the Playoffs (barring emergency conditions).
A Player who has finished the Regular Season on Injured Reserve may still be named to a Member’s 23-man Playoff Roster and will be eligible to participate in the Playoffs once his full IR time has been completed (provided all other playoff eligibility requirements have been satisfied). Once a Player has fully completed his remaining IR time, he may be activated and placed on the Member’s Active Roster.
Emergency conditions shall be established when the playing strength of the Member, by reason of injury, illness, recall or suspension by the League, is reduced below two (2) goalkeepers and sixteen (16) skaters. However, should a Member release a Player(s) from its Playoff Roster, its emergency conditions will drop by the same number as the Players they release. Only amateur Players may be signed and added to the Active Roster under emergency conditions.
Update: The Toledo Blade’s Mark Monroe weighed in…
Toledo’s roster will include seven players that have played in the higher-level American Hockey League this season. Sadowy, Borkowski, and McCarron have all played for the Walleye’s AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids.
Denis (Hartford), Barnes (Cleveland), Hilbrich (Chicago), and Bonis (Iowa) have all spent time in the AHL this season.
Absent from the list are two players that spent most of the season in Toledo but are currently with Grand Rapids. Rookie goalie Matej Machovsky and forward Zach Nastasiuk were not on the playoff list.
The Walleye (50-17-5) will face the Indy Fuel (36-30-6) in the first round of the Kelly Cup playoffs. Toledo claimed the top seed in the Western Conference and earned home-ice advantage through the first three rounds of the playoffs by capturing both the Central Division and conference regular-season titles.
The teams will square off in Game 1 of the best-of-7 series on Friday at the Huntington Center at 7:35 p.m.
And Monroe confirmed that Alden Hirschfeld is out for the season:
Walleye captain and Sylvania native Alden Hirschfeld will not play again this season.
Hirschfeld, a Northview High School graduate, has appeared in 199 games over five seasons for his hometown team. The forward suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament during a collision in a game at Wheeling on Nov. 10.
The 30-year-old was not listed on Toledo’s playoff roster that was released today. Hirschfeld has not been cleared for full contact by team doctors.
“It’s tough,” Hirschfeld said. “It’s obviously frustrating and hard. But it happened in the game. It’s part of the game.”
