ECHL: Icemen’s Roster Depth Provides Edge

Roster moves have been the theme of the season thus far for the Jacksonville Icemen. The month of November saw a mounting number of call-ups hit the team in the early weeks due to injuries further up in the team’s affiliate pipeline. As players shipped up to Rochester and additional pieces came in to fill in the gaps, the team’s roster stabilized in the latter weeks of the month and went into December relatively motionless. That wouldn’t be the way the Icemen ended the last weeks of the 2023 calendar year, though.

Since Dec. 16., the Icemen have had a handful of players either join or rejoin the team line-up. Forward Jerry D’Amigo signed with the team on Dec. 16, while forward Olivier Nadeau joined the team from Rochester later in the month.

Jacksonville departed with forward Carson MacKinnon on Dec. 19 and defenseman Jeff Solow on Dec. 21, electing to pick up former Maine Mariners defenseman Adam Samuelsson on waivers. Fellow blueliners Nicolas Savoie and Chris Jandric rejoined the team after a stint in Rochester themselves, also returning to the team on Dec. 28.

Happy To See You Here:

Forward Jerry D’Amigo was the first new name to be signed by the team in December. The 32-year-old veteran spent last season playing in the German DEL, suiting up for 38 games with Lowen Frankfort. He also has 31 games of NHL experience.

D’Amigo was held scoreless in his first two games with Jacksonville but has since begun to find his groove. In the Dec. 28 match-up against the Cincinnati Cyclones, a 3-2 loss for the Icemen, D’Amigo helped forward Matheson Iacopelli net the first Icemen goal of the night. He also scored the tying 2-2 goal in the last minutes of the final period, giving the team a chance to pull off a late game comeback.

In the team’s 5-4 New Year’s Eve rematch win in Cincy on Sunday, the forward picked up the secondary assist on Craig Martin’s seventh goal of the season. It’s three points in five games for the seasoned forward, who’s been busy finding ways to contribute positively to his new team.

Waiver wire pick-up Adam Samuelsson joined the Icemen roster on Dec. 18. The 23-year-old Samuelsson is the son of NHL legend Ulf Samuelsson and previously dressed in eight games for the Maine Mariners this season. The defenseman has since appeared in three games for Jacksonville, with his first line-up appearance coming in the Dec. 28 loss to the Cincinnati Cyclones. 

The young blueliner hasn’t had any trouble adjusting to his new team, posting his first point during the team’s New Year’s Eve win in Cincinnati. His early second period goal jump started the Icemen’s 5-4 come-from-behind win, registering the first Icemen tally of the evening after Jacksonville gave up a pair of goals to the Cyclones in the first period.

Defensemen Chris Jandric and Nicolas Savoie returned to the Icemen in late December, joined by new roster addition, forward Olivier Nadaeu. While neither Jandric or Savoie are new to getting on the Icemen scoresheet, Jandric wasted no time in returning to it.

The Icemen defenseman picked up a point in his first game back with the team, registering one assist in Friday night’s win over the Indy Fuel. Jandric assisted on the overtime-winning goal, scored by newcomer Olivier Nadeau. He also picked up two assists in the team’s win on Sunday evening in Cincinnati, proving he’s only picking up where he left off.

Savoie, while held without a point in both Thursday and Friday’s contests, re-added his name to the list of Icemen scorers as well in Sunday’s holiday evening showdown. Savoie picked up one assist in the 5-4 win, which saw 13 different Icemen players contribute to the team’s offensive efforts. Savoie’s first assist in his third game back is his fifth assist of the year.

20-year-old forward Olivier Nadeau was assigned to the Icemen’s roster by the Rochester Americans of the AHL, where he appeared in five games this season. Drafted in the fourth round by the Icemen’s NHL partner team, Buffalo Sabres, in 2021, Nadeau is just setting out on his professional hockey journey. 

Nadeau’s OT winner in Indy was his second goal of the night Friday evening, scoring Jacksonville’s 2-1 goal earlier in the second period. The rookie was sure to make a grand first impression in his first outing with the team, adding an assist on a Craig Martin goal in the first period to help open the scoring. The Friday night tilt resulted in a three point debut performance for Nadeau, although he was one of the few Icemen unable to register a point during the New Year’s extravaganza. 

Good Help Is Hard To Come By:

Fourth in the conference and third in the division, the immediate positive impact of the Icemen’s latest roster additions cannot be understated. Every single player the Icemen added in the last two weeks of December has directly contributed to the pair of wins the team currently has on the road. Now in the tail end of a four-game road stretch, the Icemen are sporting a 2-1 record heading into Orlando on Wednesday. Without the new guys, this might have been another story.

If not for Nadeau’s three-point night and subsequent OT-winning goal, Jacksonville’s 3-2 Friday night victory in Indy may have ended a whole lot differently. Without a complete team effort like Sunday’s big 5-4 win against the Cyclones, a game that saw Samuelsson, Jandric, Savoie, and D’Amigo all get involved in the action, the results may not have been as praiseworthy. Quite frankly, their presence has had an instant impact.

Roster depth has always been a strong suit of the Icemen’s, and the found value in guys like D’Amigo and Samuelsson, and the continuingly developing value of players like Jandric, Savoie, and Nadeau provides the Icemen with plenty of roster depth at their disposal. For a team that has seen its share of ups and downs when it comes to grinding out wins, instant impact has a lot of value.