Ron Wilson will join the American Hockey League's Saint John Flames as an assistant coach, the Calgary Flames said yesterday.
Wilson spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach with the AHL's Springfield Falcons. He has also served as a player/assistant coach with Wheeling of the East Coast Hockey League and Moncton of the AHL.
A native of Toronto, Wilson played 14 seasons in the National Hockey League. In 832 NHL games with Winnipeg, St. Louis and Montreal, Wilson collected 110 goals and 216 assists with 415 penalty minutes. Forwards Clarke Wilm and Chris Clark signed contracts with the Calgary Flames yesterday, the NHL team said.
Terms were not disclosed.
Wilm, a 6-foot, 202-pound centre, scored 10 goals and 12 assists last season. The native of Central Butte, Sask., has 20 goals with 20 assists in 156 games.
In his rookie season, Clark played in 22 games, recording an assist and 14 penalty minutes. The 6-foot, 202-pound American had 16 goals with 17 assists with the Saint John Flames. The Pittsburgh Penguins signed defencemen Trent Cull and Mark Moore yesterday.
Cull had 74 penalty minutes in 28 games with Springfield of the AHL last season. He previously played for Houston of the International Hockey League.
Moore, a seventh-round pick by the Penguins in 1997, had 16 points and 236 penalty minutes in four years at Harvard University. Senators' general manager Marshall Johnston expects a heated battle in the Ottawa goal crease when training camp opens in two weeks.
Johnston told the Ottawa Citizen he's not actively searching for a more experienced goaltender, leaving Jani Hurme and Patrick Lalime to battle for the team's No. 1 spot when the regular season begins in October.
"It seems like I have a chance when I go to training camp, but I have to stop some pucks, too," Hurme told the newspaper. "But that's my aim -- to make the team."
Hurme, 25, was originally drafted by the Senators 58th overall in 1997. He has impressed at his three previous training camps, but always had an established goaltender or two in front of him.
The competition with Lalime will give life to the usually stale preseason schedule.
Lalime, 26, acted as a backup to both Ron Tugnutt and Tom Barrasso last season, posting a record of 19-14-3 with a goals-against average of 2.33 and a .905 save percentage. He also had three shutouts.
"I'm ready for [training camp] I'm looking forward to it," Lalime said. The Philadelphia Flyers have made progress in contract talks with winger John LeClair, but the gap with goaltender Brian Boucher seems to be widening.
Flyers' general manager Bob Clarke met with LeClair's agent, Lewis Gross, this weekend. While no accord was reached, the sides did speak positively of the talks and agreed to meet again in about a week with team chairman Ed Snider present.
"John has made it clear he wants to stay here and we've made it clear we want to keep him," Clarke told the Philadelphia Daily News.
Meanwhile, after speaking on the phone with Boucher's agent, Tom Laidlaw, Clarke said he was starting to look at alternatives. Boucher helped lead the Flyers to the seventh game of the Eastern Conference final in May.
"We've started to make some inquiries about some other goalies. It's a concern for us now," Clarke said.
He has said he does not want to go into training camp without an experienced goalie in the fold. Boucher's backup is expected to be 29-year-old Czech rookie Roman Cechmanek, who has never played on the smaller North American surface.
Laidlaw said the sides were far apart in salary proposals. Boucher made $450,000 (U.S.) last season. He and Laidlaw are believed to be asking for more than $2-million a year. The Flyers are believed to have offered a little more than $1-million as a base salary along with incentives. With training camp less than two weeks away, the Pittsburgh Penguins have only one netminder at any level of the organization signed to a contract.
That goalie is Craig Hillier, who has been a minor-league bust since the team made him its top pick in the 1996 draft.
Projected starter Jean-Sébastien Aubin, 23, is a restricted free agent and is seeking a three-year deal and a salary which would double the $350,000 he made last season. Negotiations with Aubin continue, but there is no assurance he will report to camp.