AHL: Rivermen Reversing Course

A 1-9-0-1 February put Peoria in a precarious predicament in the West Division playoff race to end the month, but the Rivermen rebounded with two wins to start March. Led by veterans such as Trent Whitfield, Jean-Guy Trudel, and Mike Glumac, rookies such as Julian Talbot, Nikolai Lemtyugov, Nicholas Drazenovich, and Chris Porter have provided important secondary scoring for Peoria all season. The Rivermen have also sported some impressive prospects on the backend, too, such as defensemen Erik Johnson (for one game), Steve Wagner, and Roman Polak, and goaltender Marek Schwarz. McKeen's correspondent Kevin Wey has had the opportunity to see the Peoria Rivermen on a few occasions in 2007-08 and enters notes on a number of the St. Louis Blues' prospects.

Erik Johnson (StL), D, Peoria Rivermen

Has a powerful stride .. passes are crisp, hard, and accurate .. adept at connecting long-distance passes .. demonstrates good agility with the puck, especially in spinning away from forecheckers and quickly making a pass thereafter .. has good offensive vision and can find the open man .. maintains poise with the puck .. has a heavy shot, be it slapshot, one-timer, or wristshot .. defensive game still needs a little work, as the 6-foot-4, 222-pound defenseman was not particularly effective in the corners and along the boards .. little reason to believe he will not become defensively sound with time, though.

Steve Wagner (StL), D, Peoria Rivermen

Effort appeared lacking in an appearance shortly after his re-assignment to Peoria from St. Louis, but looked better in subsequent appearances .. has a smooth stride forward with some power to his long stride .. generally makes crisp and accurate passes .. likes to join the offensive rush when he can, and is responsible in doing so .. primarily needs to work on consistency, as he can almost end up a liability when his effort is lacking.

Marek Schwarz (StL), G, Peoria Rivermen

Highly athletic goalie, but relies on it too much .. can often be caught moving in the wrong direction on his kick saves, which can also create awkward rebounds .. shows a tendency to kick out to his left .. able to make splits saves with ease and can go down and up quickly in the butterfly position .. has a fairly active glove, but also has a tendency to make his glove saves appear more impressive than necessary.

Roman Polak (StL), D, Peoria Rivermen

Primarily a defensive defenseman but who has underlying and reliable puck skills .. demonstrated some agility with the puck and can cut back or regroup on forecheckers .. makes accurate passes .. has a huge slapper from the point, which helped him see time on the powerplay.

Chris Porter (StL), LW, Peoria Rivermen

Future checking-line/energy-line NHLer .. a conscientious forward defensively who is often first on the forecheck and finishes his checks with authority .. does not relent on goaltenders that come out to handle the puck .. combination of defensive awareness, decent speed, and hustle allows him to create turnovers .. can make things happen from his defensive efforts, as he is a consistent presence around the net, makes crisp, accurate passes, and can use his size to shield the puck or fight through checks .. also picks off his fair number of passes in the neutral zone .. has a heavy shot .. a regular on the penalty kill and handy as the big man in front on the powerplay .. a prime example of how offense can come from a defense-first mentality.

Nikolai Lemtyugov (StL), RW Peoria Rivermen

Flashy, highly skilled Russian forward .. has very soft hands and can undress opposing defensemen who look at the puck .. can handle the puck in a phone booth .. likes to make toe-drags back in toward his body, which opponents can come to expect if they are paying attention .. adept at stickhandling wide from his body or in close .. likes to hold up at the point and make a centering pass or make a drop pass .. makes crisp and accurate passes .. has decent speed and has a fairly long stride .. will have to shore up his defensive game further for St. Louis to consider recalling this puck whiz.

Nicholas Drazenovic (StL), C, Peoria Rivermen

Center with good two-way awareness and skill .. fairly adept stickhandler who can lay down some nice moves, handle it wide from his body, or draw it back into his body .. can over stickhandle at times .. likes to hold up at the point and make centering passes .. also adept at cycling the puck and coming out of the corner or off the half walls for a shot .. does a good job to stay open to the play, with or without the puck .. conscientious in helping his defensemen down low .. has decent speed, but lacks high-end speed.

Charles Linglet (StL), LW, Peoria Rivermen

Highly confident and calm with the puck, never panics with it .. has soft hands and can use his 6-foot-2, 212-pound frame to shield the puck from defenders .. possesses good hand-eye coordination for batting down and controlling airborne passes .. has deceptive speed, as he never looks rushed, but the speed is there and he has fairly long, powerful strides .. has a good shot power, whether it is his slapshot, one-timer, snapshot, or wristshot .. makes hard, crisp, accurate passes and is dangerous in making feeds from behind the net, in the corners, or off the half boards .. adept at getting in behind the defense or finding teammates for crisp backdoor feeds .. very good at slowing the game down but has the speed and power to play otherwise.

Alexander Hellstrom (StL), D, Peoria Rivermen

Defenseman has seen limited minutes and has even played some at forward this season .. could use additional power when accelerating backwards, but does have quick feet .. has good backwards skating form and has the balance to do a backwards sliding leg drag .. shows good speed bursts to win races for the puck .. passes the puck hard, fairly crisp, and accurately .. has a good pointshot and keeps it low .. will initiate physical contact and has some size at 6-foot-2, 207 pounds .. hopefully, room is made for Hellstrom to receive regular icetime in Peoria in 2007-08, as he has some decent tools to work with.

Julian Talbot (FA), C, Peoria Rivermen

Hard-working player who forechecks intelligently and hustles on the backcheck .. also good at pressuring the point and blocking shots out of the zone or causing defensemen to mishandle it out of the zone .. dangerous coming out of the corner and has a nice wristshot .. makes crisp, accurate passes .. turned a strong 2006-07 season with the Alaska Aces of the ECHL into a spot at a Blues developmental camp, and that into a spot at the Blues training camp, and that into an AHL contract and a solid spot in the Rivermen lineup.