Tonight was Colton John Fretter's debut with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, having been traded there from the Chicago Wolves this week. He scored two goals in the debut, the first just seven and a half minutes into the game. So much for getting used to your linemates.
But the interesting thing is that the Sound Tigers were considering trading for Fretter for months and only pulled the trigger now. Gladiators coach Jeff Pyle said that Jack Capuano (Bridgeport coach) called him a month or two ago to ask if he should trade for Fretter. Jeff told him "take him." But Capuano didn't listen at that point.
After this kind of debut, I'm betting he had.
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I remember Coach Pyle saying Frets was "the best prospect he'd ever seen." Getting signed by Chicago was just awful luck as far as he was concerned. He had to feel as good playing for Bridgeport tonight as Guillaume Desbiens felt suiting up in Gwinnett again.
Awful luck? He chose to sign there. He had offers from other AHL teams this summer, and inexplicably chose to stay in Chicago. No one understood why.
Not sure why Dezy should have felt good suiting up for the Gladiators. At this point in his career, not sticking in the AHL lineup is a problem.
You should've seen Dezy in the tunnel for starting line-up introductions Saturday night. He may not be happy playing in the ECHL, but he's definitely happy to be playing somewhere. I can't say why he wasn't getting more ice time in Chi; you would think a tough guy with a scoring touch would be something the Thrashers would like to have in Atlanta, but apparently Coach Anderson's priorities are to win with the best players he has, not to help develop the players that would best help the parent club.
RE: Fretter's signing options, the information I had heard was that he was signed by the Wolves as a favor to the Thrashers, to keep him loosely the Atlanta organ-eye-zation without being directly contracted to the club. Maybe that's true, maybe it isn't. Maybe Frets thought that by signing with Chicago he'd have a better chance to make the Thrashers since they were the club that drafted him before he went to Sparty. Either way, he's clearly got the talent right now to play at least in the AHL and for some reason he hasn't.
But the Wolves have the best record in the Western Conference, so apparently Coach Anderson sits the right people when he has to.
That's true about Fretter the first year of his contract, but it takes two sides to sign a contract and after never getting into a game in 2006-07 with Chicago, he agreed to go back there. His choice. Yes he probably thought it was better to stick close to the Thrashers, but getting playing time to prove yourself is more important.
If I were the Wolves, I'm not sure I would play Dezy over their other players either. He still has some skating issues that get exposed at a higher level.
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