We remain in the busiest time of the NHL offseason for the New Jersey Devils. The Devils made their draft picks and free agency will begin on this Saturday at noon. There’s a lot to do. However, this is also the offseason for All About the Jersey. And, like the Devils will do in the near future, I would like to announce two new people to the blogging organization.
While the news may have come out earlier, I am confirming it from this end. I welcome Jeff Ulmer and Alicia Strauch to All About the Jersey.
Both started at SensShot on the FanSided network for two years and moved on to SB Nation at Silver Seven for the last two years, covering the Binghamton Senators. Jeff primarily wrote about the team from recaps to quarterly grades to player profiles and more, while Alicia provided original photography of Ottawa’s AHL affiliate. In this past season, they have both learned that the Senators are outgoing and that Binghamton will remain an AHL city. The Albany Devils are moving to Binghamton starting in 2017-18. As the New Jersey affiliate announced their move to Binghamton, I was put into contact with Jeff and Alicia through Silver Seven and I am very happy that they are interested in continuing their focus on the new Binghamton team at All About the Jersey.
They may not be New Jersey Devils fans (in time, they might be), but they fully understand and respect what this site is all about and will support Binghamton. Further, additional coverage of the Devils’ AHL affiliate is well worth it. No disrespect to Tom, Karen, or Brian in the past for their coverage; they each did a very good job in the past. But Jeff and Alicia will be taking it to the next level.
Among the many things I have learned over the years, it’s that the AHL team is very important part of the organization. It’s a place where developing players can receive the game experience to improve, where fringe depth players can stay active, where coaching and management tendencies and culture can be flowed down to instill it to all professional players, and it’s a constantly used resource throughout a NHL season for injury and quality replacements. What’s more is that Albany became a competitive hockey team in recent years. It’s a professional team and it is important that the Binghamton Devils remain competitive for the fans in the Binghamton area in addition to being a place where the players, coaches, and staff members can gain additional experience. As such, how Binghamton performs is definitely within the focus of this New Jersey Devils blog. With Jeff and Alicia now joining us, I am confident they will do an excellent job as they have done at Silver Seven, provide that focus on the B-Devils, and we will all be better off for it.
With their arrival, I am also happy to announce that there is a dedicated hub for Binghamton for all of Jeff’s, Alicia’s, and other’s posts about the Binghamton Devils. You will see their work on the front page as well; but in case you miss something or want to go back, then the hub is perfect for visiting. Feel free to bookmark it. Content will come soon. After all, this offseason isn’t just for New Jersey to improve their roster. With Vojtech Mozik, Karl Stollery, and Petr Straka already gone, the B-Devils will need to fill in gaps in their depth chart too.
If nothing else, you can follow them individually on Twitter: Jeff is at @Ski931 and Alicia is at @AliciaS20.
Thank you, Jeff. Thank you, Alicia. And thank you all for reading.