Last season’s Syracuse Crunch missed the playoffs. The Tampa Bay Lightning organization struggled with injuries for much of the first half of the season at the NHL and AHL level last season. While the Lightning turned it around and made it to the Eastern Conference Final, the Crunch weren’t as lucky.
There were seven players from last season that played at least 30 games for the Crunch and have since left the organization. A couple were fan favorites in Syracuse, and some not so much. We took a look at where those players are now to see how they are doing.
Mike Angelidis
Angelidis’s departure from the organization was the hardest one to take. He was the captain of the Crunch since the Lightning moved their AHL affiliation from the Norfolk Admirals to Syracuse. He played 264 games over four seasons. Sprinkled into that time, he also played eight games for Tampa on top of the six games he had while with Norfolk. He was also one of the most popular players in Syracuse.
His season was marred by injuries that he tried to play through. He was eventually shut down and didn’t finish it out, and there was likely a lot going on behind the scenes that may have played into the Lightning’s decision to not bring the Captain back for another year. He was not re-signed, and signed an AHL contract with the Stockton Heat.
In 37 games as the Heat’s captain, he has five goals and 10 assists for 15 points. That is pretty close to his career AHL scoring rates.
Mike Blunden
Blunden joined the Lightning organization prior to the 2014-15 season as a free agent. He was signed to be fourth line depth. He played in two games for Tampa and 33 games for the Crunch. His 22 points in 33 games was a welcome bit of offense to go along with his veteran leadership. Sadly, an injury cut his season short.
An unrestricted free agent again in the summer, the Lightning had seen enough from him to re-sign him. In 2015-16, he would get 20 games with Tampa, including seven games in the playoffs. He was party to a now infamous line brawl against Detroit that saw Justin Abdelkader unloading punches into the back of his head while Blunden was down on the ice. Blunden came up bloody and shouting at Abdelkader. That line brawl would motivate the Lightning to dispatch the Red Wings in five games.
In between his stints with the Lightning, Blunden was an Alternate Captain for the Crunch and scored 38 points in 49 games. With the Lightning going in a different direction with new free agent signings last summer, Blunden’s services were not retained.
He signed a two-way contract with the Ottawa Senators. He has played one game for Ottawa, but otherwise has spent the rest of his season in the AHL with the Binghamton Senators. He has 13 points in 38 games and has not exhibited as much offense there as he did with the Crunch.
Jeff Tambellini
If there was anyone that deserved to get a call-up last season and didn’t, it was certainly Tambellini. All he did in Syracuse was score. However, it was never enough to earn him a recall to Tampa Bay. He has not played in an NHL game since the 2010-11 season with the Vancouver Canucks.
Tambellini returned to North America last season to play for the Crunch after four seasons in Europe playing in Switzerland and Sweden. He had 49 points in 65 games with 29 points coming from goals. Without interest from any NHL clubs, Tambellini returned to Europe.
This season he has played 41 games for Djurgardens IF in the Swedish SHL. He has nine points, including four goals. He played with Djurgardens IF during the Champion’s Hockey League at the beginning of the season and had five goals and six points in six games during the tournament.
Joey Mormina
Mormina was with the Syracuse Crunch on an AHL contract to be a depth veteran defenseman. He was with the Syracuse Crunch for three seasons, starting in 2013-14. Over three seasons he played in 140 games. He also served as an Alternate Captain during that time. He was traded mid-season to the Rochester Americans.
Mormina completed the season with Rochester and retired over the summer. Over an 11-year professional career, Mormina only played in one NHL game, in 2007-08 for the Carolina Hurricanes. He had 670 career AHL games with 152 points. After retiring, he took a position with Merceyhurst University as an assistant coach.
Phillipe Paradis
Paradis was acquired towards the end of the 2012-13 season. A former first round draft pick by the Carolina Hurricanes, he never developed as expected into a NHL-capable power forward. Over parts of four season, Paradis played 147 games for the Crunch. He was never able to find a solid spot in any AHL lineup that let him produce offensively, and never topped 16 points in a season, though he hit 15 points twice for the Crunch.
An unrestricted free agent after the 2015-16 season, the Lightning did not re-sign him. While I can’t find any news that he has officially retired from hockey, he has not played professionally during the 2016-17 season.
David Broll
An AHL tough guy, Broll came to the Lightning organization in a trade during the 2014-15 season with Carter Ashton. The Toronto Maple Leafs needed contract room and traded the two to the Lightning for a conditional 7th round pick. The conditions weren’t met as Ashton left North America for the KHL following the 2014-15 season, giving the Lightning Broll basically for free.
Broll played mostly on the fourth line for the Crunch and was well likely for his hard, physical style and his willingness to fight. With his entry level contract up, the Lightning did not give him a qualifying offer and allowed him to move on after 80 games and 152 penalty minutes in Syracuse.
Broll found a spot in the Montreal Canadiens organization playing for the St. John’s IceCaps in the AHL. He has only 67 penalty minutes in 40 games played to go with six points.
Anthony DeAngelo
One of the more controversial players in Syracuse, DeAngelo was a healthy scratch seven times during the 2015-16 season, his first professional season. He had 43 points in 69 games, but often lacked defensive awareness in his game. It appeared that the lessons from the coaching staff were not sticking and his discipline was lacking.
DeAngelo desired a quicker path to the NHL and Steve Yzerman realized that DeAngelo was not going to become the player that he thought he could be when drafting DeAngelo in 2014. Yzerman traded DeAngelo to the Arizona Coyotes at the draft for a second round pick and selected Libor Hajek with that pick.
DeAngelo made his NHL debut with the Coyotes and has nine points in 20 games. He also received a three-game suspension for striking an official. After his initial call-up to the NHL, he was sent back to the Tucson Roadrunners to continue to work on his defensive game. In 20 games with Tucson, he has 13 points.
