A New York Central Mercury train is dwarfed by Cleveland’s Union Station, November 1936.Photograph by J. Baylor Roberts

Passengers in the dining car of the New York Central Railroad's "Mercury" train service, ca. 1936. The Art Deco locomotives, cars, and their interiors were designed by Henry Dreyfuss.

Photo: Keystone View Company/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images/Rare Historical Photos

NYC Mercury in Chicago

7-7-1936

A New York Central Mercury train in front of Cleveland’s Union Station.

A New York Central Mercury train departing Cleveland’s Union Station, Ohio, 1936 - by J. Baylor Roberts (1902 - 1994), American

I've been seeing screenshots of this tweet making the rounds lately:

I did a thread on Twitter adding some historical context, but it's easier to write long-form stuff on websites like Tumblr, so I'll do it here, too.

This is a screenshot from a 1944 election propaganda film called Hell-Bent For Election. The locomotives do indeed represent FDR (left) and his rival, Thomas E. Dewey (right). Dewey would famously try to run again in 1948 and was considered the favorite against Harry Truman, leading to the famous Dewey Defeats Truman newspaper headline. The film was directed by Chuck Jones (yes, that Chuck Jones) and distributed by United Auto Workers. It was made amidst WWII, and it isn't subtle about making sure the viewer knows a vote against FDR is a vote for Hitler. (Weirdly enough, there's a character that can easily be read as an antisemitic caricature trying to get the protagonist to vote for Dewey despite what we know was happening in retrospect; this is actually quite jarring and uncomfortable from a historical perspective.)

OP probably doesn't know this, but FDR isn't being depicted as a bullet train. The Shinkansen doesn't show up until the 1960s, and at any rate, the US was very much at war with Japan at the time this film was made, so there's no way FDR would be depicted using Japanese railroad technology even if it did exist at the time. What he is being shown as, however, is a streamliner.

Notice this gap here? Streamlined steam locomotives usually still had their drive wheels exposed to a degree to make maintenance easier. In particular, FDR resembles a New York Central Mercury (4-6-4 Hudson) with his chin as an added cowcatcher.

The streamlined cladding for the Mercury was designed by Henry Dreyfuss, who would go on a few years later to design arguably the most famous streamlined NYC Hudson locomotives: the Dreyfuss Hudsons.

You can see a bit of influence from these in the FDR locomotive, as well, as it has a ridge along the top. These pulled prestigious passenger trains known for high speed, including the flagship 20th Century Limited. FDR was, of course, from old money and could afford that sort of thing, but that's likely not the reason they depicted him as a streamliner here.

Streamlined locomotives emerged in the 1930s despite the economic hardships in the United States at the time. They were designed to evoke a sense of speed and modernity, and they represented a society moving forward. By depicting FDR as one, it projects a sense of strength, especially in comparison to the tired old Dewey locomotive, which looks nearly half a century old. This was a crucial portrayal considering that FDR had polio (or possibly Guillain-Barré Syndrome, another explanation) and due to ableism he had to hide that affliction to avoid being seen by opponents (both political and wartime) as "weak." Additionally, Dewey's consist (the train cars he's pulling) is made up of outdated policies, including a caboose labeled with "Jim Crow."

I find the use of a streamliner rather ironic because at the time this film was made, many streamlined locomotives were being un-streamlined so the extra metal could be used for the war effort. It's a bit of an odd choice from that angle, but it's clear that the imagery of streamliners and what they represented in the minds of the public was still going strong.

Also worth noting: yes, FDR won the November 1944 election and began a fourth term in office. He died only a few months later, in April 1945, and was succeeded by his Vice President, Truman, who finished his term and then, as mentioned above, beat Dewey again in an upset to win a full term in 1948.

(Truman gleefully holding up the incorrect Chicago Tribune at St. Louis Union Station, 1948)

So that's that, I suppose! You can watch the film here, as it's in the public domain:

(If you enjoy my historical writing, consider donating to my Ko-Fi so I can keep AGI running as smoothly as the 20th Century Limited! Thanks for reading!)

One Of The Most Beautiful Trains Ever Made, The ‘Mercury’ Streamliner, Designed In Art Deco-Style By Henry Dreyfuss For The New York Central Railroad. Here's One Captured In Chicago In 1936

Pierre Soulages (24 December 1919 – 26 October 2022)

Known as “the painter of black and light,” Pierre Soulages has forged a career remarkable not only for its rigorous invention, but for its longevity. Since the postwar period, the artist has evaded participation in such movements as Abstract Expressionism, tachism, and informel—rather contextualizing his paintings in terms of vitalism, classicism, and prehistoric forms. 

Already in 1948, he refused the terms of lyrical abstraction: “Painting is not the equivalent of a sensation, an emotion, or a feeling; it is the organization of colored forms, on which is made and unmade a meaning that we impose on it.”

Mr Soulages has explored such contingency predominantly with the color black, arriving at tactile canvases which might recall nocturnal landscapes or charred earth. Since 1979, he has pursued his series Outrenoir, whose title is a portmanteau Soulages defines as “beyond black.” With these variously gouged, scraped, and slicked tar-like surfaces, he transforms the spatial and temporal dimensions of painting. 

Critic Donald Kuspit once described the abstractions as “negatively sublime”—they inflect obdurate materiality with the mercurial aspects of light, achieving the effect of the immeasurable.

As a child, Soulages was drawn to the prehistoric menhirs found in his hometown of Rodez and the Romanesque architecture of the Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy in nearby Conques, and he would paint winter trees in black on a brown background, rendering branches in such a way to suggest movement in space. These early influences and endeavors would go on to shape his work for seven decades. 

In 1938, he moved to Paris to train as a drawing teacher and take the entrance exam for the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. Though he was accepted, he declined the offer, dissatisfied with the school’s mediocre standards. He returned to Rodez newly inspired after visiting exhibitions of work by Cézanne and Picasso. He was soon conscripted into French military service, but he forged papers to avoid mandatory labor for the Nazi party and spent the occupation in central France working as a wine producer.

In 1946, Soulages returned to Paris to devote himself to painting, and he eventually settled into a studio on Rue Schoelcher near Montparnasse. He first exhibited his paintings—bold, flat marks of walnut stain on paper—in the Salon des Surindependents of October 1947, where he caught the attention of Francis Picabia. The following year would prove significant to Soulages’s exposure throughout Europe and the United States: He was the youngest artist to be included in Grosse Ausstellung Französische Abstrakte Malerei (Grand Exhibition of French Abstract Painting), the major traveling exhibition of abstract art organized by the Württembergische Kunstverein in Stuttgart; and James Johnson Sweeney, the future director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, made a visit to Soulages’s studio after hearing talk in Paris of a painter who worked in black with broad brushstrokes.

In 1949, the artist mounted his first solo exhibition at Galerie Lydia Conti in Paris, and his paintings were included in a group exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery in New York, where his work was received as a French analog to that of the New York School artists. In 1950, his paintings were juxtaposed with those of Franz Kline in the acclaimed exhibition Young Painters in the US and France, curated by Leo Castelli at Sidney Janis in New York. 

Three years later, Sweeney included the artist in Younger European Painters at the Guggenheim, alongside Karel Appel, Alberto Burri, Hans Hartung, and Victor Vasarely, among others. Before the exhibition closed, Soulages had signed with the legendary Samuel Kootz Gallery, where he had his first solo exhibition in New York just two months later. 

Mr Soulages’s first retrospective was presented in 1960 at the Museum Folkwang, Essen, followed by iterations at the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, and Kunsthaus Zürich. His first American retrospective was held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 1966. There, he suspended his paintings, back to back, from cables attached to the ceiling so that they appeared to float freely in space. The following year, the first retrospective dedicated to Soulages in France was presented at the Musée National d’Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

In 1979, Soulages debuted his “mono-pigmented” black paintings at the Centre Pompidou, inaugurating Outrenoir, the body of work which would dominate his practice for the decades to come.  “These paintings were first called ‘Black Light,’ thus designating a light that was inseparable from the black that reflected it,” Soulages has said. “In order not to limit them to an optical phenomenon, I invented the word ‘Outrenoir’ beyond black or—across black—a light transmitted by black.” Soulages received the Grand Prix National de Peinture in 1986, and the following year he was granted a major commission from the French state to design 104 stained-glass windows for the Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy. Over eight years, he expanded his engagement with light and architectonics to produce one of the great site-specific projects of the postwar period. In 1992, he received the Praemium Imperiale for Painting from the Japan Art Association.

Mr Soulages has been honored with two additional retrospectives in France, at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1996, and at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in 2009. In 2001, he was the first living artist to be given a full-scale survey at the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, and in 2014, the Musée Soulages opened in the artist’s hometown of Rodez, housing five hundred paintings spanning Soulages’s career. 

More than 150 of his paintings are in public collections around the world, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Tate Modern, London; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

On the occasion of Soulages’s centennial birthday in December 2019, the Musée du Louvre paid homage to the artist with a survey of his seven-decade career, concurrent with an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou. Before Soulages, the Louvre has honored only two other artists with an exhibition during their respective lifetimes: Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall. To shed greater light on the French artist’s presence in the United States, Lévy Gorvy presented the major survey Pierre Soulages: A Century in New York from September to October 2019. This exhibition was accompanied by a publication, featuring essays by Brooks Adams and Alfred Pacquement as well as poems by Sy Hoahwah and Virginie Poitrasson.

Peinture 81 x 60 cm, 3 décembre 1956, oil on canvas signed and re-signed, dated 12-56-1-57, 81 x 60 cm (approx. 31.8 x 23.6 in). © Adagp, Paris 2020.

Yesterday, I made the post going over the backstory of the three S Motors; Sparky, Skyler, and Sarah. Now this post will go over the backstory of the three P Motors:

Perry - P Motor #226

Pearl - P Motor #242

Paul - P Motor #224

Delivered to the New York Central from 1929 - 1930, the P Motors; Perry, Pearl, Paul, and their 19 siblings were the largest and most powerful electric locomotives in New York Central’s roster. They were painted in New York Central style but were lettered for Cleveland Central Terminal; as the P Motors were originally involved in a consortium of railroads involved in the large scale Cleveland Union Terminal project, with the New York Central being the majority owner. The P Motors were originally classed as P-1 P Motors, and they worked alongside the older T Motors and even older S Motors. The S Motors; Sparky, Skyler, and Sarah, despite being smaller, became good mentors and friends to Perry, Pearl, and Paul. And like the S Motors and T Motors before them, the P Motors were capable of both pulling trains and being switchers. Perry, Pearl and Paul often pulled the 20th Century Limited when it was in Grand Central Terminal.

The P Motors continued their regular duties until the 1950s, when an increasing use of diesel locomotives was making the use of electric locomotives and their associated power changes seen as unnecessary. But it wasn’t only the electric locomotives that saw this change, the steam engines were too. This was when Perry, Pearl and Paul met Grey, Jason, Peter, Derek, Bruce and Lenny and these six diesels has remorse and respect for the older steam engines and even the older electric locomotives. Perry, Pearl and Paul saw this and became friends with the 6 diesels, and the 6 diesels told the three P Motors that they sent Mohawk, Niagara, Hudson, Steele, Mark and Mercury into hiding. Perry, Pearl and Paul were relieved but they, along with Grey, Jason, Peter, Derek, Bruce and Lenny, began praying and hoping that the six NYC steamers won’t be found and scrapped. By 1955, the New York Central sent the P Motors back to General Electric to have the P Motors’ electrical equipment changed over. These modifications resulted in significant weight savings with no loss of power or tractive effort.

This resulted in the P Motors being re-classified as P-2 P Motors. Perry, Pearl and Paul were among them, and they were impressed with their modifications. And by this time, the P Motors received New York Central lettering. Perry, Pearl, Paul and their siblings continued to pull the New York Central’s premier passenger trains between Croton-Harmon and Grand Central Terminal. The P Motors even served the later Penn Central, and Perry, Pearl and Paul were the only P Motors to keep their New York Central liveries, patterns and lettering while the rest of their siblings were repainted into Penn Central black and received Penn Central lettering. But after significant reductions in long distance passenger service in the 1970s, all the P Motors were retired and scrapped… except Perry, Pearl and Paul. They were saved by their old friends and mentors: the S Motors; Sparky, Skyler and Sarah. And because of the S Motors’ actions, Perry, Pearl and Paul became the only P Motors left in existence.

By 1980, news spread that Mohawk, Niagara, Hudson, Steele, Mark and Mercury were found by Ronnie and Terry (both made by Grantgfan and credit goes to Grantgfan). Once Perry, Pearl and Paul heard the news, they were relieved and eager to see them again. After the six New York Central steam engines came of of the shops, newly restored back to operational condition, the three P Motors told them everything that happened, ranging from the New York Central’s final days, the Penn Central merger, and so on. And after that, Perry, Pearl and Paul got to meet Ronnie and Terry. By 1982, Perry, Pearl and Paul got to meet three other New York Central steam engines: Mary, Max and Ruby, whom, a year before, had just returned from Union Pacific.

And since then, the three P Motors continue to work alongside the other surviving New York Central locomotives in keeping the legacy, spirit and memories of the New York Central System alive.

And so, that’s the backstory on the three P Motors. I hope you all enjoyed reading this and stay tuned for the next post, which will go over the four Pennsylvania Railroad GG1s. And yes, I’ve decided to do the post on the NYC GP7s after I do the post on the PRR GP7s, so stay tuned for those.

Day 24: New Haven EP-5

Info from Wikipedia

The New Haven EP-5 was a double-ended mercury arc rectifier electric locomotive built in 1955 by General Electric, for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. It was built to haul passenger trains between Grand Central Terminal or Penn Station in New York City and New Haven, Connecticut. The EP-5s resembled the Alco FA.

The EP-5s were the first AC passenger electric locomotives to use rectifiers to convert alternating current from overhead wires to direct current for the traction motors. They also collected DC from the third rail used by the New York Central, whose tracks the New Haven used to reach Grand Central Terminal. All of the class were equipped with the Pennsylvania Railroad's cab signal system needed to operate into Penn Station; Washington, D.C.-Boston through trains over the Hell Gate Bridge, plus the Montrealer/Washingtonian, were their main assignment throughout their New Haven careers.

The units were known as "Jets" due to the roaring sound made by their main blowers; an example of this characteristic was inadvertently preserved for posterity in a scene shot at Grand Central Terminal, the very first moments of the movie The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.

The EP-5s had a reputation for rapid acceleration and high pulling capacity. However, the class also had a tendency to overheat and catch fire due to the crowded, poorly ventilated internal component arrangement, a situation made necessary by the need for the units to conform to the weight restrictions imposed by the New York Central's Park Avenue steel viaduct. This problem was significantly aggravated by the New Haven management's de-emphasis of electric operations in favor of its new dual-power FL9 diesels, and the railroad's financial condition. By 1962, a year after the New Haven entered bankruptcy, only three units were in service. All 10 were quickly rebuilt under the trustees' management, but by the time of the New Haven's 1969 inclusion in Penn Central, four were again out of service (and were soon scrapped). The EP-5s were rapidly replaced on Washington–Boston trains by the reliable former Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electrics.

When the New Haven was merged into PC, the six units still in service were redesignated as the E-40 class, and were assigned to commuter train service between Grand Central Terminal and New Haven. The E-40s continued in this service, steadily dwindling in number, until May 1973 when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority suddenly banned them after #4971 caught fire in the Park Avenue Tunnel; all went into dead storage. Amtrak passed them up for new electrics. Two of the units, #4973 and #4977, were rebuilt by PC into freight units, stripped of their third-rail capability, steam generators, and one of the two pantographs. They were used in a variety of light-duty freight services, but their utility was limited by their lack of multiple-unit capability and dynamic brakes. Within a year of Penn Central's inclusion into Conrail, the remaining two E-40s were retired. All were scrapped by 1979.

models and route by: Pweiser, Auran, and Download Station

Henry Dreyfuss: Groundbreaking UI Designer Part One

“When the point of contact between the product and people becomes a point of friction, then the industrial designer has failed.” – Henry Dreyfuss

To say that Henry Dreyfuss was one of the most influential designers of the Twentieth Century may sound like an overstatement until one considers his portfolio of iconic designs. Dreyfuss and his firm were responsible for products that were ubiquitous during the past century, including the Model 500 telephone and Honeywell’s circular thermostat. Both products were found in many American homes until digital products replaced them. Dreyfuss designs ranged from clocks and vacuum cleaners to locomotives and steamships. As if this is not impressive, Dreyfuss is considered a pioneer in user experience design. (1)

Henry Dreyfuss (c. 1940). Photographer unknown. Image source.

Henry Dreyfuss as a Young Man

Henry Dreyfuss was born in Brooklyn on March 2, 1904. Not much is known of his early life, but his family had a theatrical supply business which may have connected young Henry with one of his earliest jobs, “designing sets for stage presentations at a Broadway motion-picture theatre”(2).  Dreyfuss later studied as an apprentice with Norman bel Geddes. After leaving bel Geddes, Dreyfuss continued on with theatrical design, producing “250 stage sets for a number of theatres before 1928”(2). during this time received special recognition for “the cellblock set for The Last Mile, a 1930 production starring Spencer Tracy. (3)

Dreyfuss was offered a job on the design staff of the Macy Company, but turned it down because, in 1929, at the age of 25, Dreyfuss opened his own design firm. That same year he won a telephone design contest held by Bell Laboratories and “began work in 1930 in collaboration with Bell staff”(2) to produce the Model 300 telephone; “molded in black phenolic plastic”(2) the phone had a transmitter and receiver housed together in the same handset. (2)

As Dreyfuss’s business grew, he recognized the need for a business manager. Doris Marks, “the daughter of the former borough president of Manhattan”(2) was recommended by one of Dreyfuss’s old schoolmates. Dreyfuss hired her, and the two hit it off immediately. They later married and had three children: a son and two daughters. (4) Doris remained involved in the design business and assisted Henry in publishing several books. She also served on the boards of several philanthropic organizations. (6)

Design Breakthroughs in the 1930s

Remarkably The Great Depression in the 1930s was a period of great productivity and success for Dreyfuss. In 1933, he designed a “flat top” refrigerator for General Electric that hid the “previously exposed refrigeration unit by placing it beneath the cabinet”(2). In 1935 Dreyfuss designed an alarm clock for Westclox, and four years later he designed their iconic Big Ben alarm clock. (2)

The following year he developed “Model 150 upright vacuum cleaner with the first plastic hood in Bakelite”(2) for the Hoover company. In the same year he was commissioned to design products for the American Thermos Bottle Company. (2)

Henry Dreyfuss, Big Ben alarm clock for Westclox (1939). Image source.

Henry Dreyfuss introduced one of his most impressive works “his design of a Mercury locomotive [which] featured cutout holes in the ‘white-walled’ driver wheels, lit by concealed spotlights at night”(2). The train represented the epitome of streamlined Art Deco design. New York Central introduced the Mercury train in 1938 “for its Twentieth Century Limited New-York-Chicago run”(2).

In 1937 Elmer McCormick an engineer with the Deere & Company tractor company, travelled to New York City from his company’s headquarters in Iowa for design advice from Dreyfuss. This meeting resulted in making Dreyfuss one of his most important and lucrative clients. “In 1938 Dreyfuss's John Deere Model A tractor was introduced”(2), and Dreyfuss would eventually redesign Deere’s entire line. (3)

Henry Dreyfuss, New York Central Mercury Train (1936). Image source.

“Dreyfuss’s approach to creating products was based on a logical functionality that he would call ‘human factor’ (or ergonomic) design”(3). He preferred combining form and function rather than follow showy design trends, (3) an approach that would influence designers for decades to come. “Dreyfuss was much more than a stylist; he applied common sense and a scientific approach to design problems”(4). This resulted in developing products that were not only elegant, but safer and featured ease of use and maintenance. (4)

For the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, Dreyfuss “designed the Democracity model in the Perisphere, representing an American city and its surrounding suburbs of the year 2039” (2). He also designed the AT&T Pavilion at the Fair. (2,3) Dreyfuss’s mentor, Norman bel Geddes’s contribution to the World’s Fair was the iconic Futurama city for General Motors. (5)

Read part two of "Henry Dreyfuss: Groundbreaking UI Designer".

References

Curtis, M. , (11 November, 2020). The original UX designer: Henry Dreyfuss (1904–1972). https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/the-original-ux-designers-henry-dreyfuss-1904-1972-8444a1769d11

Industrial Designers Society of America, (2023). Henry Dreyfuss, FIDSA. https://www.idsa.org/profile/henry-dreyfuss

Uhle, F. (n.d.). Henry Dreyfuss Associates, LLC. https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/henry-dreyfuss-associates-llc

Wikipedia, (24 February, 2023). Henry Dreyfuss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Dreyfuss

Futurama, of the city of, designed by Norman Bel Geddes for the General Motors Exhibit at the New York World's Fair in 1939. New York, 1939. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2012645722/.

Dreyfuss, J. (22 October, 1972). Henry and Doris Dreyfuss. https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/2944/1/dreyfuss.pdf

A New York Central Mercury train is dwarfed by Cleveland’s Union Station, November 1936.Photograph by J. Baylor Roberts, National Geog rap hit

One of the most beautiful trains ever made: the ‘Mercury’ Streamliner, designed in art deco-style by Henry Dreyfuss for The New York Central Railroad. Here's one captured in Chicago in 1936.

New York Central 4-6-2 #4915 leads the "Mercury" down Washington Street in Syracuse, New York, circa 1936.

A New York Central Mercury train is dwarfed by Cleveland’s Union Station, November 1936.Photograph by J. Baylor Roberts, National Geographic

CANTLON: HARTFORD WOLF PACK OFF-SEASON 6

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The New York Rangers season ended in six games to the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, now seeking a three-peat against the Colorado Avalanche starting on Wednesday. So now, the off-season will be upon us after Monday’s exit interviews and the traditional locker room clean-out. For cap reasons, the lineup will change in New York and Hartford by the fall training camp. In Hartford, the work for the new season begins with the release of five guaranteed home dates, including a late home opener on October 22, of the 72-game universal AHL schedule. Also coming is a 32nd AHL franchise, the Coachella Valley (CA) Firebirds. They will likely play in the Pacific Division and be the farm team of the Seattle Kraken. They will likely play its home games at the newly constructed $250 million Insura Arena in the Southern California desert to be open play in November. The Pack is assiduously working on completing the schedule for next year. Cristiano DiGiacinto was a walk-on training camp invitee from Canadian university hockey. He made the Hartford Wolf Pack team while playing 47 games and was rewarded with a new one-year AHL deal mid-week. Alex Whelan (Quinnipiac University), a training camp invitee two years ago, minted a new one-year AHL contract. Joining him was defenseman Zach Giuttari. They all received deals in the entry-level range of $70-$80K. KRAVTSOV SIGHTING The mercurial former ninth overall selection in the NHL Draft by the Rangers two years ago last season bolted back to Russia rather than playing in Hart City. He amassed 13 points in just 19 KHL regular-season games and another 10 points in 15 playoff games. In an interview with Sports.RU, Traktor Chelyabinsk’s General Director of his KHL team, said he turned down a contract for next season. On Sunday, Kravtsov signed a one-year extension at $875K one-way money NHL/AHL. It looks like Kravtsov wants a North American redux, and that’s where it gets interesting. Before this extension, the Rangers held his NHL rights until July 13 (free agency when he could have become an RFA-restricted free agent), and Traktor holds his KHL rights. It seems highly unlikely that Hart City is in his future. Instead, the Rangers seem likely to tinker with its lineup through the draft. Has Chris Drury decided to still give him a chance in NY or pending trade, and has he found that trading partner? Can he get Kravtsov here, to begin with? Sources have said once the Stanley Cup finals end and the NHL Draft expect a lot of movement. The present global sanctions on Russian human and commercial cargo imposed by the US and Canada and its Western, Central, and Eastern European allies might complicate that effort. Carolina’s legal rep found a loophole to get goalie Pyotr Kochetkov here. He came in the early spring at the end of the regular season, which saw him play late in the season in a relief effort, and even started a playoff game when ex-Ranger Antii Raanta went down with an injury. He is helping Carolina’s farm team, the Chicago Wolves, in the AHL Calder Cup Western Conference final against the Stockton Heat. He couldn’t come directly from Russia to Canada or the United States. So instead, he went to Austria for a month to travel on a third-party country, an Austrian passport, a member of the EU. Will that travel loophole window be closed as sanctions tighten from the Western nations against Russian malign behavior in its invasion of Ukraine? Much of this is unknown to how far the NHL will go in cutting off contact with Russia? The CHL (WHL, OHL, and QMJHL) have banned all Russian and Belarussian players from their CHL Import Draft, which will be held a week after the NHL Draft next month. The NHL has not stated its policy regarding drafting Russian and Belarussian players at the NHL Draft and whether there was a stipulation if they could only be selected if they played junior hockey in Canada or the US last season. ECHL KELLY CUP FINALS It was s a battle between the Florida Everblades and Toledo Walleye but was won by Florida in five. Florida is coached by ex-Springfield Falcon Brad Ralph and had playing is ex-Falcon Alex Aleardi on the roster, but did not play or dress was former UCONN star goalie Tomáš Vomáčka. While Toledo had two ex-Pack players, John Albert and TJ Hensick, who was involved in their only goal of the game and the last one of the seasons scored by Albert, and Henick had the secondary assist, who has played his last pro game, plus they had former Wolf Pack training camp player last year defenseman Blake Hillman, who played in Providence in 2021-22. ARIZONA IS BUILDING A BUILDING The city council of Tempe, AZ, by a 5-2 margin, voted to negotiate with the Arizona Coyotes on a 46-acre parcel of land, almost a $2 billion property west of downtown Tempe, in what’s called the “Tempe Entertainment District,” near the Sky Harbor Airport. There is a proposed 16,000-seat arena. But instead, they will play in a 5,100-seat new college arena at ASU for the next three years that has never sold out at either of the other two arenas they’ve been in. The lease at the Gila River Arena was terminated by the city of Glendale at the end of the season, forcing the ASU situation. In a seven-hour meeting, the proposal plans to build an arena with a proposed promise of hotels, retail space, office buildings, and even 9,800 housing units. The NHL is also seeking a 30-year no-relocation clause. A long-time source opined, “The leaders of the City of Hartford and the State of Connecticut are probably saddened they don’t have an economic driver of an NHL or NBA team because they didn’t build a new arena in downtown to keep the Whalers or put themselves in position when the expansion came around. Now we’re through two (expansion) cycles, and 25 years later, they aren’t even in the discussion about getting an NHL team. They have to be kicking themselves. If they didn’t agree to build them a new building at whatever price tag, it was ($170 million) than at today’s going rate (of $1 billion).” Another long-time source who was in private meetings when the Whalers exited told us many years ago that a plan to start a seed fund on a new building was talked about then by private business and state officials. Too bad nothing was done at that time. The CRDA now waits on a last-ditch proposal by new building management company OVG to bail them out and invest the necessary capital in renovating the arena to modernize the XL Center to 21st century standards knowing they have a zero chance of attracting the NHL or NBA to the Connecticut capital. Look north at Quebec City, with a rabid, passionate fan base, built a brand-new 18,000-plus building to NHL specs. The NHL still has not said yes, five years since they filled out the expansion application or even now with MLB flirting with Montreal. UCONN UCONN Head Coach Mike Cavanaugh signed a new contract retroactive to May. Cavanaugh will lead the men’s hockey program for $3.58 million over the next six years. Cavanaugh listened to the initial post-season interest from Boston College when their head coach, Jerry York, stepped down. Cavanaugh doesn’t wish to rehash it, but like Quinnipiac’s Rand Pecknold, who dangled himself leaving for UMASS five years ago to get another five-year deal with the Bobcats. UMASS got Greg Carvel instead and a national title. What Cavanaugh was coy about was specifics about the meeting between the two sides. Howlings learned from several sources that they couldn’t agree on the terms of the deal, neither the length nor the dollars, and he pulled himself from consideration. He lost his nine-year assistant Joe Peirara recently to BU. He added two new assistants in West Haven’s Mike Peirara, Joe Peirara’s younger brother from Avon Old Farms. He played and coached there. He also added one-time player Joe Ferriss who is in his second go-round (first time in four years) as an assistant coach after being an assistant coach last year at D-3 Wesleyan University (Middletown) (NESCAC). This offseason, Cavanaugh lost 14 players from his roster. Nine went to graduation, one left early to go pro, and four have transferred out. PLAYER MOVEMENT Two Wolf Pack players from last year’s team who had minor roles have left for Slovakia on different teams. Abbott Girduckis wore #17, a number that should have been retired long ago. Girduckis is a Belleville, Ontario native who got to play one of his six games in his hometown but spent most of his year in Jacksonville (ECHL) has signed with HC Presov (SLEL). Liam Pecararo was a mid-season call-up on an emergency basis for five games when the NHL taxi squad was reformed. He was with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits (ECHL) and was loaned briefly to the Charlotte Checkers. He signed a deal with HC Slovan Bratislava and MODO (Sweden-Allsvenskan). Two ex-Bridgeport Sound Tigers goalies are heading to new locations. Mikko Koskinen departs the Edmonton Oilers for HC Lugano (Switzerland-LNA). At the same time, Kristers Gudlevskis leaves Brynas IF (Sweden-SHL), and the former Latvian Olympian signs with the famed program at MODO (Sweden-Allsvenskan). Former Hartford Whaler, New York Ranger, Hartford Wolf Pack, and Avon Old Farms assistant coach Ulf Samuelsson was relieved of his duties by the Florida Panthers. Five more AHL players head to Europe. First, Otto Sompii of the Syracuse Crunch returns to Finland. Next, Luko Rauma (FEL) and Tyler Lewington of the Providence Bruins sign deals with EC Salzburg (Austria-IceHL). Next, Josef Korenar of the Tucson Roadrunners heads back home to the Czech Republic (Czechia) and HC Sparta Prague (CEL). Finally, Dmitri Zavgorodny heads from the Stockton Heat to HK Sochi (Russia-KHL) and Artem Servikov of the Chicago Wolves to Spartak Moscow (Russia-KHL). A total of just 14 players have signed deals so far. MORE PLAYER MOVEMENT Ex-Sound Tiger Troy Vogelhuber is named the new head coach of the Cleveland Monsters. It bumps him up from assistant coach. Brandon DeFazio, a former Sound Tiger and the son ex-New Haven Nighthawk Dean DeFazio continues his career in Germany, going from ERC Ingolstadt to Schwenniger (DEL) next year. Ex-Pack/Ranger Oscar Lindberg heads from Dynamo Moscow (Russia-KHL) to SC Bern (Switzerland-NLA) another Ukrainian war defection. from the KHL. Brady Shaw, the son of former Whaler Brad Shaw, who’s interviewing for the Vancouver job, changes European teams from Fehérvár AV19 (Hungary-IceHL) to HC Innsbruck (Austria-IceHL). Max Gavin, the son of former Whaler Stew Gavin, departs the University of Vermont Catamounts (HE) as Director of Hockey Operations and takes the assistant coaching job for the varsity women’s team at Dartmouth College (ECACHL-W). Ex-Wolf Pack Garth Murray, the current head coach of Norway’s Aalborg Pirates, won the national league title, The Canadian U-17 camp has selected its 100 players to participate in their camp, including Ryder Ritchie, the son of ex-Beast of New Haven Byron Ritchie, who’s the property of the Prince Albert Raiders (WHL). The camp takes place July 10-16, and Ritchie will be at the Markin MacPhail Centre at WinSports at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. The U-17 2022 World Challenge tourney will be held in Delta and Langley, BC from November 5-12. After the week-long camp, sixty-six players will be selected to go to their final three evaluation camps in the Canadian region. The expansion Savannah (GA) Ghost Pirates announced they would be affiliated with the NHL Vegas Golden Knights/AHL Henderson Silver Knights next year. In addition, they named former Ranger and Springfield Indian Ric Bennett, formerly of Union College (ECACHL) as it first-ever head coach. 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