Ray Edwards, who recently added the title of general manager to go with his duties as coach of the Portland Pirates, is back on skates and eager to return to downtown Portland.

Edwards is across the country in Glendale, Arizona, with the NHL Arizona Coyotes, who opened their rookie camp this weekend. Veterans are scheduled to report Thursday.

“This is what we do,” Edwards said before leaving Maine. “When you’re not playing or coaching, you miss it.”

The offseason was particularly busy for Edwards, who took over GM duties last spring following the departure of Coyotes assistant general manager Brad Treliving, who was hired to run the Calgary Flames.

After a frustrating season with a young team forced to play home games in Lewiston first because of renovation at the former Cumberland County Civic Center and later because of a lease dispute, Edwards overhauled the roster. He signed five players on the first day of free agency in July and later added four players.

“With our year last year,” said Edwards, whose team won 24 games and lost 52, including 10 by shootout and three in overtime, for the second-worst winning percentage in franchise history, “we had to improve everywhere.”

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Alexandre Bolduc, a center who was captain of the 2012-13 Pirates, was among the early signees. He played with the AHL Chicago Wolves last winter and has seen NHL action with Vancouver and the Coyotes.

Fellow alumnus Mike McKenna, a member of the 2007-08 Pirates club that reached the Eastern Conference finals, also returned to Portland after tending net last season for Springfield, where he went 22-10-1 with a 2.54 goals against average.

Forward Justin Hodgman, and defensemen Dylan Reese and Andrew Campbell also joined the Arizona organization and are likely headed to Portland. Hodgman has played the past three seasons in Finland and Russia. Reese also played in Russia last winter, but knew Edwards from their time in San Antonio (the Coyotes’ AHL affiliate before Portland) in 2007-08 and ’08-09.

Campbell is a six-year AHL veteran (with Manchester) and played in three games for the NHL Los Angeles Kings last winter.

“There’s a reason for everybody,” Edwards said. “When you try to build your team, you try to fit pieces into the puzzle.”

Those were the early-summer signings. The late-summer additions included Joel Hanley, who appeared in 15 games with the Pirates after using up his collegiate eligibility at UMass, and fellow defensemen Evan Oberg and Jordon Southorn.

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Oberg played with Bolduc last winter in Chicago, his sixth AHL club. His history also includes seven NHL games with two organizations – Vancouver and Tampa Bay. Southorn is a fifth-year pro with only three AHL games under his belt, including one with the Pirates on a tryout contract, having spent most of his pro career in the East Coast Hockey League.

The final newcomer is forward Eric Selleck, a four-year AHL veteran who racked up 163 penalty minutes in 60 games last winter between San Antonio and Chicago.

The most notable name among the Pirates who won’t be back is that of leading scorer Andy Miele, who signed with the Detroit Red Wings. Mathieu Brodeur (Chicago), Ethan Werek (Providence) and Brett Hextall (Lehigh Valley) signed with other AHL clubs.

After two weeks in Arizona, Edwards will return to Maine for the start of the Pirates’ preseason camp, with players expected to arrive Sept. 29 and the first on-ice action at MHG Centre in Saco the following day.

The Pirates will make their first appearance at the renamed Cross Insurance Arena (Civic Center staff already have been outfitted with CIA logo shirts) on Oct. 4, a Saturday night exhibition against Manchester. The teams will scrimmage again the next afternoon (Oct. 5) on the campus of St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire.

The Pirates open their season the following Saturday night (Oct. 11) at home against Providence.

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“We’re excited about getting downtown and being able to play in the revamped CIA,” Edwards said.

Steve Torrisi, vice president of ticket sales, said season-ticket sales are running about 15 percent higher than they were two seasons ago, when the Pirates last played in Portland.

Individual game tickets went on sale Monday.

“Ticket sales have been encouraging,” said Brad Church, Portland’s chief operating officer. “People seem to be excited about us coming back to Portland and to the (refurbished) arena and we’re obviously very excited about it as well.”

Church pointed out several rule changes for the upcoming AHL season. A few of the minor ones involve the trapezoid behind each goal, which will be expanded by 2 feet on each side to give goalies more area in which to handle the puck, and the hashmarks outside the faceoff circle, widened from 3 to 5 feet.

More prominent will be overtime rules designed to avoid shootouts. Teams will switch sides after regulation of a tie game and play seven minutes of sudden-death overtime following a dry scrape of the ice surface. Full strength will be four-on-four skaters, reduced to three-on-three at the first whistle following three minutes of play.

“I think it will definitely produce more (outright) winners,” Edwards said. “Anytime there’s three-on-three hockey, that’s pretty exciting.”

 


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