Milwaukee Admirals Ink Two Predators Prospects To ATO Deals

The Milwaukee Admirals were already one of the top teams in the American Hockey League, and now, their roster is even deeper after signing forward Alexander Campbell and defenseman Jeremy Hanzel to amateur tryouts on Thursday.

Campbell, a former third-round pick of the Nashville Predators in 2019, also signed a one-year AHL deal with the Admirals instead of signing an entry-level contract with the Predators, who have until Aug. 15 to sign Campbell. If they fail to do so, he’ll then become an unrestricted free agent and is free to sign with any NHL team.

The 23-year-old forward just wrapped up his most productive college hockey season in which he notched 22 goals and 42 points in 36 games as a senior at Northeastern University, where he transferred after three seasons at Clarkson University.

Campbell led the Huskies in goals, and he ranked second in points (behind recent Dallas Stars signee Justin Hryckowian), shooting percentage (20%), power-play goals (6) and game-winning goals (2).

He has plenty of upside as a prospect. Campbell is an agile, puck-moving forward with fluid skating and excellent top-end speed. He’s also an accurate passer with a sneaky wrist shot who sees the ice well, and he’s dangerous on the rush with high a success rate on both zone entries and zone exits.

Campbell’s addition could give Milwaukee a much-needed scoring punch the team has been lacking with Mark Jankowski, the team’s leading scorer, entrenched on the Predators bottom six and Egor Afanasyev having not played since March 10 due to injury.

The Admirals also recently got Fedor Svechkov back after he missed more than a month with a lower-body injury.

Acquired just three weeks ago in the trade that sent Yakov Trenin to the Colorado Avalanche, Hanzel, who already signed his ELC, had his most productive season in the WHL as a 21-year-old this year.

He tallied 17 goals and 60 points in 66 games, and his year-to-year growth despite getting passed over in two separate NHL Drafts before landing with the Avalanche as a sixth-round pick in 2023 has impressed scouts.

Hanzel can do it all — drive offense, produce points, cut off the ice and contribute on special teams. He was a top-pairing defenseman for the Seattle Thunderbirds in 2023, and he ran point on the team’s top power-play unit and he contributed on the penalty kill as well.

The 6-foot-1 left-handed defenseman will be a welcomed addition to the Admirals blue-line, which hasn’t been operating at full strength with both Spencer Stastney and Marc Del Gaizo having been called up to the NHL.

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