in the air right now," said the Hamilton coach, ditching his usual suit jacket for a crisp white golf shirt as the team cleared out their lockers Monday."What's the role that we're going to take (with Montreal)?" Jodoin asked. "Who are going to be our veterans next year?""Even for us (coaches), we don't know if we're going to be here. Maybe the new GM will bring somebody from his group."Since former Habs general manager Pierre Gauthier was fired at the end of March, the team has been under the control of Montreal assistant GM Larry Carriere. The Habs insist the future direction of the club — and the Hamilton Bulldogs — is up to the next GM. It leaves the Dogs in a state of limbo with 16 roster players all looking for contracts, five of whom are unrestricted free agents.On the ice, the Hamilton Bulldogs failed to make the playoffs this year, dropping out of the picture early after making the Western Conference finals for the past two years.Hamilton won their final two games with nothing on the line after Montreal returned six players including forwards Blake Geoffrion, Aaron Palushaj, Louis Leblanc, Gabriel Dumont, defenceman Frederic St. Denis and goalie Robert Mayer.Hamilton finished the season 34-35-7, good for last in the North Division. The late nearly .500 record masks a two-win November in which the team struggled to skate a full lineup,marian hossa jersey youth,"There were a few stretches in there where we were so undermanned and under-confident that it kind of bit us," said Brian Willsie, the team's leading scorer with 18 goals and 44 points."It would be, 'Okay we finally have our team,Milan Lucic Jersey,' and then something would happen in Montreal and we'd lose a couple guys," Willsie added. "We had a few long stretches where we couldn't seem to score goals."Hamilton scored the fewest goals of any American Hockey League team this season with 185. Palushaj was their third leading scorer despite splitting the season between their NHL affiliate Montreal Canadiens and the Bulldogs.Between call-ups and injuries,Brandon Dubinsky Jersey, the Dogs played the majority of the year with a patchwork roster, plugging holes with East Coast Hockey League players and try-outs from the NCAA."Too many injuries, it's impossible to deal with," Jodoin said. Just 11 Bulldogs played in 60 games or more in the AHL's 76-game schedule."Every day you had to come up with a new solution," Jodoin said, adding a player's role would be shifted multiple times in a week."It was just kind of a year where it was the AHL," said Garrett Stafford who was acquired at the beginning of the season through a trade with the Phoenix Coyotes for Brock Trotter. "There's injuries, there's call-ups and your team gets decimated and you're not able to do what you probably could have done if you had more guys and more things to work with."He, alongside team captain Alex Henry, number one goalie Nathan Lawson, Willsie and Joe Callahan make up the five UFAs."Who knows what's going to happen with all the uncertainty up there (in Montreal)," Stafford added."Usually at the end of the season you have some dialogue," Willsie said,