21 Thoughts with Elliotte Friedman
1. Commissioner Tyler Hetherington dealt with a lot of star power throughout the summer, including some of Canada's top indie bands and emerging acts, as well as Brooklin Heights of Ru Paul's Drag Race fame, but he unrolled the carpet on perhaps the biggest star yet when the OHL's most followed insider, aptly named OHL Insider, decided to take the reigns of the Sarnia Sting. I'm told teams are lining up to get a trade done with him just so they can have his autograph on the dotted line.
2. Those same Sarnia Sting are kind of in an undesirable spot, straddling the line between being too mediocre to compete and too mediocre to rebuild against some more determined competition. Hugo 'Boss' Leufvenius leads the team with 6 points in 8 games, but who fans are really raving about is the play of rookie Lleyton Moore, 13th overall pick in the recent priority draft who has a cool 5 points in 8 games.
3. With the 2018 priority selection still on the mind, there's been a lot of talk that this might be the best crop of rookies the OHL has seen in some years. NHL scouts are packing the O on a nightly basis and it's almost overwhelming, the amount of star power they have to track and follow.
1. Quinton Byfield (F) - 1g, 6a, 5gp
2. Cole Perfetti (F) - 4g, 7a, 8gp
3. Jamie Drysdale (D) - 0g, 4a, 4gp
4. Jacob Perreault (F) - 0g, 6a, 6gp
5. Will Cuylle (F) - 6g, 1a, 7gp
6. Jean-Luc Foudy (F) - 4g, 4a, 9gp
7. Antonio Stranges (F) - 0g, 0a, 1gp
8. Tyler Tullio (F)- 0g, 2a, 7gp
9. Logan Morrison (F) - 0g, 0a, 0gp
10. Ryan O'Rourke (D) - 1g, 4a, 8gp
11. Tristan Lennox (G) - 0gp
12. James Hardie (F) - 0g, 0a, 0gp
13. Lleyon Moore (D) - 1g, 4a, 8gp
14. Daniil Chayka (D) - 0g, 2a, 9gp
15. Donovan Sebrango (D) - 2g, 5a, 7gp
16. Cameron Butler (F) - 1g, 1a, 8gp
17. Evan Vierling (F) - 2g, 6a, 8gp
18. Rory Kerins (F) - 0g, 1a, 7gp
19. Luke Evangelista (F) - 0g, 0a, 8gp
20. Reid Valade (F) - 3g, 5a, 8gp
4. The player that jumps out to me isn't one of the leading scorers, it's a player with a big ol goose egg next to their name. The Hamilton Bulldogs are 1-8 this season, with a .111 winning percentage, and somehow that lineup doesn't have room for 9th overall pick Logan Morrison to see action. Are the Bulldogs trying to shelter him from a losing environment? Did they make the wrong draft choice?
5. Those same Bulldogs have allowed a player chosen just four picks ahead of Morrison to earn a top six role, and Will Cuylle has thrived because of it. He currently leads the OHL in rookie goal scoring, and his power forward game sees him looking like a man playing out there, even though he's just 17 years old. Maybe Morrison is going to have to switch his breakfast cereal to whatever Cuylle is eating.
6. Reid Valade has been a huge story in Kitchener. They've got one foot firmly planted into a rebuilding season, and the other foot is stomping competition thanks in part to Valade's immediate scoring success. Being the 20th pick, expectations weren't sky high, but through eight games he's leading a veteran laden Rangers squad in scoring.
7. Another absolute shocker is Evan Vierling. How did he fall so far to 17th overall in the draft? I talked to scouts around the league and can't really come up with any sort of consensus. Prior to his draft year, there were talks that he would be picked ahead of Byfield and Perfetti, but obviously that didn't materialize. The Kingston Frontenacs are sure glad he slipped, he's got future captain written all over him.
8. Speaking of those Kingston Frontenacs...If GMs were big game safari hunters, then Kingston would be the Serengeti right now. Everyone has GM Billy Logan on speed dial waiting to see when they eventually put power scorer Jason Robertson on the block. He's the most talented rental player that will probably move ahead of the deadline, and can be a game changer for whomever acquires his services.
9. Those same Fronts that were predicted to finish near the bottom of the East are tied for home ice in the post-season if the season ended today. Obviously having Jason Robertson still around helps, and the emergence of rookie sensation Evan Vierling has given a spark to the team, but what did GM Billy Logan credit as the reason for his team's unlikely early success: Ryan Cranford. His intangibles including a league highest rated leadership is helping the underdogs steal points. Is leadership something your team is lacking? Get on the phone with Kingston now.
10. Every week I get email after email with tons of questions, a whole variety of topics, but this week there was only one thing fans were asking about, and that's what I thought about the Guelph Storm and the Oshawa Generals doing the Peterborough Petes dirty. And I say, it's hockey. You don't want your star player to end up on your rivals team, don't trade him. Should teams be weary of dealing with Guelph knowing they might flip that player somewhere else? I wouldn't say that. Players might be weary of wondering how long the layover is when they see they're traded to Guelph and keep their bags packed even after landing.
11. The strangest part of the Akil Thomas saga might have been the official press release out of Guelph that stated that the star forward refused the assignment to play for the Storm. It was all very confusing, as the Storm were in a desirable position in the West, holding home-ice in the young season, but then a confusing situation became a total head scratcher when Akil Thomas not only suited up for Guelph, he scored three points. That leaves him as the leader in most points per game average in Guelph Storm history, as he was then sent packing to the Oshawa Generals.
12. One of the big highlights of the week, other than the flurry of trades that brought a lot of coverage and discussion was the fact that the FOHL has officially partnered with the food delivery service Skip The Dishes. $10 discount code for the GM whose players are featured in the Players of the Month articles.
13. When looking at some of the players that earned their GMs a discount code, Salinitri, Keyser, Hoefenmayer, it really is Donovan Sebrango that jumps off the page at you. Missy is in rough shape this year. They went all in, and made an exciting run to the OHL finals last year that fans will remember forever. But the reality set in this season that they needed to recoup assets and build from the ground up, and Donovan Sebrango has been the true leader of that rebuild. He's well positioned to establish himself a premiere puck-moving defenseman in this league.
14. The top of the scoring race this year is dominated by overagers, and first round NHL talent, but there's one name that stands out to me when I scan the top ten in scoring. Joe Carroll, 4 goals, 9 assists in 7 games. Mighty Joe Carroll went from being a healthy scratch almost all year for the Sault Greyhounds to becoming their scoring leader a year later, and putting up nearly two points per game while he's at it.
15. When a bomb drops, the ensuing chaos can have everything and everyone scrambled, and that's what the pair of Akil Thomas trades represented last week, but the fallout is what everyone should be afraid of when a bomb drops. What are the domino effects of Akil joining the Oshawa Generals? He wasn't the biggest name available on the trade block, that belongs to Arthur Kaliyev. At one point my sources told me a deal of Kaliyev to Oshawa for Antonio Stranges was all but completed, but now Stranges is in Guelph (for how long, we'll see), Akil Thomas is in Oshawa, and Kaliyev remains in limbo in Erie. Oshawa certainly showed the Eastern conference they're a serious contender, but did their eagerness to acquire Thomas via a backdoor trade and send a message open up the front door for a chief rival to their crown to come in and swoop up Kaliyev? Stay tuned my friends.
16. Erie Erie Erie. They're in a bit of a mess. Their previous GM steered them straight off a cliff, spent all their draft capital, traded their young building blocks and left their new GM Pete to come in and clean up the mess. He's done his best to plug the holes on the sinking ship, and he's restocked some draft capital, but what the Otters really need is a clean slate. End the Kaliyev trade saga, recoup assets and build a strategy going forward with high picks, It's an unenviable task, probably the hardest assignment in the league right now. No pressure Pete!
17. If the season ended today, Shane Wright would be a Bulldog. The season is far from over. Joining Hamilton in the elite company of only sporting one victory on the season is Sudbury, Owen Sound and Flint. We thought the race to the bottom was exciting last year with Quinton Byfield as the main prize, let's see what a generational talent, exceptional status player like Wright will bring out in the worst among us.
18. The Niagara Ice Dogs had a big offseason, and put together a pretty nice lineup. Analysts predicted them to be a genuine contender in the East, however they haven't been happy with their barely above .500 record through September and into October. Rumor has it that head coach Billy Burke is on the hot seat, and if the team doesn't improve they might make a move there. They have veteran OHL coach Jody Hull already on the coaching staff, so Hull taking over might make a lot of sense.
19. Sudbury named Blake Murray their captain in the offseason, and the second year forward became the youngest player in the OHL to have the 'C' on his sweater. It was speculated that putting that much responsibility on a second year forward, even one that won Rookie of the Year, would hinder his development, but the 17 year old has responded with 6 points in 8 games to start the season, and is looking real good out there for the Wolves.
20. The Petes and the Otters are the only two teams in the OHL that don't currently have captains, and with respect to Erie, it's easy to see why, as they've in the midst of pulling those weeds from their garden and replacing them with seeds for the future. One name I've heard thrown around as a candidate for the captaincy is Ivan Prosvetov, who would be the first goalie in OHL history to wear the 'C'. I'm hearing in Peterborough there's a strong possibility that Jacob Golden will be the next captain of the Petes.
21. Show some love for the articles you see in the league discussion, throw a thumbs up on that baby, post some responses. They're meant to generate conversation. Suggest future coverage you'd like to see. What do you like, what do you hate. Let's get some feedback folks.
Comments
Post a Comment