Will Landeskog Be the Only One to Leave the 'O' for the 'Show'?

Special Thanks to Bryan Thiel:

In the next few days, players will arrive from all parts of the globe for NHL Training Camps. It gives teams their first opportunity to take a look at new players, and find answers to the questions of why 29 of the NHL’s clubs fell short in the chase for the cup.

Their CHL counterparts have their own questions that they’re trying to answer right now, and depending on how some of their stars do at NHL camps, maybe a few more.

You see, so many things can happen in an NHL training camp, many of them with implications on junior hockey. An NHL star can go down injured and open up a spot for a hungry rookie eager for a nine-game tryout. A first-round pick once thought to need a few more years of seasoning could prove everyone wrong and evolve into a Calder candidate. Or, that undrafted training camp invite could suffer an injury, throwing a wrench into your OHL team’s championship aspirations.

The easiest example of the NHL foiling a junior hockey team’s plans is last year with the Kitchener Rangers. Following a surprise run to the Western Conference finals the previous spring, the Rangers were expecting both high-scoring winger Jeremy Morin and the physically-fluid wonderkid Jeff Skinner to be back in 2010-11. The hope was that the two would tag-team to lead the Rangers, along with future first-rounders Ryan Murphy and Gabriel Landeskog, to Mississauga for the Memorial Cup.

During the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, Skinner was expected to be a mid-first round pick, probably falling in the 15-17 range. Jim Rutherford and the Carolina Hurricanes stunned onlookers however, when they selected the athletic centre seventh overall.

That wasn’t the only surprise however.

While many pegged Skinner as too small physically to make the NHL at that time, he outshone other ‘Canes rookies in summer camps and rookie showcases. His raw talent and fluid physical abilities made him impossible to ignore during training camp, so much so that he earned a third-line spot as an 18-year old and eventually worked his way up to top-six minutes.

Skinner’s departure would have been fine had the Rangers been left with Morin. But an off-season trade sending his rights to the Chicago Blackhawks and a new ruling passed down allowing Morin to play in the AHL following his time in the US Developmental System made sure that wouldn’t happen. Chicago sent Morin to Rockford, Skinner went on to win the Calder, and the Kitchener Rangers sat there shell-shocked. They were more-than-willing to admit that they had been preparing to live life without one of their stars. But both? Surprise…

This year NHL camps are full of similar questions, some of which have already been met with answers that rubbed some the wrong way.

The Rangers were in the middle of a summer whirlwind again when Import Winger and Captain Gabriel Landeskog was drafted second-overall by the Colorado Avalanche. With both Landeskog and Tobias Rieder filling the two Import Selection spots and Landeskog deemed the most-likely prospect to make and stick in the NHL, the Rangers were forced to decide whether they would keep Gabe on the roster, occupying both a roster and import slot, or release him and draft another Import. Kitchener did the later when they deleted Landeskog from their roster and drafted Czech Radek Faksa to avoid being hamstrung once again.

Along with Landeskog, questions surround some of the OHL’s brightest stars on the best teams. Niagara’s Ryan Strome has already turned heads on Long Island, and if he impresses the New York Islanders any more, he could find himself in a spot similar to Skinner’s last year. While it’s likely that Boston’s deep blueline will ensure that Dougie Hamilton will be back with the Ice Dogs this season, how deep in to camp is Hamilton kept? It depends how enamored the Bruins become with their ninth-overall ‘steal’, and who knows? Deep team or not, they may still want a first-hand look at the well-rounded blueliner.

The Ottawa Senators had a big haul in the first round of the NHL draft, landing Plymouth’s Stefan Noesen and Peterborough’s Matt Puempel three picks apart. While people rave about the player taken ahead of them by the Sens, Mika Zibanejad, on a roster that’s fairly underwhelming there could be room for one of the two OHL’ers to get a trial if they have a strong camp.

And how about this? The London Knights, who are quickly becoming a trendy pick to win the Midwest, could be in the same position with towering defenseman Jarred Tinordi as the Rangers were with Morin last year. You may remember that Tinordi went to London last year following his time in the USNTDP. It could happen with Jack Campbell too, but is far less likely.

So as you wonder whether your team has the pieces to make it all the way, your new drafts picks will have an immediate impact or you’ll have to wait a little bit for them to come along, or that overage goalie will lead your team of young upstarts to a couple of upsets, keep in mind that not all of the questions are right in front of you. Some of them will end up coming from above.

Troops look to turn things around

Unfortunately for fans of the Brampton Battalion, the “dress-rehearsal” to the 2011-12 season hasn’t shown much to get excited about thus far…at least on home ice anyways.After a victory at Kitchener in the first exhibition game of the season, the Troops dropped the second half of the home-and-home by a decisive 5-1 score. Six days later, the Battalion ended up on the wrong end of another 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the visiting Guelph Storm.

The latter of the two home losses comes with some form of solace for Battalion fans. Six of their core-players going into this season are off at NHL rookie camps and eventually possibly training camps. Zach Bell, Matej Machovsky, Barclay Goodrow, Sam Carrick, Phil Lane and Ian Watters are all chasing the dream of taking the next step towards playing professional hockey.

While Carrick and Lane were draft picks of Toronto and Phoenix respectively, the other four have been invited to participate on a tryout basis. Zach Bell went to San Jose to man a defensive spot with the Sharks rookies. Matej Machovsky drove down the road from Brampton to Oshawa and is participating in the rookie tournament there with the Ottawa Senators organization. Barclay Goodrow took his talents to Traverse City so that he could participate in that tournament with the Carolina Hurricanes rookies. Finally, Ian Watters is playing with the Pittsburgh Penguins rookies in Oshawa competing against both Machovsky and Carrick.

Their expected return to Brampton will bolster the Troops lineup and shore up the trouble areas that they have faced thus far. They will also be coming back with some added intangible experience that will be invaluable to a junior player.

On the other hand, there have been some bright spots for the Battalion fans to get excited about. Over-ager Mitchell Porowski has been a horse for the Battalion up front. His 6’4” frame gets some speed behind it and has at times been too much for opposition defenders to handle without hauling him down. Import pick Patrik Machac has also looked like a dangerous scoring threat up front. Given some time and exposure to the North American game, he can learn to lead the offensive charge in Brampton. Add in the ingredient of a young yet experienced Battalion defense and you have the makings of a solid team.

As the season unfolds, a clearer picture will be painted of what this year’s Battalion installment is made of. Right now, speculating is all we can do. But it is sure fun to speculate isn’t it?

Great Expectations in Niagara

Even as the Niagara Ice Dogs were eliminated from the OHL Eastern Conference finals last spring, the buzz began. As the summer went on the buzz became louder. The 2011-12 OHL season might just be “the one” for the Ice Dogs. When the CHL announced last Wednesday the Niagara Ice Dogs were ranked number two in Canada the buzz became an explosion. Ice Dog fans have even begun to speak the words “Memorial Cup” - in September.

The pressure is on.

While expectations for this season’s team are high, Coach Marty Williamson is trying to keep the team contained. He states the ranking is “a compliment to the players, but rankings don’t mean a lot when you haven’t won a league game yet. Our guys know that when you are ranked number two you are going to have to prove yourself every night. We’re not talking about Memorial Cup we’re talking about winning the first game of the season.”

Team Captain Andrew Agozzino also acknowledges it is “neat to see” the number two ranking, but later in the year “no one looks back at the rankings in September -there’s a lot more to be done.”

And there is much work to do for the Ice Dogs following a 3-3 tie Thursday night in exhibition play against the Oshawa Generals. Coach Williamson acknowledges there was lackluster play at times with not a “lot going on” with the specialty teams. Agozzino was impressed with the work ethic of new comer Carter Verhaeghe while Williamson noted McGrath did a good job in net for the second half of the game. The rookies will need to be more comfortable with the systems and focus on where to be on the ice. With eleven regulars out of the line up it was an opportunity for younger players to show off their stuff and try to make a spot on a team with limited openings.

Williamson wishes those at NHL training camps well but obviously he hopes they all return to Niagara. “Dougie Hamilton at Boston and Ryan Strome with the Islanders and Friesen with Vancouver and Pacan in Florida, those are the guys that will determine if this is a good team or a great team or a team that might have to do some different things - acquire a player or two. If we get them all back we sure like this team an awful lot. It’s got good chemistry, we can score, we play hard defense it’s a good carry over team from last year.”

With 2113 in attendance at an exhibition game with the marquis players missing, you can feel in the air the high hope fans have for the Ice Dog this season. With the season opener on September 22^nd we will soon find out if the pressure is going to be the team’s number one nemesis.

Tough Decisions in Barrie

The Barrie Colts had the worst record in franchise history in 2010/2011, so to expect some of the returning players from that team may find themselves on the outs isn’t a shocker, but it’s become clear that more than a couple of last year’s players will find themselves leaving town. To date, Tyler Mort, John Padulo and Mitch Bursey have all been cut. More are expected to come.

Josh Macdonald and Brendan Bell, both 1994 birthdays, are proving to be competent OHL players this exhibition season after a year of seasoning in Junior B and Junior A respectively. They appear to have earned a spot, making Padulo expendable.

The top 9 forward spots are all claimed as long as Mark Scheifele (pictured above) is sent back by the Winnipeg Jets. But, the last 3 spots are going to be interesting. Over-ager Norm Ezekiel looks to have a spot, but he is able to play Forward and Defense and it is unclear where head coach, Dale Hawerchuk, wants to play him. The last two spots should be filled with the aforementioned 17 year-olds; Macdonald and Bell. There are decisions to be made as far as line combinations, but it looks like Pearson and Behenna will flank Scheifele on the big line. Steven Beyers and Eric Locke should flank big Ivan Telegin on the second line and Smoskowits should have Ray Huether and Zach Hall. Victor Terreri and Erik Bradford will battle for the 4th line center spot. Where Ezekiel fits in here remains to be seen.

On defense there seem to be 8 guys, plus Ezekiel, still in competition for 7 spots. First overall selection, Aaron Ekblad, is a sure thing to get top 4 minutes this season along with Alex Lepkowski, Brandon Devlin, Derek Hartwick and Chris Buonomo. This leaves 2 spots left to fight for. The main contenders seem to be the newly acquired Reid McNeill, Alex Yuill, and Kyler Nixon. McNeill has yet to play, but was brought in as a 19 year old veteran. Yuill was a first round pick last season and has impressed, although he has a very small stature. The last man in competition for one of the spots is Kyler Nixon. He was injured a lot last season but he has impressed in the exhibition season thus far, even recording 3 assists in a single contest against Sudbury this past week.

In goal, second round pick Alex Fotinos looks to be the man between the pipes in the future, but the present looks to be incumbent Clint Windsor and new import Mathias Niederberger. They will battle it out to see who gets more reps. Right now it appears to be Clint Windsor’s job to lose.

There are two exhibition games left before all of the calls have to be made, but one thing is for certain; Hawerchuk has a lot of hard decisions to make and they may not be favourable for the players whom he is most familiar. The new kids are playing well and making things tough on the hall-of-famer.

Time repeats itself; the goaltending situation in Brampton

As the Battalion season came to a close in March, and overage goaltender Cody St. Jacques departed from the team for good, my brain was already consumed with the goaltender situation this upcoming season. I was confident in saying that Matej Machovsky wasn't going anywhere; he's a young goaltender with a lot of potential, he had a 2.65 goals against average, and a 0.901 save percentage in 18 games with the Battalion last season. I know, it was only 18 games, but he came to Brampton midway through the season and adjusted nicely.

And he had a great first game against Kitchener. But...he's a young goaltender.

As we saw from last year with this squad and other occasions in the past, teams need a veteran goaltender. The arrival of St. Jacques last December was not only the added experience and skill the team required, but also a boost of confidence to a struggling squad. Safe to say his presence had a positive effect on Machovsky as well, as rookie goaltenders need that big brother influence from a veteran netminder (right, Brandon?) to keep their nerves in check; intangibles a lot of teams will tell you about.

I figured Stan Butler would learn from last season and not wait until the halfway mark in the year to get that experience between the pipes. I waited most of this summer and still no talk of goaltenders. Then Keegan Wilson arrived. Is this the veteran goaltender I've been waiting for?

Wilson isn't a bad goaltender, he just simply doesn't look ready for the OHL. 19-years-old and he's a rookie here, which could be part of the reason why he let in too many bad goals Monday afternoon at home against Kitchener.

Last season, Wilson played in the Georgian Bay Mid-Ontario Junior Hockey League, Junior C, for the Stayner Siskins where he won the league's rookie of the year. He put up impressive numbers throughout the season and pushed the Alliston Hornets (four-time consecutive provincial finalists at the Junior C level) to seven games in the playoffs. But that was then...and this isn't Junior C hockey. Welcome to the O, Keegan.

With that said, there's still time. One thing is for sure, he needs to be more ready than that. Baby steps fro this senior netminder. Of course it's so easy for me to be an observer and have an opinion on this matter, since I'm not the one with the pressure on my shoulders, I don't have to strap on the gear and stand between the pipes...I get that, but I think this team probably wants and needs to prove a point right away. And they did a good job of that on Sunday with Machovsky in net.

Looking at the player roster from Monday's game, there are only two goaltenders listed, which leads me to believe that Stan Butler is still looking. However, as of right now, he's eaten up his OA cap with Michael Santini, Ian Watters, and OHL rookie, former Gatineau Olympiques of the QMJHL winger, Mitchell Porowski (so far, this guy is in my good books, although he was a healthy scratch on Monday).

I have no problem if someone proves me wrong, and I hope that Wilson does because I don't want to see a repeat of last season.