The Positives for the 15 non-playoff GHL teams
Apr 12, 2019 10:32:57 GMT -5
Glenn-Philadelphia, Phil-Cornwall, and 6 more like this
Post by Scott-New York on Apr 12, 2019 10:32:57 GMT -5
I was reading an article this morning that high-lighted the positives of the NHL non-playoff teams so I thought it would be fun to do the same thing for the G…
BALTIMORE - No lack of goal scoring on this roster. Phil Kessel, Vlad Tarasenko and William Karlsson all scored 30+ and shouldn’t have a problem reaching that mark again next season as well. Defense and goaltending will need work but re-signing key RFA defenseman, Brandon Montour, will help, especially if the ‘Jacks can’t retain UFA, Justin Faulk. The Skipjack’s will also need to address UFA, Jeff Skinner but having RFA, Zach Hyman, lends to the organization’s talent, especially up front.
WASHINGTON - T.J. Oshie leads the way for the Federals offensively along with RFA, Joonas Donskoi, but the depth could be key in the form of budding forward, Anthony Duclair and relevant veterans like Jeff Carter and Mathieu Perreault. Young Goaltender, David Rittich, will try to hold the fort in net behind another D corp that could use some help supplementing Kevin Shattenkirk, Scott Harrington and Ian Cole.
MILWAUKEE - Losing Tyler Seguin to free agency last summer was a bump in the road for the Braves but this talent laden roster has little excuse to not make the playoffs next season. David Pastrnak, Patrik Laine, Jakob Silfverberg. J.T. Compher, Mark Jankowski and incoming rookie, Casey Mittlestadt, have the reigns up front while Erik Gustafsson, Drew Doughty and Torey Krug anchor the D in front of Tuukka Rask. Cap space is also a huge positive for this club with over $17 million on the book currently, we expect the Braves to cut ties with Milan Lucic’s $3M cap hit while their only key RFA is Gustafsson.
TORONTO - The Toros won big at the draft lottery, jumping all the way up to the #3 pick and will have options with that pick. Toronto could use that pick to address the defense behind Ryan McDonagh, with either Rasmus Dahlin or Miro Heiskinen, if either of them are still on the board at #3 or, quite possibly, could elect for young goaltending phenom, Carter Hart, to address a major concern between the pipes. The Toros are pretty deep up front and need to re-sign key RFA’s, Jack Eichel and Nick Ritchie to play alongside sniper, Mike Hoffman and depth pieces like Tyler Bozak, Tyler Toffoli.
HERSHEY - Sidney Crosby. Need we say more? O.K., how about Jonathan Marchessault. Still not enough for you? Fine, Jason Zucker and Scott Laughton add some scoring depth while Travis Sanheim, Will Butcher and Tony DeAngelo provide the team with a promising young core of up and coming defensemen. Joonas Korpisalo is an RFA and Antti Niemi a UFA so the team could use help in net in the UFA market to solidify a chance to make a playoff push next season.
SYRACUSE - A solid foundation in net with Frederik Andersen. Brent Burns is obviously one of the best two-way defensemen in the league and mentors young talented blueliners, Noah Hanifin and Adam Pelech. Up front, the Blazers boast offense by committee with Ryan Dzingel, Andreas Athanasiou, Jonathan Drouin, Max Pacioretty and pending RFA, Jakub Vrana all capable of lending to the goal scoring.
CINCINNATI - If you’re re-setting a line-up, nothing could be more positive than holding 6 first round picks. Well, maybe the draft lottery could help out by moving one of those picks up to #2 for you but Justin Sadowski did a pretty good job of making his own luck. The Swords need to replenish every area of the ice so it will be interesting to see where they start with the pick at #2.
SUFFOLK - Look no further than Patrick Kane, Auston Matthews, Jake Debrusk and Tom Wilson for offense. Dmitri Orlov and Hampus Lindholm anchor a pretty deep D corp while Robin Lehner should provide solid netminding. The Stampede have decent depth in all areas of the ice as well and should have little problem making the playoffs next season.
CALGARY - Gus Nyquist, Alex Kerfoot, Vinnie Hinostroza, Nick Foligno and Jared McCann should spread out the offense. The Wranglers will have to decide whether they want to retain either offensive minded defenseman, Oliver Ekman-Larsson or shutdown blueliner, Chris Tanev but Jacob Larsson, Nick Seeler, Zach Bogosian and Jacob Chychrun provide decent depth on the back end in front of a pretty solid netminder in Jacob Markstrom.
HARTFORD - Vincent Trocheck, Kyle Palmieri and Tomas Tatar are decent options up front and can all score. A veteran goaltending duo of Craig Anderson and Brian Elliott are fairly decent options between the pipes but Rasmus Ristolainen is probably the best player on the roster. The Whalers also have some depth to support their stud defenseman.
ST. PAUL - The Stars will spend on the best player on their roster this summer but RFA, Artemi Panarin, is worth whatever his ask will be. Mats Zuccarello and young up and comer, Filip Chytil, can help Panarin put offense on the board, which is needed, because beyond aging shutdown blueliner, Ron Hainsey, the defense needs help and questions also surround super star goaltender, Jonathan Quick. The 7th overall pick this year will help push the Stars in the right direction.
JOHNSTOWN - The Chiefs can add a decent piece with the #6 overall pick this summer. Anthony Mantha, Ryan Donato and Rickard Rakell are capable of scoring while Damon Severson can contribute from the blueline. Jordie Benn and Robert Hagg add to Severson on the back end and Braden Holtby is still a good option in net.
NEW YORK - The Americans most positive note during their well publicized re-build is quite obvious. They won the #1 overall pick at the draft lottery. GM Jones won’t reveal whether the Amerks have determined who that pick will be but the team will definitely take a big step forward with that selection, adding a top end piece to some already existing talent. Connor Hellebuyck has proven to be essential between the pipes. There are few defenseman any better all around than Roman Josi and the likes of Chris Kreider and Mikael Backlund will soon be supplemented up front with Jordan Geenway and Henrik Borgstrom. The Amerks are also expecting bounce back seasons from Zack Smith and Brandon Pirri. New York could be a playoff contender again as soon as next season.
MONCTON - Tyler Seguin and Evgeni Kuznetsov are undoubtedly the centerpieces of this team. But the Golden Flames will also be relying on Cody Eakin, Zach Sanford, Loui Eriksson, Oskar Lindberg and blueliner Nick Leddy to add to their already impressive offensive prowess. Defensive depth and goaltending are issues on this roster but if the Moncton faithful and especially GM, Owen Durkin, can remain patient and stay committed to building the right way around their two super-stars, look for the Flames to be in the playoff conversation soon enough.
CHICAGO - The 4th overall pick in the upcoming draft will be a key cog in the Huron’s success going forward and there are rumors swirling in the Windy City that ex Rochester Rampage GM, Bob Hoy, is going to be returning to the GHL next season to take the helm as Huron GM. Hoy will have his work cut out for him, building this team around his lone star in Matt Duchene.
BALTIMORE - No lack of goal scoring on this roster. Phil Kessel, Vlad Tarasenko and William Karlsson all scored 30+ and shouldn’t have a problem reaching that mark again next season as well. Defense and goaltending will need work but re-signing key RFA defenseman, Brandon Montour, will help, especially if the ‘Jacks can’t retain UFA, Justin Faulk. The Skipjack’s will also need to address UFA, Jeff Skinner but having RFA, Zach Hyman, lends to the organization’s talent, especially up front.
WASHINGTON - T.J. Oshie leads the way for the Federals offensively along with RFA, Joonas Donskoi, but the depth could be key in the form of budding forward, Anthony Duclair and relevant veterans like Jeff Carter and Mathieu Perreault. Young Goaltender, David Rittich, will try to hold the fort in net behind another D corp that could use some help supplementing Kevin Shattenkirk, Scott Harrington and Ian Cole.
MILWAUKEE - Losing Tyler Seguin to free agency last summer was a bump in the road for the Braves but this talent laden roster has little excuse to not make the playoffs next season. David Pastrnak, Patrik Laine, Jakob Silfverberg. J.T. Compher, Mark Jankowski and incoming rookie, Casey Mittlestadt, have the reigns up front while Erik Gustafsson, Drew Doughty and Torey Krug anchor the D in front of Tuukka Rask. Cap space is also a huge positive for this club with over $17 million on the book currently, we expect the Braves to cut ties with Milan Lucic’s $3M cap hit while their only key RFA is Gustafsson.
TORONTO - The Toros won big at the draft lottery, jumping all the way up to the #3 pick and will have options with that pick. Toronto could use that pick to address the defense behind Ryan McDonagh, with either Rasmus Dahlin or Miro Heiskinen, if either of them are still on the board at #3 or, quite possibly, could elect for young goaltending phenom, Carter Hart, to address a major concern between the pipes. The Toros are pretty deep up front and need to re-sign key RFA’s, Jack Eichel and Nick Ritchie to play alongside sniper, Mike Hoffman and depth pieces like Tyler Bozak, Tyler Toffoli.
HERSHEY - Sidney Crosby. Need we say more? O.K., how about Jonathan Marchessault. Still not enough for you? Fine, Jason Zucker and Scott Laughton add some scoring depth while Travis Sanheim, Will Butcher and Tony DeAngelo provide the team with a promising young core of up and coming defensemen. Joonas Korpisalo is an RFA and Antti Niemi a UFA so the team could use help in net in the UFA market to solidify a chance to make a playoff push next season.
SYRACUSE - A solid foundation in net with Frederik Andersen. Brent Burns is obviously one of the best two-way defensemen in the league and mentors young talented blueliners, Noah Hanifin and Adam Pelech. Up front, the Blazers boast offense by committee with Ryan Dzingel, Andreas Athanasiou, Jonathan Drouin, Max Pacioretty and pending RFA, Jakub Vrana all capable of lending to the goal scoring.
CINCINNATI - If you’re re-setting a line-up, nothing could be more positive than holding 6 first round picks. Well, maybe the draft lottery could help out by moving one of those picks up to #2 for you but Justin Sadowski did a pretty good job of making his own luck. The Swords need to replenish every area of the ice so it will be interesting to see where they start with the pick at #2.
SUFFOLK - Look no further than Patrick Kane, Auston Matthews, Jake Debrusk and Tom Wilson for offense. Dmitri Orlov and Hampus Lindholm anchor a pretty deep D corp while Robin Lehner should provide solid netminding. The Stampede have decent depth in all areas of the ice as well and should have little problem making the playoffs next season.
CALGARY - Gus Nyquist, Alex Kerfoot, Vinnie Hinostroza, Nick Foligno and Jared McCann should spread out the offense. The Wranglers will have to decide whether they want to retain either offensive minded defenseman, Oliver Ekman-Larsson or shutdown blueliner, Chris Tanev but Jacob Larsson, Nick Seeler, Zach Bogosian and Jacob Chychrun provide decent depth on the back end in front of a pretty solid netminder in Jacob Markstrom.
HARTFORD - Vincent Trocheck, Kyle Palmieri and Tomas Tatar are decent options up front and can all score. A veteran goaltending duo of Craig Anderson and Brian Elliott are fairly decent options between the pipes but Rasmus Ristolainen is probably the best player on the roster. The Whalers also have some depth to support their stud defenseman.
ST. PAUL - The Stars will spend on the best player on their roster this summer but RFA, Artemi Panarin, is worth whatever his ask will be. Mats Zuccarello and young up and comer, Filip Chytil, can help Panarin put offense on the board, which is needed, because beyond aging shutdown blueliner, Ron Hainsey, the defense needs help and questions also surround super star goaltender, Jonathan Quick. The 7th overall pick this year will help push the Stars in the right direction.
JOHNSTOWN - The Chiefs can add a decent piece with the #6 overall pick this summer. Anthony Mantha, Ryan Donato and Rickard Rakell are capable of scoring while Damon Severson can contribute from the blueline. Jordie Benn and Robert Hagg add to Severson on the back end and Braden Holtby is still a good option in net.
NEW YORK - The Americans most positive note during their well publicized re-build is quite obvious. They won the #1 overall pick at the draft lottery. GM Jones won’t reveal whether the Amerks have determined who that pick will be but the team will definitely take a big step forward with that selection, adding a top end piece to some already existing talent. Connor Hellebuyck has proven to be essential between the pipes. There are few defenseman any better all around than Roman Josi and the likes of Chris Kreider and Mikael Backlund will soon be supplemented up front with Jordan Geenway and Henrik Borgstrom. The Amerks are also expecting bounce back seasons from Zack Smith and Brandon Pirri. New York could be a playoff contender again as soon as next season.
MONCTON - Tyler Seguin and Evgeni Kuznetsov are undoubtedly the centerpieces of this team. But the Golden Flames will also be relying on Cody Eakin, Zach Sanford, Loui Eriksson, Oskar Lindberg and blueliner Nick Leddy to add to their already impressive offensive prowess. Defensive depth and goaltending are issues on this roster but if the Moncton faithful and especially GM, Owen Durkin, can remain patient and stay committed to building the right way around their two super-stars, look for the Flames to be in the playoff conversation soon enough.
CHICAGO - The 4th overall pick in the upcoming draft will be a key cog in the Huron’s success going forward and there are rumors swirling in the Windy City that ex Rochester Rampage GM, Bob Hoy, is going to be returning to the GHL next season to take the helm as Huron GM. Hoy will have his work cut out for him, building this team around his lone star in Matt Duchene.
