2014 MasterCard Memorial Cup Discussion

[Nabru]

Let's get this talk going. The MasterCard Memorial Cup gets underway Friday as the QMJHL champion Val-D'or Foreurs play the host London Knights. The MasterCard Memorial Cup will continue Saturday as the OHL Champion Guelph Storm take on the WHL Champion Edmonton Oil Kings. This is London's third straight MasterCard Memorial Cup appearance and this is Edmonton's 2nd MasterCard Memorial Cup appearance in 3 years.

The tournament is sponsored by MasterCard.

Edit:

Site info - http://www.mastercardmemorialcup.ca/

Schedule

Friday 5/16 Val-d'Or vs. London
Saturday 5/17 Guelph vs. Edmonton
Sunday 5/18 London vs. Edmonton
Monday 5/19 Guelph vs. Val-d'Or
Tuesday 5/20 Edmonton vs. Val-d'Or
Wednesday 5/21 London vs. Guelph
Thursday 5/22 Tiebreaker game (if necessary)
Friday 5/23 Semifinal game
Sunday 5/25 Championship Final

Click to read more...

 

[DKQ]

I think this is one of the more open tournaments in recent years, all 4 teams have a good shot. Guelph has the deepest and most talented forward group, but are by far the weakest in net. London's lineup isn't as deep as it has been and they've played inconsistently at best all year, but they still have a number of gamebreakers and are very well rested. Edmonton has a lot of depth and arguably the best goaltender, but don't have the star power on the roster that the other teams do. Val D'Or has a great group of vets plus the best player in the tournament and a hot goalie but doesn't have the same degree of depth as some of the other treams.

In all, I think Guelph wins it in the final against London, with Edmonton finishing 3rd and Val D'Or finishing 4th. Kosmachuk is my pick for MVP

 

[PumpkinBombX]

The Oil Kings have 5 active players drafed in the first two rounds.
Lazar, Sammuelsson, Jarry, Reinhart, Moroz.

Another 2 players expected to be drafted in the first 2 rounds this year in:
Pollock and Mayo) (Irving might, but probably not, same with Kulda)

London has 6 players drafted in the first 2 rounds. (Horvat, Domi, Zadorov, Tierney, McCarron, Stolarz) (Thanks you LegionofDoom91 for correcting me).

With 1 player that could be drafted in round 2 (Dvorak)

Guelph has 5 players drafted in the first two rounds (Dickinson, Bertuzzi, Finn, Mcginn, Rychel)
1 player expected to be drafted in the first 2 rounds (Fabbri)

Val-d'or have 1 NHL drafted player in the first 2 rounds (Mantha)
and 1 expected to be drafted in round 2 (Aube-Kubel)


Geulph and Edmonton seem like the deepest teams and have the most star players. But london is well-rested. Mantha is a one-man army. Should be a fun tourney.

I'm not really making any predictions because this tourney is crazy, the only things i've gotten correct in the past few tourneys was Taylor Hall was going to tear the tourney apart, and Saskatoon was going to be terrible. Everything else i pretty much got wrong in the last 5 years.

Just tossing an edit in for my sources, as they may not be right. The Oil Kings list their drafted players and round on their website so that was easy. For the rest i used HockeyDB, which isn't 100% correct, as they didn't include Rychel (So traded players are missing there.) I tried to fill in the gaps but may have missed. For the prospects i used central scouting. (which isn't a the be-all-end-all of lists, but it is comprehensive enough.)

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

London has 4 players drafted in the first 2 rounds. (Horvat, Domi, Zadorov, Elie)

Elie was traded earlier in the year.

F Chris Tierney (2nd round 2012, SJ), F Michael McCarron (1st round 2013, MTL), & G Anthony Stolarz (2nd round 2012, PHI) were all drafted in the first two rounds with the latter two not being out of the London program.

 

[Number 57]

I think this is one of the more open tournaments in recent years, all 4 teams have a good shot. Guelph has the deepest and most talented forward group, but are by far the weakest in net. London's lineup isn't as deep as it has been and they've played inconsistently at best all year, but they still have a number of gamebreakers and are very well rested. Edmonton has a lot of depth and arguably the best goaltender, but don't have the star power on the roster that the other teams do. Val D'Or has a great group of vets plus the best player in the tournament and a hot goalie but doesn't have the same degree of depth as some of the other treams.

In all, I think Guelph wins it in the final against London, with Edmonton finishing 3rd and Val D'Or finishing 4th. Kosmachuk is my pick for MVP

I am not familiar enough with the WHL and OHL but let's not pretend Val d'Or is weak on depth... please. Up front, maybe, but let's just say Mantha compensates for that depth, with 81 goals in 81 games total this year.

On defense - Gelinas and Gazzola are two of the top CHL dmen this year and they are backed by Graves who would likely be a #1 D on most QMJHL teams. Fraser and Gravel are also legit top-4 Ds. Galipeau is a young bluechip prospects as their #6. That defense is as deep as any I've seen in recent years.

I think some of you will be surprised by the Foreurs, who are the most physical team of the Q and are a very hard working bunch. They forecheck hard and their defense is big and mean and block a ton of shots.

They have a number of great young skilled forwards with Aube-Kubel, Richard, Gauthier and Sille as well as the point-producers in Mantha and Marcotte. Their bottom-2 lines are relentless and will wreack havoc with their speed and forechecking.

They will be a hardcore opponent for any team out there. Their style of play is very hard to counter.

 

[Emerz]

Olli Maatta is likely playing for the Knights since the pens got eliminated last night.

Opinions on that? Doesn't seem right too me.

 

[1Gold Standard]

Olli Maatta is playing for the Knights since the pens got eliminated last night.

Opinions on that? Doesn't seem right too me.

Is that for sure or are you just speculating? I don't agree with that move.

 

[Emerz]

Is that for sure or are you just speculating? I don't agree with that move.

League still needs to approve the roster transaction for London, but they've taken all the necessary steps to bring him to London so it is likely to be approved. (from another site)

 

[1Gold Standard]

League still needs to approve the roster transaction for London, but they've taken all the necessary steps to bring him to London so it is likely to be approved. (from another site)

I'd be pissed...All the more reason why I hope anybody but London takes the Memorial Cup.

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

I already don't want London to win the Memorial Cup. This just adds to it.

 

[JJTT]

Olli Määttä to London

Confirmed by Finnish reporter Matias Strozyk (very reliable)

https://twitter.com/MaStrozyk/status/466651594873118721

 

[R S]

Wow, that's absolutely nuts.

 

[R S]

More:

KnightsInsider ‏@KnightsInsider 36m

It's been pointed out to me that teams can take 3 imports post deadline as long as the player has been protected. No roster moves necessary.

KnightsInsider ‏@KnightsInsider 31m

So, in order to play, Olli would have to: 1. Get officially sent down from NHL 2. Report He has now been spotted twice. Once at airport

 

[R S]

You can say the kid was dog-tired with the Penguins, but if he plays for London that has to make them the automatic favorite. Even if he's tired, he's the best player in the event with a full season of NHL experience now under his belt.

 

[Get To Our Game]

You can say the kid was dog-tired with the Penguins, but if he plays for London that has to make them the automatic favorite. Even if he's tired, he's the best player in the event with a full season of NHL experience now under his belt.

Full regular season, two playoff rounds, plus a full helping of Olympic hockey. He sure has had a year full of experience.

 

[Gigantor The Goalie]

Just ridiculous that a player who plays in the NHL for a full season + playoffs + Olympics can go down and play for their junior team in the Memorial Cup.

 

[JJTT]

Full regular season, two playoff rounds, plus a full helping of Olympic hockey. He sure has had a year full of experience.

100 games + some nhl pre-season games played already

 

[PBandJ]

I don't wanna seem butthurt, but I don't like that rule at all. Rosters should be locked after X date with no moved after, regardless of an NHL team being eliminated.

 

[R S]

Not happening

NormanJamesCTV ‏@NormanJamesCTV 4m

Confirmed: Olli Maatta will not be rejoining the Knights for the @MCMemorialCup. Had to be on the roster by February 20th. @CTVLondon

 

[JJTT]

Not happening

Kinda weird everyone reported it

 

[Unfriendly Ghost]

Is the MemCup going to be broadcast anywhere good? Hoping TSN or something. I'd like to watch.

edit: answered my own question:

For the fifth consecutive year, NHL Network U.S. will air the MasterCard Memorial Cup featuring a combination of live and tape delayed broadcasts throughout the 10 days of competition from the championship host city of Shawinigan, Quebec.

It's Sportsnet and NHL Network.

 

[JJTT]

Is the MemCup going to be broadcast anywhere good? Hoping TSN or something. I'd like to watch.

Sportsnet and TVA Sports.

 

[LegionOfDoom91]

Is the MemCup going to be broadcast anywhere good? Hoping TSN or something. I'd like to watch.

It's Sportsnet and NHL Network.

Last year the NHL network only had the games on tape delay the following day & not the live showings compared to the previous tournaments which had both (at least to my acknowledge I can't remember past those two). I was looking at their tv listings & it looks like it will just be the tape delay's the following day again here in the US.

Apparently showing continuous shows of NHL On the Fly when there's not much games on (even if they are it's virtually available for everybody to see it in entirety on the NBC Networks) & showing re-runs of old documentaries like Oil-Change is high priority over live hockey even if it's junior to them.

 

[bert]

League still needs to approve the roster transaction for London, but they've taken all the necessary steps to bring him to London so it is likely to be approved. (from another site)

Why would Pittsburgh let him go? Seems like a brutal thing to do for his development.

 

[Joey Moss]

Jeez.. that would have been pretty ridiculous.