2018/19 WHL Regular Season

[spintheblackcircle]

If anyone sees McGrew from Spokane play, can you give a review? Really interesting prospect.

 

[Royal Canuck]

Royals have been off their game lately.

After going #1 in the country, they've been .500.

They were ranked #9 heading into this week, but after a loss to P.A. I doubt they're even mentioned next week.

Luckily they've got a double header against Vancouver this weekend to help their record a little bit.

 

[Royal Canuck]

Kelowna only has 5 wins in their first 12 games.

What's going on over there?

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

Kamloops Blazers holding a press conference tomorrow for an "organizational announcement"... unsure what that means but owner Tom Gaglardi will be there as well as the teams chief operating officer, chairman of teams advisory board and also the mayor of Kamloops will be there....

My guess is that they will finally retire some former players numbers???? Doan?? Iginla?? Sydor??? Recchi??? etc etc or maybe have a massive night involving all???

EDIT- looks like they announced they will be bidding on 2020 Memorial Cup

 

[phillipsj89]

Kamloops Blazers holding a press conference tomorrow for an "organizational announcement"... unsure what that means but owner Tom Gaglardi will be there as well as the teams chief operating officer, chairman of teams advisory board and also the mayor of Kamloops will be there....

My guess is that they will finally retire some former players numbers???? Doan?? Iginla?? Sydor??? Recchi??? etc etc or maybe have a massive night involving all???

EDIT- looks like they announced they will be bidding on 2020 Memorial Cup

Yep, Also Victoria has basically announced. From what I have read it seems like the Silvertips might try, but i think that's a waste (If the CHL would even let them bid) so that begs the question will wee see another BC team join the fray??

 

[The Nemesis]

Yep, Also Victoria has basically announced. From what I have read it seems like the Silvertips might try, but i think that's a waste (If the CHL would even let them bid) so that begs the question will wee see another BC team join the fray??

I could see the Giants wanting to host now that they've moved to Langley and could use a flashy event to draw some additional interest for the team, especially if they might actually be pretty good in a couple years if some of their younger guys really pan out (particularly they could have a strong defensive core in a couple seasons)

Hitch in the works would be that technically the Giants hosted in 07 in Vancouver and I can see the CHL not wanting to repeat the same team hosting the event in such quick succession (IIRC London hosted a pair of Mem cups in a short span, but I don't remember it happening otherwise)


Somewhat related to that, the Giants announced today that the 3rd overall pick from last year's Bantam draft, Justin Sourdif, was called up by the team and will make his WHL debut tonight vs Kelowna.

 

[billybobjoe2112]

This P.G. team is not good.

 

[TheMule93]

This P.G. team is not good.

hows Cholowski doing? His stats look decent, especially his +/- despite being on a crap team

 

[Royal Canuck]

This P.G. team is not good.

That's what happens when you go all in on one season.

They're probably going to stay that way for a long time.

 

[canuck89]

This P.G. team is not good.

Yeah, it sure is different from last year. So many guys left the team after last season ended (Edmonds, Harkins, Guhle, Ruopp, Gabrielle, etc...), and also Popugaev deciding to head back home to Russia a month into this season.

 

[canuck89]

hows Cholowski doing? His stats look decent, especially his +/- despite being on a crap team

I like him so far. He's scoring at roughly a point-per-game pace, and I'll take whatever bright spots I can get watching this team this year.

And, with Ruopp's departure, we had a captain vacancy to start the season. Although he's only been a Cougar for a brief period of time so far, it seems his leadership skills really impressed the guys in the locker room, because he was officially named team captain the other day.

 

[Royal Canuck]

Crazy game in Victoria last night.

Royals won 2-1, but a melee early in the 3rd was the standout moment, Outhouse got run over (debatable contact or push from Oliver, doesn't really matter) and he went berserk.

Two close wins for Victoria this weekend.

 

[Skinnyjimmy08]

Looking forward to the trade deadline coming up sorta soon.. Hopefully there will be alot of blockbusters. Swift and Calgary pulled off a pretty big one just the other day so hopefully there will be alot more. There are quite a few real impressive teams this season so i can see alot of buying

 

[S E P H]

I think best for Prince George are behind them. When they had Harkins, Bourke, Edmonds, Anderson, McNulty, Olson, Morrison, and anybody else I am forgetting to mention. Not saying they can never win the Ed Cup, but it won't be with this group of players. Better to sell off pieces at the trade deadline, pick high in the bantam draft, and try to bring a high talented import over with their pick(s). Or in other words conduct another rebuild; this time however, NO Jesse or Alex Forsberg nonsense high in the draft.

It sucks because they went against Victoria who themselves had a strong team and sort of didn't show up in the postseason. They could have given the Royals a much harder time than they did. I personally thought that the talent they had was enough to get to atleast the conference finals. Hard to see them beat Kelowna or Portland who still had powerhouse team(s) back then.

 

[Royal Canuck]

Royals lost to Moose Jaw tonight, didn't realize how good they are this year.

 

[Royal Canuck]

Royals finished 0-2-2 on the Eastern road trip, need to regroup.

 

[Scouter]

Blades and Royals make a minor goalie trade today: Blades and Royals make goaltending swap – WHL Network

 

[VictoriaJetsFan]

The Royals were great last night, apparently the new d man Jensen played well.

Overall however, the team gives up way too many shots and could really use another puck moving defenceman IMO, preferably a right handed shot. Our GM does well with trades, I hope he picks up another d=man.

Hannoun and Soy have been quieter than usual as well.

 

[Scouter]

Lethbridge get Zablocki from Red Deer for Tarzwell plus extras: Hurricanes Acquire Lane Zablocki from Red Deer – Lethbridge Hurricanes

 

[Scouter]

The Royals were great last night, apparently the new d man Jensen played well.

Overall however, the team gives up way too many shots and could really use another puck moving defenceman IMO, preferably a right handed shot. Our GM does well with trades, I hope he picks up another d=man.

Hannoun and Soy have been quieter than usual as well.

The GM doesn't do that well, the team isn't quite on the level of Portland, Kelowna (overall), Brandon, SC or MJ, has never been past the 2rd of the playoffs, hasn't had a top bantam draft pick in last few years, GM sacrifices the future for trying to win now when the team isn't good enough to win now anyway.

 

[n00bxQb]

The GM doesn't do that well, the team isn't quite on the level of Portland, Kelowna (overall), Brandon, SC or MJ, has never been past the 2rd of the playoffs, hasn't had a top bantam draft pick in last few years, GM sacrifices the future for trying to win now when the team isn't good enough to win now anyway.

They've been one of the better teams in the Western Conference for 5 straight years.

Portland cheated for years and eventually got caught.

When is the last time Swift Current made it out of the 2nd round?

Moose Jaw has advanced past the 2nd round once in the past 12 years.

Why would they have a top bantam pick when they haven't been god awful like the Giants and Ice (who have had many top bantam picks and still suck)?

And what trades sacrificed the future to win now?

 

[Scouter]

They've been one of the better teams in the Western Conference for 5 straight years.

Portland cheated for years and eventually got caught.

When is the last time Swift Current made it out of the 2nd round?

Moose Jaw has advanced past the 2nd round once in the past 12 years.

Why would they have a top bantam pick when they haven't been god awful like the Giants and Ice (who have had many top bantam picks and still suck)?

And what trades sacrificed the future to win now?

Portland has been penalized for years now, and look where they are, still at the top.

SC have a great team this year and have a great chance to make the final, unlike the Royals.

MJ same as above.

They would have one because it's good to have one, each case is different, bantam picks are tougher to judge, but having a 1r pick is obv. a good thing to have, Byram btw is a great pick for the Giants and is projected to go at the top of the NHL draft, Krebs is also a great pick for the Ice, you can't sit there and tell me that is wouldn't be nice for the Royals to have players like this.

When they trade their 1rd Bantam picks of course the last couple of years.

 

[Scouter]

They also haven't been one of the top teams the last 5 years regular season wise, they were a decent team from 14' to 16', last year they were the last playoff team, if you want to call yourself one of the best in the west you have to get past R2.

 

[Scouter]

Even as we speak Kelowna is passing the Royals, the Royals have never had that top end 1rd talent.

 

[PG Canuck]

I think best for Prince George are behind them. When they had Harkins, Bourke, Edmonds, Anderson, McNulty, Olson, Morrison, and anybody else I am forgetting to mention. Not saying they can never win the Ed Cup, but it won't be with this group of players. Better to sell off pieces at the trade deadline, pick high in the bantam draft, and try to bring a high talented import over with their pick(s). Or in other words conduct another rebuild; this time however, NO Jesse or Alex Forsberg nonsense high in the draft.

It sucks because they went against Victoria who themselves had a strong team and sort of didn't show up in the postseason. They could have given the Royals a much harder time than they did. I personally thought that the talent they had was enough to get to atleast the conference finals. Hard to see them beat Kelowna or Portland who still had powerhouse team(s) back then.

I’m confused about the players mentioned and not being able to win with this group of players? Are you talking about this year? Or those players or both? Not sure what McNty who was here however long ago has to do with now, when this team just got absolutely gutted of talent.

Cougars have some prices to build off, but by the time they get other pieces to go along with their building blocks it’ll be too late.

Leppard, Maser, Moberg, and especially Gauthier are going to be good players. Gauthier is going to be an absolute stud of a goaltender, and those are so hard to come by and he’s incredibly young.

PG will be contenders for the 6/7/8 seeds and that’s about it. I feel like we’ll be back into mediocrity for a span here again that just keeps recycling through young players and can’t build a team in time to put together a contender.