Erie Otters 2018-19 Season Thread

[Nothing Else Maattas]

Little after a year of winning the ohl championship
Debrincat, Cirelli, Strome, and now Foegele have seen NHL action.

 

[NOA]

Little after a year of winning the ohl championship
Debrincat, Cirelli, Strome, and now Foegele have seen NHL action.

Pretty cool! Shows how impressive the offense was. I think erie gets brushed over by other OHL fans about how darn good we were last year. Give them more consistent goalie play and they win a memorial cup and probably win the OHL title in 2/3 less games. It was their only flaw. They won an OHL title with a starting goalie having .880 numbers. That’s insane. And shows how everywhere else they were perfectly built

I’m assuming in the future we see Cernak, T Raddysh, Lodnia get NHL game action. Sambrook, D Raddysh, Maksimovich have a good shot at it as well.

Also as of today - Erie alum represent the scoring leader in each the NHL, AHL, ECHL

 

[buzzworthy]

I had the opportunity to talk to Kris Knoblauch yesterday at the Flyers/Pens game. He is one heck of a nice guy, and a great coach. In my opinion, he had a great deal to do with the success of the Erie alum.

 

[Dayne97]

who do you guys think the Otters will select at the draft on Saturday? in my opinion I think they will go for a dman and take Drysdale or Moore

 

[NOA]

who do you guys think the Otters will select at the draft on Saturday? in my opinion I think they will go for a dman and take Drysdale or Moore

I am 99% certain it will be Drysdale. I think buzz and EON can back me up with the hot rumors. I am now certain that it was indeed Drysdale and his parents who came to Windsor that weekend, a few weeks before the season ended. Lucky for Erie they had a tremendous crowd, loud and engaged. And they won in an exciting finish. So I’m sure that helped. From what I understand he didn’t at the time want Sudbury, Flint, Peterborough. Would not report there. Unless that has hanged since, he will be available at 4 overall. So that sets up nicely for Erie to try and snag him. He’s not falling to 4 overall unless those other teams know he won’t report. And Erie would be dumb to pass on him if he would love to come here. Mutual interest between him and team so it’s going to happen imo. Would be shocked if erie took Moore. If it’s not Drysdale it will be a forward

 

[buzzworthy]

Unless something happened between that game and draft day, it will be Drysdale. He was grinning from ear to ear. Both Dave Brown and Jim Waters were smiling, as were mom and dad. Even though we may not need a defenseman right now, it is a smart move to draft this kid, especially with his potential and his desire to play here.

 

[7D442]

Looking forward to Saturday and seeing who we draft.. 4 -50 win recent seasons , a championship and a great amount of players starting there pro careers here and moving to the NHL ranks is hard to deny..But if these rumors are true - I believe Drysdale would be the highest ranked draftee to choose ERIE .. The McDavid effect lives on....Hope we get him- next year cant come soon enough..

Also what do we do in the import draft??- Draft a top Russian forward alongside Lodnia-Podd and Golod ???

 

[EON]

Yeah I'm expecting it to be Drysdale.

7D442 - I think Erie will trade or release Poddubnyi, keep Patry, and draft a high end forward with the 12th overall pick in the import draft.

 

[buzzworthy]

Also, my gut tells me that Lodnia will be gone sooner than later. If he isn't traded over the summer, he will be at the trade deadline.

 

[NOA]

Also, my gut tells me that Lodnia will be gone sooner than later. If he isn't traded over the summer, he will be at the trade deadline.

Lodnia will definitely be gone. Erie still needs the picks. And as a signed NHL player he has the value. When he will be gone.. idk. Could see Erie moving him in September but also could see Erie trying to win some games this year and keeping him around. Maksmovich is more interesting, as an OA his value won’t be high. But he’s soooo underrated. Has had a durable and consistent career. Has played top 6 minutes for 3 straight years and is closing in on 300 career games. Actually if he stayed in Erie all year, and played every game, he would pass Brian Lee for franchise games played

What does erie do with him? Not sure. We still need the picks. So my hope is we move him. But I’m not moving him unless there is value. If you can’t get at least 1 second and 2 thirds for him, don’t do it.. don’t get ripped off. He’s a solid player that does it all. Teams should want him. But the OA tag will throw things off

I’m more inclined to keeping Mak around if guys like Schroeder/Hoffman sign and look like they belong and will blossom into something. Then their import reports and is a strong 2001 player. If Erie has some more youth making the team and they are starting to get that influx of young talent, I would then buy more into their recent drafting and say “okay, maybe we can sacrifice 2/3 high picks for the rest of the year with Mak” because if we keep Mak and guys like Murphy, Golod, Fowler, Duff take noticeable leaps, then playoffs are very possible.

 

[LDN]

I know its early but what would Lodnia cost? Also What would Maksmovich cost?

 

[EON]

I know its early but what would Lodnia cost? Also What would Maksmovich cost?

Lodnia should be fairly pricey as he's been a consistent top 6, if not top line player and he won't be an OA, but I don't expect him to go for as much as Raddysh as he's not as dominant of a player. Just an early guess, but if Erie moved him at the trade deadline I wouldn't expect an '02 player in return. Maybe 2 2nds and 2 3rds?

Maksimovich is a little harder to gauge as an OA. If he explodes like Luchuk did his price would go way up. Right now I'd say maybe a 2nd and a 3rd? He's a solid top 6 winger with a ton of experience.

Lodnia will likely get traded in the upcoming season, not as sure about Maksimovich.

 

[NOA]

Lodnia should be fairly pricey as he's been a consistent top 6, if not top line player and he won't be an OA, but I don't expect him to go for as much as Raddysh as he's not as dominant of a player. Just an early guess, but if Erie moved him at the trade deadline I wouldn't expect an '02 player in return. Maybe 2 2nds and 2 3rds?

Maksimovich is a little harder to gauge as an OA. If he explodes like Luchuk did his price would go way up. Right now I'd say maybe a 2nd and a 3rd? He's a solid top 6 winger with a ton of experience.

Lodnia will likely get traded in the upcoming season, not as sure about Maksimovich.

I feel like Lodnia is a guarantee. More of when for him. And as a first rounder he will have that no trade clause which could play a role. Not that he will demand to stay in erie but more that he will probably have a “list” of teams he will only go to

Maksmovich will depend on many factors. As the captain of the team, Erie will be more inclined to keep him. Not saying they will but don’t see it being a guarantee. He could really take on and relish the role as the leader of the young bunch next year. But who we sign in the offseason- specifically related to Schroeder, Hoffman, Sellan, 12th overall Import pick, etc - will determine some things as well. If 2/3 of those guys are signed and looked promising, with good potential, then Erie is going to have a lot of young guys that they want to give ice to. It’s then going to be factored in about where we are with regards to playoffs. If we take some strides forward, we may want Mak here to guide the ship. If we are still a year away from that next step, it will make it easier to move him. Much more factors related to mak and certainly what teams pay will come into play

 

[NOA]

I know its early but what would Lodnia cost? Also What would Maksmovich cost?

Imo lodnia will get erie something along the lines of Pezzetta, Ang, or Jones type of return.
If erie feels they need a body, then they could get a decent 2001 and a 2nd, 2 3rds. If Erie wants picks, then probably 2 2nds, 2 3rds. The more lodnia is willing to go to teams, the more Erie can get. Hopefully for Erie’s sake he gets off to a hot start to increase value or Erie moves him early. Early trades can sometimes have great value for sellers. He is a signed nhl player though so he could definitely get us a decent 2001 if we seek it.

As for Mak. Who knows. My guess is a 2nd and a 3rd with some conditional pick(s) attached depending on his performance or team performance. Anything less than that and no way erie should be willing to move him.
Miletic went for 3 2nds and a 3rd after a modest and less than Maksmovich career up to their OA season. Imo Mak has had a better career so far, so if he can get off to a great start, then he could fetch something in that neighborhood or at least 2 2nds and 1 3rd

 

[Animal House]

Don't post much, but really appreciate the comments and opinions. Just checked the prospect profile for Drysdale. Models his game after Karlsson and.....Travis Dermott. Hmmmm, makes you feel like he is actually going to be an Otter. Looking forward to tomorrow, Dave Brown works his magic and Erie comes away with a nice haul.
Want to comment on the Lodnia and import situations. Unless Brown gets blown away with a deal for Lodnia, Otters should hold onto him until at least after the WJC. My thinking here is, get as many points before the WJC, then move him. Make the playoffs even if it is an 8th seed. Get the kids some experience, but don't sacrifice the future by not doing anything. Helps improve the chances for long term success.
I agree with everyone on here about Mak, he is a great player, very underrated. But if a deal can be made for him that blows Brown' socks off, make it. Same thought about keeping him until after the WJC.
The import situation is cloudy at best. Gera is not the answer IF Brown has a Swede/Russian (need an impact forward IMO) or whomever lined up already. Not sure if I am correct, but Burakovsky did not want to report here, but the Caps (along w/playing w/McDavid) persuaded him to come. Need the same type of guarantee if possible. Moving Gera will be pretty close to impossible IMO. Not many teams will trade for an import unless he is exceptional (Sokolov/Barrie). Never know though, Gera might surprise if he makes a big leap in 2018/19.

 

[NOA]

Don't post much, but really appreciate the comments and opinions. Just checked the prospect profile for Drysdale. Models his game after Karlsson and.....Travis Dermott. Hmmmm, makes you feel like he is actually going to be an Otter. Looking forward to tomorrow, Dave Brown works his magic and Erie comes away with a nice haul.
Want to comment on the Lodnia and import situations. Unless Brown gets blown away with a deal for Lodnia, Otters should hold onto him until at least after the WJC. My thinking here is, get as many points before the WJC, then move him. Make the playoffs even if it is an 8th seed. Get the kids some experience, but don't sacrifice the future by not doing anything. Helps improve the chances for long term success.
I agree with everyone on here about Mak, he is a great player, very underrated. But if a deal can be made for him that blows Brown' socks off, make it. Same thought about keeping him until after the WJC.
The import situation is cloudy at best. Gera is not the answer IF Brown has a Swede/Russian (need an impact forward IMO) or whomever lined up already. Not sure if I am correct, but Burakovsky did not want to report here, but the Caps (along w/playing w/McDavid) persuaded him to come. Need the same type of guarantee if possible. Moving Gera will be pretty close to impossible IMO. Not many teams will trade for an import unless he is exceptional (Sokolov/Barrie). Never know though, Gera might surprise if he makes a big leap in 2018/19.

The import draft is a big thing for Erie this year. If we land Drysdale, it seems obvious that Erie will take a forward in the import. I don’t think we should be going after 1999 or 2000 year old imports though. Burakovsky was a 1st round Washington pick at the time and so erie knew when they drafted him that he was going to play 1 year in Erie and that’s it. I think this season we need to target a 2001 player. We are picking in the top 12 so a top 2001 player is realistic. Yes it’s a risk about the kid reporting but Erie has established themselves a bit and maybe they have more pull with getting imports. But we need the 2001 player.. why? Because if he does report then there is a chance we can get 2-3 years out of him in Erie. That’s a huge deal with where we are in our rebuild. And my theory is that if we don’t get our import to report this year, then we will likely land a top 20 pick again next year.. so we can simply try again. Got to go big and go after a 2001 though

As for Podd, I think he has a chance to be much more impactful than Patry for this coming year. Not sure at all what erie sees in Patry if we decide to keep him. I didn’t see much. Could he develop? Yes but I feel his ceiling is much lower than I felt Podd’s ceiling could be last year at this time. Podd has some nice skill sets - size and a good shot. He still needs to improve and maybe he’s tapped out as a 40-50 pt player in this league. Patry is a year young and could be around for 3 years.. Podd has 2 years left. My worry is us releasing Podd and he has a big step forward this offseason and puts up 30g 60-70pts somewhere else. I feel like he has that type of talent/potential. Patry? Don’t really think he’s more than a 3rd liner next year but I could be wrong..

 

[EON]

I do agree that I would rather keep Poddubnyi as I think we some improvements in his game, namely skating, he could be a high impact winger (don't see him as a C at this point). But they seem to be set on keeping Patry. He is a year younger and played better in the 2nd half so we'll see.

I suppose the best possible strategy is take a high end 2001 forward that goes in the first round of the NHL draft. If he doesn't report this season Erie could place him on a reserve list and still go into next season with Poddubnyi/Patry while holding onto the '01 forward's rights.

 

[7D442]

Personally i was hoping for Podd to have a break out kind of year..His numbers and points improved at something like 18 and 18 for 36 pts this year (if my quick scan was correct) .not bad at roughly 1/2 pt a game..I dont know ..Last year those 2 huge goals he had against Parsons in the PO's i thought was going to propel him into the next level of his game..Dont get me wrong- hes got good size and strength just was hoping for more from him..and like Ottersguy said he could have a breakout year NEXT year..Prob best to keep him maybe he adds another 10-15 pts of production next year..

Also what do we do w Ghiriny? great kid- works hard..But man -i understand get the puck in deep type of thing but every single time he gets the puck fling to no mans land and chase relentlessly..sometimes getting useless penalties..Instead of that these other young guys actually seem to at least to try to maintain puck possession and pass off or even better let a shot fly.. just something i noticed especially the last half of the season and when he was out of the lineup for injury last part of the year, IMO ..

 

[NOA]

Personally i was hoping for Podd to have a break out kind of year..His numbers and points improved at something like 18 and 18 for 36 pts this year (if my quick scan was correct) .not bad at roughly 1/2 pt a game..I dont know ..Last year those 2 huge goals he had against Parsons in the PO's i thought was going to propel him into the next level of his game..Dont get me wrong- hes got good size and strength just was hoping for more from him..and like Ottersguy said he could have a breakout year NEXT year..Prob best to keep him maybe he adds another 10-15 pts of production next year..

Also what do we do w Ghiriny? great kid- works hard..But man -i understand get the puck in deep type of thing but every single time he gets the puck fling to no mans land and chase relentlessly..sometimes getting useless penalties..Instead of that these other young guys actually seem to at least to try to maintain puck possession and pass off or even better let a shot fly.. just something i noticed especially the last half of the season and when he was out of the lineup for injury last part of the year, IMO ..

Can we really judge him on 36 points though? I know it’s not great but Erie was a bottom 4 team and rebuilding. Their PP wasn’t good and they either were a 1 line team when they stacked lines early in the year or when they spread out the lines they didn’t have much. Podd could have been a bit better and I expected more myself but honestly his points are skewed from being on a bad team. Does he get 10-20 more points if he had more talent around him? Imo, yes definitely. Have to take that into account. To me he’s at least a decent 2nd liner next year. Patry is a 3rd liner, maybe. So I want Podd. I know Patry is younger but if we trade Mak/Lodnia next year, we are going to need points and goal scoring ability from somebody and that’s Podd not Patry

 

[NOA]

I don’t see the point in keeping Girhiny if we sign an import forward and end up with even one of Schroeder/Hoffman/Sellan

Forwards:
Mak
Lodnia
Podd/Patry
Import
Fowler
Sproule
Gritz
Golod
Mack
Yetman
2017 Pick

That’s already 11 guys. I just don’t see the room for him as OA. I justified it with Fellows because we were in first year of rebuild but now it’s the 2nd year. Guys like Fowler, Golod, Sproule need more ice. Girhiny is not going to be worthy of top 9 minutes so what’s the point of keeping him on the 4th line? And putting him on the 3rd line Takes away from other guys that are young and will have higher ceiling

 

[ZinErie]

The import draft is a big thing for Erie this year. If we land Drysdale, it seems obvious that Erie will take a forward in the import. I don’t think we should be going after 1999 or 2000 year old imports though. Burakovsky was a 1st round Washington pick at the time and so erie knew when they drafted him that he was going to play 1 year in Erie and that’s it. I think this season we need to target a 2001 player. We are picking in the top 12 so a top 2001 player is realistic. Yes it’s a risk about the kid reporting but Erie has established themselves a bit and maybe they have more pull with getting imports. But we need the 2001 player.. why? Because if he does report then there is a chance we can get 2-3 years out of him in Erie. That’s a huge deal with where we are in our rebuild. And my theory is that if we don’t get our import to report this year, then we will likely land a top 20 pick again next year.. so we can simply try again. Got to go big and go after a 2001 though

As for Podd, I think he has a chance to be much more impactful than Patry for this coming year. Not sure at all what erie sees in Patry if we decide to keep him. I didn’t see much. Could he develop? Yes but I feel his ceiling is much lower than I felt Podd’s ceiling could be last year at this time. Podd has some nice skill sets - size and a good shot. He still needs to improve and maybe he’s tapped out as a 40-50 pt player in this league. Patry is a year young and could be around for 3 years.. Podd has 2 years left. My worry is us releasing Podd and he has a big step forward this offseason and puts up 30g 60-70pts somewhere else. I feel like he has that type of talent/potential. Patry? Don’t really think he’s more than a 3rd liner next year but I could be wrong..

I doubt Gera plays an OA year. I'd like to see Erie keep Patri and trade Poddubni to a team drafting late.

 

[ZinErie]

I don’t see the point in keeping Girhiny if we sign an import forward and end up with even one of Schroeder/Hoffman/Sellan

Forwards:
Mak
Lodnia
Podd/Patry
Import
Fowler
Sproule
Gritz
Golod
Mack
Yetman
2017 Pick

That’s already 11 guys. I just don’t see the room for him as OA. I justified it with Fellows because we were in first year of rebuild but now it’s the 2nd year. Guys like Fowler, Golod, Sproule need more ice. Girhiny is not going to be worthy of top 9 minutes so what’s the point of keeping him on the 4th line? And putting him on the 3rd line Takes away from other guys that are young and will have higher ceiling

I'm with you on Girhiny. I think Mack will be hard pressed to make the team also.

 

[EON]

As expected Erie takes Drysdale 4th overall. They don't pick again until #58, I'm hoping they get a little more aggressive with going after US players and NCAA commits.

 

[NOA]

As expected Erie takes Drysdale 4th overall. They don't pick again until #58, I'm hoping they get a little more aggressive with going after US players and NCAA commits.

Took the words from me EON. With 2 3rds, a 5th, and 2 6ths - I expect 1 goalie taken and would love 1 American/college risk taken. We have to be more aggressive in trying to sign these guys too. But would be awesome to snag one this year

Drysdale not a surprise. Ever since he came to that game vs Windsor, I think it was known there was mutual interest. Once it was said that he would not go to the top 3 teams, it was essentially certain that Erie was taking him. Happy we got him. Tremendous skater. Erie has tried to become a fast and good skating team. Fits Hartsburg style as coach. The defense is loaded.. if one of Cooper/Dobson show up in camp and surprise then expect Wainman or another 2000 to be traded. We are loaded on the backend with OHL young worthy players. It’s just a matter of who develops into top tier players.
Martin 1999
Wainman 1999
Henry 2000
Duff 2000
Timmermans 2000
Beamish 2000
Kischnick 2001
Drysdale 2002

Cooper/Dobson?? 2001

Need to target forwards in round 3 now..

 

[ZinErie]

Just saw Drysdales' interview on the priority selection show. Really got me pumped for next season.