Kingston Frontenacs 2023-24 Season Thread (Part 2)

[nelli27]

Continued from... Kingston Frontenacs 2023-24 Season Thread (Part One)

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[WillardJFredricks]

Quick question: why is Ethan Weir playing in St. Mary's? Is it just to get him more playing time? I remember his dad playing for the Petes so I've been curious to see him play.

 

[zaluty]

I thought last night the fronts played well. The Niagara goalie was outstanding. At least 4 unbelievable saves. Battaglia should have had a hat trick.. The one thing I did see was a lot of passes picked off because we did not skate to the puck rather waited until it came it came to us. Thought the two young defencemen played well also.

 

[frontsfan67]

Quick question: why is Ethan Weir playing in St. Mary's? Is it just to get him more playing time? I remember his dad playing for the Petes so I've been curious to see him play.

Yes getting him playing time for next year where he can hopefully jump in to our top 6/9. If he were to play this year he would be 4th line/13th forward and that is horrible development for a kid who has high upside

 

[frontsfan67]

I thought last night the fronts played well. The Niagara goalie was outstanding. At least 4 unbelievable saves. Battaglia should have had a hat trick.. The one thing I did see was a lot of passes picked off because we did not skate to the puck rather waited until it came it came to us. Thought the two young defencemen played well also.

Their goalie did play very well. Ludwinski looked amazing last night although it didn’t amount to any goals he looked like he was head and heels above the rest of the guys.

Battaglia had a pretty good game too. The young d men clearly aren’t ready but yes you’re right Velliaris made a couple nice plays. Really confused about the direction the team is going here and it would be nice if fronts management could tell us.

Currently tied for second last in goals against and about middle of the pack for goals for. This doesn’t scream championship team to me atleast this year.

 

[ottsabrefan]

Their goalie did play very well. Ludwinski looked amazing last night although it didn’t amount to any goals he looked like he was head and heels above the rest of the guys.

Battaglia had a pretty good game too. The young d men clearly aren’t ready but yes you’re right Velliaris made a couple nice plays. Really confused about the direction the team is going here and it would be nice if fronts management could tell us.

Currently tied for second last in goals against and about middle of the pack for goals for. This doesn’t scream championship team to me atleast this year.

Management may not know. I think they want to make a push this year but the losing is getting in the way.

 

[frontsfan67]

Management may not know. I think they want to make a push this year but the losing is getting in the way.

Yeah I agree. I don’t want them trading core young guys like Hopkins. Imo if they make another trade bring in a top d man in the league that’ll be here this year and next year. If you over pay it’s alright it’ll work out fine after next year they can trade a few in 2025 if need be

 

[beastintheeast]

Quick question: why is Ethan Weir playing in St. Mary's? Is it just to get him more playing time? I remember his dad playing for the Petes so I've been curious to see him play.

I would think that playing time and experience are the big reasons. Let's face it playing center or RW on this team is not going o get you playing time or development

Considering that Vaccari is ranked 9th of all goalies in the division and has the second-worst dave percentage Why are the fronts not going after another goalie? I think it is safe to say he is not ready for prime time.

If you guys want to get out of the bottom 4 I think you need a goalie that is at least capable of playing a few games. Vaccari can always be an OA next year. Also getting a new starter would mean that you could send JJ to a tier 2 team to get experience but you are going to have to do it soon.

 

[frontsfan67]

I would think that playing time and experience are the big reasons. Let's face it playing center or RW on this team is not going o get you playing time or development

Considering that Vaccari is ranked 9th of all goalies in the division and has the second-worst dave percentage Why are the fronts not going after another goalie? I think it is safe to say he is not ready for prime time.

If you guys want to get out of the bottom 4 I think you need a goalie that is at least capable of playing a few games. Vaccari can always be an OA next year. Also getting a new starter would mean that you could send JJ to a tier 2 team to get experience but you are going to have to do it soon.

Beast couple things- defence is atrocious. And vaccari is clearly tired playing almost every single game this year. Couple things will help his save percentage. Better defence (or healthy defence rather) and veteran backup goalie to take the pressure off vaccari.

I know you may already know this however they’re currently playing 3 guys who are not regulars at all in the ohl. Williamson when our d is healthy has been rotating in as the 7th d man. Because of all injuries and Chromiak away at camp right now he’s playing top 4 and pk. Velliaris just played his first game last night and he’s a very raw prospect. He will be very good some day just that day is not today. Same with Bergeron. It’s pretty bad because I’m not the biggest uens fan on here lol and he’s even way better than those 3 at this point in the season(things could change in a month from now) I really wonder if they go after ANOTHER defenceman. Maybe swap one of the young guys out to get them more ice time on another team in exchange for an impact d man preferably one that would be here for this season and next such as tristan bertucci on flint(not that flint would do a trade with him, however using him as an example.)

 

[frontsfan67]

Not sure if any of you are aware, however I think it is very interesting both Ty Nelson and Dom DiVinctiis are both not playing games for North Bay at this time before the Christmas break. I assume they're both getting shopped around to some team/teams and they're not playing right now to save themselves from injury.

Now I give it approximately a like 5 percent chance or less this happens- however Kingston does need a goalie and a d man LOL. A man can dream. With them still playing Ludwinski it seems they may not be trading him because why would they want to risk injury.

If Springer and Cooper decided they needed a big shake up of the team this would be one way to do it especially in a very weak east this year.

Nelson and DiVincentiis to Kingston for Tyler Hopkins, Chris Thibodeau, Maleek McGowan, 2 seconds and 2 thirds- who says no? Kingston, or North Bay?

Hypothetically lets say they make a trade like this what would it mean to kingston? Well Kingston gets the best goalie in the league when he's on his game and a guy who can tutor this season to where Vaccari can elevate his game for 2 years after this (he is only 18)
Also one of the strongest tandems in the league if not the strongest.

Nelson would be if not the best d man in the league then at the very least a top 2. This obviously would push the depth of our defence (when healthy) down and thus making us far more deep.

Again a hope and a dream but just wanted to put this on here to see what Kingston fans think lol. In all seriousness they'll probably go to some team like Saginaw, the Soo or Sudbury

 

[beastintheeast]

Beast couple things- defence is atrocious. And vaccari is clearly tired playing almost every single game this year. Couple things will help his save percentage. Better defence (or healthy defence rather) and veteran backup goalie to take the pressure off vaccari.

I think you have the issue of the goalies at the same point as Cooper might. Do you trade for a backup or do you trade for a starter and make Vaccari the backup? Then if you do that what do you do with JJ?

If you are looking for a starter I would suggest that the price for Donoso would be better and you get a goalie that is doing it versus a goalie that is not.

Donoso for our other backup, not JJ but the one you loaned to Guelph plus picks would seem reasonable.

But Donoso is only going to go if he is getting starter minutes as that is when he is best.

As to your defence next year they are going to really suck if you are not able to develop some of the players like velairais this year.

Burns Williamson
Vellairias Chromiak
MCGowan Uen

At this stage is not a 4 some I would be jumping up and down about.

 

[frontsfan67]

I think you have the issue of the goalies at the same point as Cooper might. Do you trade for a backup or do you trade for a starter and make Vaccari the backup? Then if you do that what do you do with JJ?

If you are looking for a starter I would suggest that the price for Donoso would be better and you get a goalie that is doing it versus a goalie that is not.

Donoso for our other backup, not JJ but the one you loaned to Guelph plus picks would seem reasonable.

But Donoso is only going to go if he is getting starter minutes as that is when he is best.

As to your defence next year they are going to really suck if you are not able to develop some of the players like velairais this year.

Burns Williamson
Vellairias Chromiak
MCGowan Uen

At this stage is not a 4 some I would be jumping up and down about.

I don’t think donoso would be the fix. You guys have much better defence than us so people like donoso have their numbers inflated.

He is a good goalie but I’m not sure he would be the saviour for the fronts this year. Also he is an OA and that would mean we would have to get rid of one of our 3 current ones and I highly doubt that happens.

I think they either take a home run swing for someone like divinctiis or they keep it how it is/maybe swap Downey (guy loaned to Guelph for the 1 game) out for salajko here soon and salajko goes down to jr a for a confidence booster before coming back here next year ready to relieve vaccari for more games then he has so far this year. He is only 17. Vaccari is 18. The fronts should have this tandem atleast another year or two barring injuries/trades

 

[leafs4life94]

It's starting to look the the Fronts fumbled the bag a bit on Nolan Ling. He's over 0.5PPG in the Q (3G, 13A in 26GP), and though he's a -11, he's on quite easily the worst team in the league (-65 differential).

With all the injuries on D he'd have been a really important piece right now.

As for that Nelson/DDV trade above - that is the hardest of Nos from me.

As for the D next year - there will be at minimum one OA coming in because trades aside, there's only 3 '04s on the roster and I don't see Hemstrom back as an import OA.

Depending on how players progress the rest of this year I expect something like

Burns - Chromiak
McGowan - OA
Velliaris - Uens/Williamson

I'm not gonna hold my breath on Pieniniemi but they'll have an open import spot as well, so depending on reportability maybe they go for another import D and use 3 OAs up front.

 

[frontsfan67]

It's starting to look the the Fronts fumbled the bag a bit on Nolan Ling. He's over 0.5PPG in the Q (3G, 13A in 26GP), and though he's a -11, he's on quite easily the worst team in the league (-65 differential).

With all the injuries on D he'd have been a really important piece right now.

As for that Nelson/DDV trade above - that is the hardest of Nos from me.

As for the D next year - there will be at minimum one OA coming in because trades aside, there's only 3 '04s on the roster and I don't see Hemstrom back as an import OA.

Depending on how players progress the rest of this year I expect something like

Burns - Chromiak
McGowan - OA
Velliaris - Uens/Williamson

I'm not gonna hold my breath on Pieniniemi but they'll have an open import spot as well, so depending on reportability maybe they go for another import D and use 3 OAs up front.

Been looking at that for ling yeah I never understood why they cut him he looked good in camp. Probably because he was older than some of these other guys on our team now so not as much potential. Way to go to him though.

Yeah I agree about the trade lol nothing more than a hope and a dream.

Yes really sucks we will lose hemstrom as he is a big part of our team. Hopefully they can get someone who reports next year they really gotta do their research.

That’s the d I think we will have for next year too

 

[TerryN]

Why does Cavallin have RES beside his name on today's scoresheet?

 

[frontsfan67]

Why does Cavallin have RES beside his name on today's scoresheet?

Now I’m not 100% sure but I believe it means he’s a reserve so if they need him they’ll play him. He’s essentially the 13th forward. Don’t know if he saw the ice at all though today.

Good game today by the fronts. Got worried when the bulldogs made it 5-4 then 5-5 right after but what a shot by frasca holy crap he’s gonna be good.

Oddly enough the 2 games he didn’t stick out are the 2 games where he got the overtime winner LOL

Kid is gonna be great.

Also ludwinski had another amazing game. Even just going to the wjc camp has seemingly given him much more confidence.

Side note- miedema didn’t play the third period at all I believe. If he did it was very limited shifts I didn’t notice him at all this game.

 

[ScoutLife4]

Kingston needs a goalie bad.
Vaccari is to small and quite frankly not good enough.
He’s making a lot of sloppy mistakes and is regressing as the season goes on.
I’m not sure why he would get all 3 starts on a 3 in 4 stretch but it’s pretty clear they don’t have any confidence in Salajko.
They can’t keep giving up a couple goals on the first couple shots and always having to dig out of these holes early on.

 

[frontsfan67]

Kingston needs a goalie bad.
Vaccari is to small and quite frankly not good enough.
He’s making a lot of sloppy mistakes and is regressing as the season goes on.
I’m not sure why he would get all 3 starts on a 3 in 4 stretch but it’s pretty clear they don’t have any confidence in Salajko.
They can’t keep giving up a couple goals on the first couple shots and always having to dig out of these holes early on.

Yeah the poor kid is currently on pace to play 64 games lol. Definitely need a back up for him. Nobody can play 64 games at this level it’s insane.

 

[dirty12]

Not sure if any of you are aware, however I think it is very interesting both Ty Nelson and Dom DiVinctiis are both not playing games for North Bay at this time before the Christmas break. I assume they're both getting shopped around to some team/teams and they're not playing right now to save themselves from injury.

Now I give it approximately a like 5 percent chance or less this happens- however Kingston does need a goalie and a d man LOL. A man can dream. With them still playing Ludwinski it seems they may not be trading him because why would they want to risk injury.

If Springer and Cooper decided they needed a big shake up of the team this would be one way to do it especially in a very weak east this year.

Nelson and DiVincentiis to Kingston for Tyler Hopkins, Chris Thibodeau, Maleek McGowan, 2 seconds and 2 thirds- who says no? Kingston, or North Bay?

Hypothetically lets say they make a trade like this what would it mean to kingston? Well Kingston gets the best goalie in the league when he's on his game and a guy who can tutor this season to where Vaccari can elevate his game for 2 years after this (he is only 18)
Also one of the strongest tandems in the league if not the strongest.

Nelson would be if not the best d man in the league then at the very least a top 2. This obviously would push the depth of our defence (when healthy) down and thus making us far more deep.

Again a hope and a dream but just wanted to put this on here to see what Kingston fans think lol. In all seriousness they'll probably go to some team like Saginaw, the Soo or Sudbury

If Hopkins is available, NB would have to seriously consider trading Nelson evein if not really in sell mode,

 

[GoFronts]

Hopkins isn't going anywhere. Management won't stop gushing about him, there's no way he's gone for players that won't be back next year. Only way he leaves is if it's for a multi-year impact player.

 

[frontsfan67]

If Hopkins is available, NB would have to seriously consider trading Nelson evein if not really in sell mode,

Completely agree. I was just putting it on here to see how people would react to it lol I hope kingston doesn’t blow it up for half a season of good players that won’t even help next year. However if they did end up trading Hopkins I’d have to assume it would be in a package to acquire both. I don’t think they would ever trade him just for 1 good player it would have to be 2 seriously high calibre players if they ever did that. But I highly highly doubt they do anything like this and if they somehow managed to pull it off I’m not sure if be huge on the trade as it will obviously backfire on us unless it helps bring a championship

Hopkins isn't going anywhere. Management won't stop gushing about him, there's no way he's gone for players that won't be back next year. Only way he leaves is if it's for a multi-year impact player.

I agree and even then I am not sure. He was good before the u17s just hasn’t got much ice time but since the u17s his skill and play has really taken off. I’m hoping he takes a humongous leap going into next year and can become our #2 centre otherwise I feel we will be wasting his potential. Had a really good game today.

 

[frontsfan67]

Slightly off topic however our 2 d men we own the rights to:

Gavin McCarthy
15 games 0g 1p (3rd D line on Boston University NCAA)

Brother is the captain of the team so unlikely to come here but would be nice

Emil Pieniniemi
23gp 0g 4p (Karpat LIIGA)

Is going to be on Finland for the WJC keep your eye out for him. not sure what number.




And Jacob Battaglia didn't play today after being dressed in the warmup- I have heard it is the flu.

Also, I've seen Ethan Weir walking around the arena a few times. any idea why he isn't playing?

 

[beastintheeast]

Slightly off topic however our 2 d men we own the rights to:

Gavin McCarthy
15 games 0g 1p (3rd D line on Boston University NCAA)

Brother is the captain of the team so unlikely to come here but would be nice

Emil Pieniniemi
23gp 0g 4p (Karpat LIIGA)

Is going to be on Finland for the WJC keep your eye out for him. not sure what number.

Take a look at the BU team and you will understand why he is not getting the minutes. Also played 2 years USHL therefore no chance at all he is going above the border to play.

Pieniniemi take a look at his stats he is not an offensive D he is a stay at home therefore his points will look wierd and bad from a NA perspective.

 

[frontsfan67]

Take a look at the BU team and you will understand why he is not getting the minutes. Also played 2 years USHL therefore no chance at all he is going above the border to play.

I understand why completely however at the end of the day that’s not probably the best development to put him on the 3rd line. If he was here this year or next he would probably be comparable to where burns and Schmidt have been playing (the whole game)

Also not cutting up pieniniemi at all just pointing out the stats. Liiga is probably the 3rd best league in the world. Maybe 4th behind ahl. Regardless way better than the chl.

McCarthys brother is 22. Any chance his brother is graduating this year? If he is that may be the opening the fronts are looking for to get Gavin. Obviously Gavin won’t leave when case is still there but once case leaves perhaps he changes his commitment?

 

[Logosarejusttargets]

Now I’m not 100% sure but I believe it means he’s a reserve so if they need him they’ll play him. He’s essentially the 13th forward. Don’t know if he saw the ice at all though today.

Good game today by the fronts. Got worried when the bulldogs made it 5-4 then 5-5 right after but what a shot by frasca holy crap he’s gonna be good.

Oddly enough the 2 games he didn’t stick out are the 2 games where he got the overtime winner LOL

Kid is gonna be great.

Also ludwinski had another amazing game. Even just going to the wjc camp has seemingly given him much more confidence.

Side note- miedema didn’t play the third period at all I believe. If he did it was very limited shifts I didn’t notice him at all this game.

Cavallin played a regular shift with Thibodeau and Hopkins "4th" Line.
Miedema, Like Battaglia (and Frasca) were all feeling sick yesterday.