Kitchener Rangers 2018 Offseason Thread

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Rangers True Blue

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Thanks for all that posted about the OHL Gold Cup. I missed more games then I intended on watching.
I am very optimistic about MM last draft. Seeing Valade, Langdon, Serbrango, Serpa, Winsor and McBride play there is a lot of promise coming in the pipeline. Have to give Kudos to MM and his staff.

I remember watching Ladd and Vallati play at the OHL Gold Cup and thought they were ok. But watching Serbrango, I try not to hype him too much, but he looked far better and would be a great signing for us. Having Vukojevic and Serbrango on the back end with Vallati and some vets would go a long way to solidify our back end.
A back end that gained a ton of experience in the playoffs and measured up to the best in the league. MM says if the team returns with that "work hard" attitude and style of play, they're going to have a great season.
 
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robertmac43

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Do you guys think the better team won the O tonight? or was it the case of a SOO team that was too tired from its series against OS and us?

I guess I just never though Hamilton would actually come away with the win!
 
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ScoresFromCentre

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This leaves me inclined to believe that Raftis didn't know of any occurrence. I'm less convinced they didn't happen, though. (Spot-on analysis by Mach, as well.)

Do you guys think the better team won the O tonight? or was it the case of a SOO team that was too tired from its series against OS and us?

I guess I just never though Hamilton would actually come away with the win!

I think things might have been different had the roles been reversed. Full props to Hamilton, though. They made a ton of savvy trades over the last couple years, built an awesome team. That city deserves all of the good that comes its way, too. Absolutely lovely people down there.
 
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OHLFan90

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Do you guys think the better team won the O tonight? or was it the case of a SOO team that was too tired from its series against OS and us?

I guess I just never though Hamilton would actually come away with the win!

I think the better team won.

Soo has a lot of big name talent but in the end had 0 faith in their 4th line. Hamilton had guys like Issac Nurse who had 7 goals during the post season played valuable minutes up and down the line up including on the 4th line.

Hamilton made trades that made sense for their line up. They added top 6 depth. A top 4 Dman. Soo went top heavy with Raddysh and Sambrook instead of putting attention to detail on the depth. Just my opinion though.


Very happy for Hamilton and the fans. That was an impressive showing. That Hamilton team played with a lot of class.
 

bobber

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Not sure how much stock people put into plus/minus but these Soo players were all minuses in the play offs according to the OHL stat sheet.
Raddysh -7
Frost -4
Kopacka-1
Hayton-2
Howdenshell-2
Sambrook-3
 

BenchedGuy

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Do you guys think the better team won the O tonight? or was it the case of a SOO team that was too tired from its series against OS and us?

I guess I just never though Hamilton would actually come away with the win!

I think the best team did. I was like you and underwhelmed with Hamilton at first. But watching a few games, saw they were the real deal. Like others mentioned, Hamilton went for depth of what they needed at the deadline. Soo just went for high end, which doesnt always work.
You could use the reasoning that Soo ran out of gas with the OS and us. But these are young men who can bounce back. With the right conditioning, nutrition and rest they should be fine. And every team had to deal with injuries. We took Soo to double OT missing arguably 2 of our 3 best D men.
 

ScoresFromCentre

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I think the better team won.

Soo has a lot of big name talent but in the end had 0 faith in their 4th line. Hamilton had guys like Issac Nurse who had 7 goals during the post season played valuable minutes up and down the line up including on the 4th line.

Hamilton made trades that made sense for their line up. They added top 6 depth. A top 4 Dman. Soo went top heavy with Raddysh and Sambrook instead of putting attention to detail on the depth. Just my opinion though.


Very happy for Hamilton and the fans. That was an impressive showing. That Hamilton team played with a lot of class.

Did the Soo have a lot of "big name" guys, though? To the extent they did, it felt like those guys earned their big name status for their stellar play up in the Soo. Raddysh and Sambrook were top-six depth and a top-four D respectively too, right? I agree with the more general point, though, which is that Raftis should have gotten more. Yeah, they were far and away the best team at that point in the season (record-wise, anyway), but this is not the first time in recent years that they were exposed in the playoffs as something of a paper tiger beating up a patsy schedule. They left an import spot and a Euro spot on the table, for crying out loud. The Soo fans trotted out excuse after excuse for this, but I wouldn't put up with that from the Rangers. Heck, Jake Henderson could have helped them.

I'm not convinced Hamilton could have gotten through OS->KIT->SSM had they been forced to do it, though. That's a tough gantlet for ANY team to run.
 

Hammer9001

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I 100% agree with this as I am a season ticket holder for the TiCats.... Would have appreciated them being the team that brings the city a championship :p

I used to be a season ticket holder of 10 years, and while I know the fans and the players deserve it, I'd actually like to see the team miss the playoffs again this year and fail to sellout. If only because it appears to be the only way for the team to actually clear out it's management staff. After the Art Briles debacle and terrible season last year, and Scott Mitchell doubling down on the hire and then non-apologizing on the Fan590 didn't help things. The organization needs to do some serious managerial housecleaning before I'll buy season tickets again.

What confounds me is that it's not like in the CFL this isn't done. Ottawa started from scratch and won a cup in three years, Toronto cleaned house and won a Grey Cup in the same year. Saskatchewan did it too and it took them two seasons to become competitive again.

It doubly annoys me because Scott Mitchell's stadium debacle has now made the city council incredibly gun shy regarding any area talks for the Bulldogs and Michael Andlauer, who frankly deserves to have his faith in the city rewarded.
 

OHLFan90

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Did the Soo have a lot of "big name" guys, though? To the extent they did, it felt like those guys earned their big name status for their stellar play up in the Soo. Raddysh and Sambrook were top-six depth and a top-four D respectively too, right? I agree with the more general point, though, which is that Raftis should have gotten more. Yeah, they were far and away the best team at that point in the season (record-wise, anyway), but this is not the first time in recent years that they were exposed in the playoffs as something of a paper tiger beating up a patsy schedule. They left an import spot and a Euro spot on the table, for crying out loud. The Soo fans trotted out excuse after excuse for this, but I wouldn't put up with that from the Rangers. Heck, Jake Henderson could have helped them.

I'm not convinced Hamilton could have gotten through OS->KIT->SSM had they been forced to do it, though. That's a tough gantlet for ANY team to run.


Yeah that's fair.

They did have Katchouk, Timmins, Frost, Sandin, and Hayton. I feel like those where some big names. So I guess it depends on is that any more that what most teams had.

I am not even suggesting the move shouldn't have been made. They where all in and I can appreciate that, I just more or less was thinking, why stop there?
 

ScoresFromCentre

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Yeah that's fair.

They did have Katchouk, Timmins, Frost, Sandin, and Hayton. I feel like those where some big names. So I guess it depends on is that any more that what most teams had.

I am not even suggesting the move shouldn't have been made. They where all in and I can appreciate that, I just more or less was thinking, why stop there?

Ah, gotcha. I'm with you on that. I hope they at least kicked the tires on guys like Sokolov and Miletic.
 

Hammer9001

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I'm not convinced Hamilton could have gotten through OS->KIT->SSM had they been forced to do it, though. That's a tough gantlet for ANY team to run.

I would tend to agree here, and I'd also add the loss of Verbeek on the Soo really hurt them as well. That said, Hamilton was an older team and a much more physical team, so had they gone through the same 7 game heck that the Soo went through, they probably would have handled it a bit better then the Soo who I believe were short 2 over agers.

That said, if the Soo went through our path, realistically apart from that hellish OT series with Niagara, the team really didn't face anywhere near the same level of resistance. The Ottawa series pretty much went as expected, only that the team needed a wake up loss to get back in order. I didn't see enough of the Barrie Kingston series to figure out what went on there, but Hamilton throttled Kingston early and they just weren't able to recover. Had the Soo been as fresh as we were, I don't think we would have pulled it out.

I think that game 4, where the Soo looked awful in the 3rd and got a very fortunate misplay breakaway to win, 5 where the Soo just couldn't find their legs till late in the 3rd and 6, where Hamilton turned the table for once and dominated the later periods after restraining effort in the 1st and 2nd with a nutso crowd feeding them.

It's really an interesting discussion to be had in the East vs West disparity thread.
 
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bobber

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The Rangers were playing two rookie Dmen in York and 16 year old Vukajevic in the play offs. Two veteran Dmen out injured Hall and McEneny. Gareffa a 5'6" forward on defence. 5'5"rookie Petizian also played in several games This was for most of the play offs. Also had Smitty missing in game seven. The Soo had no excuses when you look at our line up. They were good but just not that good.
 
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Ward Cornell

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The Rangers were playing two rookie Dmen in York and 16 year old Vukajevic in the play offs. Two veteran Dmen out injured Hall and McEneny. Gareffa a 5'6" forward on defence. 5'5"rookie Petizian also played in several games This was for most of the play offs. Also had Smitty missing in game seven. The Soo had no excuses when you look at our line up. They were good but just not that good.
Besides Stanley, Smith and Culina the most consistent performers were the 18 and 17 yr olds + Vuk on this team.
That group carried the team while Sherwood was a beast in a few games and Masch, Bunnaman and Brown (regardless of points saying otherwise) were basically playoff non-factors. The Rangers making it that far in the playoffs against 2 Top 10 teams was outstanding!
 

EvenSteven

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The Rangers were playing two rookie Dmen in York and 16 year old Vukajevic in the play offs. Two veteran Dmen out injured Hall and McEneny. Gareffa a 5'6" forward on defence. 5'5"rookie Petizian also played in several games This was for most of the play offs. Also had Smitty missing in game seven. The Soo had no excuses when you look at our line up. They were good but just not that good.

Give them a healthy Verbeek and us a healthy McEneny and Hall and I think we win the series.

Putting Garreffa on D caused us to move Hugg off the 4th line up to his spot. That hurt both our 2nd and 4th lines. Garreffa' offensive playmaking was no longer present on the 2nd line. Hugg played good there but for the most part played the role of a third line grinder.

We rolled all four lines pretty good in the first two rounds. Hugg and Liska were huge as 4th liners with Yantsis playing better than I thought he would as a lesser third piece. Likely the top 4th line based on talent in the league. Moving Hugg up to the second line meant Liska, the lesser Yantsis and a healthy scratch to that point in Petizian playing on the fourth line. That caused McKee to rotate guys off the other lines onto the fourth line every so often - something I am sure they didn't want to do.

Gentles and York played decent but if we were healthy on the blueline, one of them would have been a healthy scratch while the other would have played spot duty while we went with the top 5 primarily. Hall and McEneny would have also added much more of a physical element - an element that the Soo obviously had big trouble playing through.

As far as Smith's absence in game seven? He serves that suspension for the finger in the first two games of the championship final. Because both teams healthy I think we win this series in six.

We'd have had a harder time with Owen Sound.
 

Ward Cornell

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We'd have had a harder time with Owen Sound.
It still amazes me how good OA goalies are so undervalued at the trade deadline. If not for their goalkeeping issues for most of the season OS could've been the top team in the OHL last season. Culina really came into his own this past season after having a middling OHL career prior. IMHO if a team has a "ok" 18 yr old goalie he may be gangbusters as a 19 yr old or an OA goalie.
 
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ScoresFromCentre

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Give them a healthy Verbeek and us a healthy McEneny and Hall and I think we win the series.

Probably, but they aren't exactly selling healthy Connor Halls at Wal-Mart!

It still amazes me how good OA goalies are so undervalued at the trade deadline. If not for their goalkeeping issues for most of the season OS could've been the top team in the OHL last season. Culina really came into his own this past season after having a middling OHL career prior. IMHO if a team has a "ok" 18 yr old goalie he may be gangbusters as a 19 yr old or an OA goalie.

That should change with the new OA goalie rule. But it was definitely a poor year for a few Western GMs. DeGray never got his goalie, Raftis didn't add enough, and I didn't love Sarnia's additions either (even Dineen seemed to disappoint for them--would have looked great on the Rangers, though). Flint kept Smereck for some weird reason ("leadership", I guess).

London, Kitchener and Windsor did fine, though.
 
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Ward Cornell

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Probably, but they aren't exactly selling healthy Connor Halls at Wal-Mart!



That should change with the new OA goalie rule. But it was definitely a poor year for a few Western GMs. DeGray never got his goalie, Raftis didn't add enough, and I didn't love Sarnia's additions either (even Dineen seemed to disappoint for them--would have looked great on the Rangers, though). Flint kept Smereck for some weird reason ("leadership", I guess).

London, Kitchener and Windsor did fine, though.
Smereck would have helped almost every team last yr. Maybe he told them he would move to a different team? Not sure why he would do that though...... maybe being a Michigan kid had something to do with that! Oh well!
 

EvenSteven

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That should change with the new OA goalie rule. But it was definitely a poor year for a few Western GMs. DeGray never got his goalie, Raftis didn't add enough, and I didn't love Sarnia's additions either (even Dineen seemed to disappoint for them--would have looked great on the Rangers, though). Flint kept Smereck for some weird reason ("leadership", I guess).

London, Kitchener and Windsor did fine, though.

Is that new rule actually confirmed? All I've heard is the rumour that it might.
 

EvenSteven

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It still amazes me how good OA goalies are so undervalued at the trade deadline. If not for their goalkeeping issues for most of the season OS could've been the top team in the OHL last season. Culina really came into his own this past season after having a middling OHL career prior. IMHO if a team has a "ok" 18 yr old goalie he may be gangbusters as a 19 yr old or an OA goalie.

I'm thinking Richardson could be our Culina in his OA season.
 

EvenSteven

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Smereck would have helped almost every team last yr. Maybe he told them he would move to a different team? Not sure why he would do that though...... maybe being a Michigan kid had something to do with that! Oh well!

He was on my wish list at the deadline. My first choice as an OA d-man to go after as I mentioned on here repeatedly.

McEneny served us well though. No issue with that acquisition.
 

rexdale

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Bobber get off of this Garreffa a forward playing D train. It left the station. NHL teams will invite him as a D, but I guess NHL teams are lining up at your door to hire you as a scout.
 

bobber

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Bobber get off of this Garreffa a forward playing D train. It left the station. NHL teams will invite him as a D, but I guess NHL teams are lining up at your door to hire you as a scout.
You have made four posts and two have disparaged me. Agenda! Troll? Certainly not a fan of the Rangers. Why are you fixated with what others say about Gareffa. You also referenced Even Steven about Gareffa in a post. If you have something constructive to say instead of being an ass let's hear it.
 
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