tarheelhockey
Offside Review Specialist
I feel like we mostly know what we have with the headliners in this group, and we mostly know that the invitees are cannon fodder, so there isn't a whole lot of mystery in the roster this year. There are only a couple of guys who I'll be watching with real question marks in mind:
Henman - He's one of our more borderline prospects, where you can't quite tell whether he's a serious asset in the pipeline. I'll be interested to see how he stands up in a live-fire situation against guys who have good NHL careers ahead of them.
Hoefenmayer - This is a guy who's maybe flying under our radar a bit because he came to us as an undrafted invitee, but he was a 4th round pick for Arizona before re-entering the draft. He was also the 4th highest scoring defenseman in the OHL last year, granted as a 20yo. At rookie camp he laid into a couple of guys physically with enough ill-intent that it stood out from the group. There are questions about his skating and his defensive ability, but this is a guy who is now having to fight for his future and has the upside to potentially be a Torey Krug kind of "oh yeah that guy was in our camp one year" story. I'm going to be watching him super closely for signs of a guy who's taking the steps needed to get that ELC.
Henman - He's one of our more borderline prospects, where you can't quite tell whether he's a serious asset in the pipeline. I'll be interested to see how he stands up in a live-fire situation against guys who have good NHL careers ahead of them.
Hoefenmayer - This is a guy who's maybe flying under our radar a bit because he came to us as an undrafted invitee, but he was a 4th round pick for Arizona before re-entering the draft. He was also the 4th highest scoring defenseman in the OHL last year, granted as a 20yo. At rookie camp he laid into a couple of guys physically with enough ill-intent that it stood out from the group. There are questions about his skating and his defensive ability, but this is a guy who is now having to fight for his future and has the upside to potentially be a Torey Krug kind of "oh yeah that guy was in our camp one year" story. I'm going to be watching him super closely for signs of a guy who's taking the steps needed to get that ELC.