2018-19 Laval Rocket & ECHL Thread

[Adam Michaels]

Head Coach: Joël Bouchard
Assistant Coaches: Alex Burrows & Daniel Jacob
Goaltending & Video Coach: Marco Marciano

GM: Marc Bergevin
Assistant GM: Scott Mellanby
Director of Player Personnel: Larry Carrière

-- ROSTER --

Goaltenders
Charlie Lindgren (NHL Contract) IR
Michael McNiven (NHL ELC) in NHL
Connor LaCouvee (PTO)

Defensemen
Brett Kulak (NHL Contract) in NHL
Brett Lernout (NHL ELC)
Cale Fleury (NHL ELC)
David Sklenička (NHL ELC)
Maxime Lamarche (AHL Contract)
Noah Juulsen (NHL ELC)
Xavier Ouellet (NHL Contract)
Adam Plant (AHL Contract)
Michal Moravčík (NHL ELC)
Gustav Olofsson (NHL Contract) IR

Forwards
Michael Chaput (NHL Contract) in NHL
Kenny Agostino (NHL Contract) in NHL
Michael McCarron (NHL Contract)
Hunter Shinkaruk (NHL Contract)
Byron Froese (NHL Contract)
Jake Evans (NHL ELC)
Lukas Vejdemo (NHL ELC)
Alexandre Alain (NHL ELC)
Daniel Audette (NHL ELC)
Antoine Waked (NHL ELC)
Michael Pezzetta (NHL ELC)
Alexandre Grenier (AHL Contract)
Nikita Jevpalovs (AHL Contract)
Alex Belzile (AHL Contract)
Hayden Verbeek (NHL ELC)
Phélix Martineau (AHL Contract)
Alex Kile (PTO)

Maine Mariners
Ryan Culkin (AHL/ECHL Contract)
Morgan Adams-Moisan (AHL/ECHL Contract)

Norfolk Admirals
T.J. Melancon (AHL Contract)

Brampton Beast
Étienne Marcoux (AHL/ECHL Contract)


News & Notes
03/11/2018: Jeremiah Addison contract terminated (refused to report to ECHL)
07/11/2018: Kenny Agostino called up to Montreal
11/11/2018: Hayden Verbeen called up to Laval from Maine
14/11/2018: Nikita Scherbak recalled by Montreal (conditioning stint over)
20/11/2018: Michael Chaput called up to Montreal
22/11/2018: Brett Kulak called up to Montreal
22/11/2018: Ryan Culkin called up to Laval from Maine
22/11/2018: Phélix Martineau called up to Laval from Fort Wayne
27/11/2018: Karl Alzner assigned to Laval Rocket
29/11/2018: Ryan Sproul released from PTO
29/11/2018: Victor Mete assigned to Laval Rocket
02/12/2018: Simon Deprés signed to a PTO
03/12/2018: Michael McNiven assigned to ECHL's Brampton
03/12/2018: Étienne Marcoux called up to Laval from Brampton
03/12/2018: Phélix Martineau assigned to ECHL's Fort Wayne
06/12/2018: Michael McNiven called up to Laval from Brampton
08/12/2018: Xavier Ouellet assigned to Laval Rocket
10/12/2018: Michal Moravčík assigned to ECHL's Brampton
10/12/2018: Ryan Culkin & Adam Plant assigned to ECHL's Maine
10/12/2018: Phélix Martineau called up to Laval from Fort Wayne
10/12/2018: Morgan Adams-Moisan called up to Laval from Maine
16/12/1/2018: Victor Mete called up to Montreal
16/12/2018: Noah Juulsen assigned to Laval Rocket
19/12/2018: Adam Plant called up to Laval from Maine
20/12/2018: Michal Moravčík called up to Laval from Brampton
22/12/2018: Simon Després released from PTO
24/12/2018: Morgan Adams-Moisan assigned to ECHL's Maine
26/12/2018: Karl Alzner called up to Montreal
27/12/2018: Michael McNiven recalled to Montreal (Emergency Loan)
27/12/2018: Kevin Bailie Signed to an ATO
27/12/2018: Connor LaCouvee Signed to an PTO
28/12/2018: Kevin Bailie Released from ATO
02/01/2019: Michael McNiven assigned to Laval Rocket
02/01/2019: Alex Kile Signed to a PTO
03/01/2019: Étienne Marcoux assigned to ECHL's Brampton​

Click to read more...

 

[Adam Michaels]

Maine Marines lose 4-3 in the Shootout to the Reading Royals

- Verbeek with his first career pro point as he assisted on the tying goal with less than a minute left in the game.
He had 2 SOG, was +1, and had 2 PIM (Tripping)

- Culkin with no points, +1, 7 SOG, and had 2 PIM (Delay of Game)

- Adams-Moisan with zeroes across the board.

Norfolk Admirals beat Atlanta Gladiators 3-2 in OT

- Melancon with no points and 4 SOG.

Fort Wayne Komets win 5-2 against Indy Fuel

- Martineau with 3 assists in his first game back from injury. He had 6 SOG, +2, and had 2 PIM (Slashing)

 

[montreal]

I had closed the thread so people didn't post about the game in both threads but since you did so a good job I thought why not just keep the old one closed and use this one.

Hope to see a good game from McNiven, have noticed he looks sharper but it's a small sample size. I know he lost a lot of weight due to a change in diet but hoping to see more of him.

 

[JuJu Mobb]

Is the team really garbage again this year???

 

[Lshap]

Anyone that watched last year likely saw what a tire fire they were defensively most nights, this year aside from the last 2 games they have been night and day to compare to last season. Much better product on the ice, they still have some defensive breakdowns for sure but they do have 4 rookies on the blueline. Tonights game was troubling but it's 4 weeks into a very long season.

I didn't watch last year. Last night was the third game of my ticket package, so I'm still a pretty new fan but I'm starting to see trends.

Fleury looks like their most dependable defenseman. Rarely makes mistakes, strong on the puck, good first pass. Not a star shutdown player, but has offensive upside. I'm starting to notice Kulak. Moravcik didn't impress me at first, but he seems to be improving with confidence.

Forwards Chaput, Alain, Vejdemo look good in flashes. Agostino is their most dominant forward, but at 26 has likely topped-out in the AHL.

Lindgren and McNiven both look good. Hard to separate Lindgren's goals-allowed last night from the lousy D in front of him, but I thought he was excellent before the 2nd and 3rd goals. I was surprised they pulled him.

Early impression: This is a team with a good system trying to compensate for minimal talent. Scherbak looked lost last night; hopefully it was nerves. The Habs talented prospects are almost all elsewhere.

 

[Mike Mike Caron]

Is the team really garbage again this year???

Apparently they are developing players and this crazy amount of loosing doesn't prevent that.

 

[BaseballCoach]

I know he lost a lot of weight due to a change in diet but hoping to see more of him.

Apparently, he is hoping you see less of him.

 

[HABitual Fan]

I wrote before the season started that I did not share everyone's optimism about the team. Coaching perhaps may be better, but the talent is just not there. Very weak group of AHL veterans, almost no drafted prospects on the team, not impressive group of undrafted players signed as free agents. Considering that Bouchard basically hand-picked the team, he should be the last person complaining about the performance of the veterans. Maybe he underestimated the difference in level between the Q and the AHL, but almost all of the players brought in are not AHL calibre.

Basically with very few exceptions they are fielding an ECHL quality team in the AHL. I understand that as an organization they wanted to give a chance to some Q graduates, but that is why you need an ECHL team. You need to stock the team with the best players available even if you need to overpay to get the top AHL vets. As support instead of signing career ECHL fodder, you need to find unsigned CHL guys and give them a chance on your ECHL team and hope that you find a gem amongst them, given more time to develop. Make them compete for NHL contracts, not hand them out to guys like Waked.

Halak, Ryder, Desharnais all had NHL careers after starting in the ECHL, so no shame in letting guys get their feet wet as pros at that level provided you are assured of their playing time. In the mid 2000's we had about 10 players playing each year on the same team in the ECHL when we were affiliated with Long Beach, and then Cincinnati.

Bouchard needs to realize that the crap that works with 15 yr olds scared of their shadow does not work with pros. Coaches that don't, like Boucher, Roy, Therrien, Hitchcock, Keenan, Tortorella, Burns usually had a short shelf life at the pro level before their players tuned them out and they needed to move on.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

Seems like the team would have been better off keeping Rychel (8 pts in 9 games) than trade for Shinkaruk (2 pts in 11 games).

 

[Whitesnake]

So finally it wasn’t Lefebvre the problem.

Lefebvre became the problem once we reached a 4th year not making the playoffs. You cannot compared that to a start of 1 season. Nobody claimed Lefebvre was a problem at the end of his very 1st year....and now we are not only in December. Bouchard is not a miracle worker. But I believe that the improvements will be better with him. In the end, you will see that there's a greater chance that Bouchard becomes a head coach in the NHL than Lefebvre ever will. Now....I keep saying.....Timmins picks are not as impressive as some think it is. And clearly, we have misjudged the few vets that we brought in. Grenier and Shinkaruk suck balls. We are still waiting on Vejdemo, Audette, the Czech brothers etc.

If anything, if it put back the light on the scouting.....we didn't lose anything.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Regarding Fleury, looks like why he didn't play on Wednesday was because he was sick.

 

[Whitesnake]

Alex Belzile being at the top of the scorers in Laval should tell you all you need to know about the level of talent of this team. Mostly badly build because of scouting.

Guys on that team that were drafted: Evans, Vejdemo, Pezzetta, Audette, McCarron, Lernout and Fleury. How this is not self-explanatory....I don't know.

 

[40Armia]

Watched some parts of the game and wasn't impressed.

Not so sure Bouchard will last in the pros. He talks too much. I'm thinking the vets are already tired of his rants. I saw a lifeless bench most of the game.

I said that before he was hired. He’s a junior coach period

 

[Whitesnake]

I said that before he was hired. He’s a junior coach period

lol Geez, so it took us 3 years to have an opinion on Lefebvre but 10 games on Bouchard? What a great analysis. So he's a junior coach cause he talks. Wow...

 

[Adam Michaels]

Here is Verbeek's first career pro point. He's #17.

 

[dinodebino]

lol Geez, so it took us 3 years to have an opinion on Lefebvre but 10 games on Bouchard? What a great analysis. So he's a junior coach cause he talks. Wow...

Because he talks too much. Different. In the AHL the vets are key. If they tune out, rest of the team will. Guys like Agostino are the real glue. Not the coach. Groulx learned that pretty quickly.

Maybe it was their first stinker of the season and I happened to fall on that one. I'm not impressed by a rookie pro coach that lambastes players publicly when he himself hasn't proven squat. Don't think the veteran players think differently.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Because he talks too much. Different. In the AHL the vets are key. If they tune out, rest of the team will. Guys like Agostino are the real glue. Not the coach. Groulx learned that pretty quickly.

Maybe it was their first stinker of the season and I happened to fall on that one. I'm not impressed by a rookie pro coach that lambastes players publicly when he himself hasn't proven squat. Don't think the veteran players think differently.

It is their first stinker of the year. Every other game, win or lose, they were the better team on the ice. And this was the first time Bouchard displayed disappointment. So far, in his PC's, he talks about how proud he was of his team for playing well.

 

[dinodebino]

It is their first stinker of the year. Every other game, win or lose, they were the better team on the ice. And this was the first time Bouchard displayed disappointment. So far, in his PC's, he talks about how proud he was of his team for playing well.

Not really. He called off a practice and lambasted his players at the start of the season. Stuff de junior.

 

[40Armia]

lol Geez, so it took us 3 years to have an opinion on Lefebvre but 10 games on Bouchard? What a great analysis. So he's a junior coach cause he talks. Wow...

Lmfao. Bouchard is a big mouth but a great skills coach. Just not sure he is suited to coach men. We’ll see i guess

 

[le_sean]

you are saying Lefebre is a good coach ?

Where did I say that? Maybe both he and Bouchard are bad coaches. Or maybe the players just suck. But clearly the problem wasn’t just Lefebvre.

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

Goaltending has been the least of their problems. They have scored 25 goals in 11 games, that a 2.27 per game average which is ****ing terrible. They need their vets to start putting the puck in the net, they also have a weak blueline. When Kulak-Lamarche is your top pairing you are in trouble.

When both of your goaltenders are playing for .875 and below it is hard to win hockey games.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Not really. He called off a practice and lambasted his players at the start of the season. Stuff de junior.

And they came back the next day after that practice and beat Hartford 5-2. He got the response he wanted. And since then, his team has largely dominated their games until last night. And even before that practice, Laval had been the better team.

Let's not get carried away here. Bouchard has some learning to do, as well. But if the team was playing bad, I'd be critical. But last night was their 11th game of the year and it is the first one where they weren't the better team.

And most importantly for me, the prospects have looked good, particularly Evans and Fleury. Vejdemo's been good, too. And I care (and I think you do, too) about them more than I do about Chaput or Agostino or Froese.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Rematch at 3PM. Let's see how Laval reacts to last night's stinker. As already confirmed after the game last night, McNiven will be getting the start.

 

[Adam Michaels]

We knew he would. But just a confirmation.

 

[Goldenhands]

Alex Belzile being at the top of the scorers in Laval should tell you all you need to know about the level of talent of this team. Mostly badly build because of scouting.

Guys on that team that were drafted: Evans, Vejdemo, Pezzetta, Audette, McCarron, Lernout and Fleury. How this is not self-explanatory....I don't know.

Evans 7th round, Vejdemo late third round, the big miss here was Nicolas Roy picked early fourth round by the Canes but outside of Roy and Cirelli picked mid third round, that draft looks extremmely weak after the Carlo pick early second round, Audette 5th rd pick, then comes the McCarron pick, take a look at that draft, who among the prospects left would you rather draft tell me? Shea Theodore? Yeah maybe, but he isnt doing much so far this year... Hartman? Decent pick no more... Zykov? only 3 assists so far this year.. Hagg? Some Flyers fans dont like his game much.. I mean, some decent players at best, no big miss, in fact one of the best picks to do in the second round was Arturi Lehkonen and we drafted him, then you have guys like Buchnevich and Guentzel in the third round that we missed to draft Crisp, you clearly can criticize Timmins here on that pick but Im pretty sure thats the kind of mistake we wont do anymore since Bergevin clearly said before the last draft we wont be drafting for size and toughness over speed and skills anymore... As for Lernout, we traded up for this guy if Im not wrong while Brayden Point got drafted by Tampa some spots after... ouch, that one hurts cause Timmins really missed the opportunity to get us a very good second line center here but still, if you look at that third round, Point is the only pick of that round that is having a NHL career... As for Scherbak, same story as McCarron, it sucks so much that Pastrnak got drafted just 1 spot before by the Bruins but what Timmins could do here outside his best? And his best was Scherbak, who was a good pick considering the long list of no names following our pick... Goldobin is decent at best while Kempe isnt doing anything good this year for LA.

From the 2017 draft, only Fleury was eligible to play in Laval and he is looking great out there, probably already their second best defenseman after Kulak... Poehling decided to play another year in the NCAA while Ikonen still is in Finland, Brook will join Laval next year and that kid already looks like a huge steal from Timmins in the second round... 2016 draft, Sergachev would look good in MTL or Laval but was traded for Drouin, no second round pick that year due to the great Andrew Shaw trade, Bitten taken 3rd overall was traded for Olofsson who is injured... Mete would look amazing in Laval, but that steal from Timmins is already a NHLer... 2015 Juulsen only spent 31 games in the AHL before making the jump full time as a Habs, no 2nd round picks that year, Vedjemo picked in the 3rd round looks decent so far for a first year in N.A. I could keep going but you see the trend, drafting is certainly not the issue, look at how young and talended our main roster is, overall I think Timmins did an incredible job considering we have been drafting late most years with very few second round picks... Last 2 drafts especially look amazing...