If Saginaw's issue is goaltending why would you think a Saginaw goaltender should be part of Kitchener's future? I think it remains to be seen if this is a buy or sell year for Kitchener but I'm certainly not making any decisions now. The Rangers have a top 5 goalie right now and I think that's reason enough to consider adding to the current roster. You seem to have a fascination with the past and the future and maybe that's keeping you from enjoying the present.
my only concern with the five game winning streak is that the only tough team has been Guelph. Sure the other teams are above the Rangers in the standings but should they be? Maybe this is the league just starting to level off. Kitchener might be a 3rd or 4th place team in this conference and that's what Mike Mackenzie will have to make his decision on. But I don't think you make that decision now. Enjoy the fine play!
Further on the notion that Saginaw should be in the market for a number one goalie:
I go to the last time we put together a blockbuster deal in a sell off season where the centrepiece of the return was a young, projected top shelf number one goalie.
To Windsor:
OA - D- Ben Shutron
00 - C- Scott Timmins
00 - G- Josh Unice
To Kitchener:
00 - G- Brandon Maxwell
OA - F- Jacob Lalonde
2nd ‘11
2nd ‘10
3rd ‘09
Lalonde was a throw in to give him a landing spot to finish the season.
The huge error by Spott in this trade was not getting conditionals on OA seasons for Timmins and Unice. There should have to be conditionals should either Damiani or Ingham return for OA seasons.
So, using that trade as sort of a blueprint for a proposed trade with Saginaw:
To Saginaw:
00 - C - Damiani
00 - G - Ingham
To Kitchener:
02 - G - Lennox
2nd ‘20
2nd ‘24
3rd ‘21
2nd ‘24*
3rd ‘24*
4th ‘24*
The conditionals are that if one of Damiani / Ingham returns for an OA season, we get the 3rd and 4th. If both come back, then we also get the 2nd.
Under today’s trade climate, this could be a fair trade all around. Sure it doesn’t look like a strong return for the OA seasons for those two players, but we are getting good return in Lennox. (We are also not sending a Shutron their way in this deal).
During the interview on yesterday‘s Farwell and Pope podcast, they interviewed Guelph’s George Burnett. During that interview, he as much as said that this is a rebuilding year and despite their early success this season, they would not be straying away from the plan. That led Farwell and Pope, and myself as well, to believe that they will continue to try and sell graduating players.
If that is the case, don’t be surprised if they capitalize on the surprising success of Nigel Daws this year. If they do that, and beat us to the punch moving him to a Saginaw or Sudbury before we get a chance to get into negotiations, we may be faced with either keeping Ingham and hoping he returns next year, or taking a reduced return for him.
Lennox projects to be a top goalie in this league. It’s a lot to ask for a 17-year-old to take on the task of backstopping a contending team. It’s not surprising that under the workload/responsibility that he’s been given, that he has faltered somewhat.
We need a goaltender of the future. Lennox can be that player. We have no viable future goaltender on the horizon on today’s roster or even among our drafted players. Justin Wu is rumoured to be an education first goalie. If that is the case, we can’t count on him reporting. Course, MacKenzie may have a better read on that situation than us. Perhaps will is expected to report next year. If that is the case, then this deal gets tossed out.
But if that’s not the case, and if we don’t address our goaltending at this trade deadline via this sort of deal, we will be faced with having to address it in the near future. That would be costly.
Bill, I am enjoying the present. Since the coaching change, the hockey has been much more entertaining. But I am looking at the big picture. If we want to have a shot at being a top contender, we need to have the asset base built up in order to allow us to make trades like we did in 17-18.
We don’t have enough assets to go all in this year to give us a real shot at the conference. We do not want to move any young players. So if we exhaust the 2nd and 3rd round picks that we have currently in the bank, it could cripple this franchise for the next couple years.