Dirty you may be right but to say that just because he played under Tourigny and behind some high-powered players he is going to be a star and leader of this team is definitely incorrect.
The Holy way he becomes a leader is to show that he can do it and that he is the best center on the team.
Cameron has an almost completely brand new slate on forward of players that have played a little and players that have not laid at the OHL level. There are no players that have had second-line minutes and on the team, for the past few years the third line did not get a lot of ice time.
I will stay with my thoughts that Tolnai will be a third-line center at best on this team if Moldenhauer returns. There will IMNSHO be a first or second line on this team there are going to be 2 lines that will be almost equal in their abilities.
Could Tolnai surprise me Yeah but I am not going to hold my breath
I think that is also a far fetched assumption. I agree with you that Tolnai may not be the best centre on this team next year. But, to suggest he is (at best) the 3rd line centre is off base.
I mostly agree with Dirty regarding Tolnai EXCEPT that he is penned into first line Centre. Tolnai will be the centre most relied upon, at least in the early part of the season. The question is whether he can hold it down with the pressure coming from older (non-16 year old) rookies like Laforme, Rohrer and potentially Moldenhauer as you suggest.
We also don’t know what we will get from a kid like Crete. He’s another 19 year old that had some flashes of solid play and was with the team his entire 17 year old season playing under all the same players Tolnai did.
In the end, too much is being made about who is #1. In my opinion, we don’t have a #1. We have a handful of guys that seem to pencil in as #2/3 line type guys, whether that is at Centre or Wing. We do not have a prototypical forward you would pen in as a first line player. They may END UP as a first line player by default but they will mostly struggle against the top 3 teams in the East. The question is how they will fare against the 4th through 7th ranked teams in the East.
The reality is we have no idea where this team should finish in the standings because:
1> The sample size of play from our existing forward unit is minimal at best
2> The sample size of most every other teams top players is minimal at best
How can we truly rank Ottawa against most of the other teams when we don’t know what we have and we don’t know what other teams have?
Now they are allowing players that played a minimum of 20 games at the AHL level last season to return to the AHL for development as opposed to the CHL. That means a guy like Foerster is more than likely not going to play in Barrie this season. How does that affect Barrie. Mysak my not play in Hamilton. Just a couple examples.
It is fun to debate these topics and pull out our crystal ball but we should at least stay within reasonable boundaries. To suggest Tolnai is nothing better than a 3rd line centre on this team when there is not one clear player ahead of him is pretty bold to say the least. Moldenhauer and Rohrer are both more natural wingers than centres. They may line up at centre but both would need significant time adjusting, especially in a faster league.
I’m more curious about Robinson and where he ends up slotting in. Varga and crete as well. These guys are the leadership group up front from a veteran perspective. F this team is going to have success, it will require that foursome to play a significant role.