SSM Greyhounds 2019 Offseason Thread

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NOA

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Apr 17, 2015
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Wow that's great! Guelph also won an ohl championship s few years ago and are back at the conference final again. Another great recipe for winning. And does that suzuki and durzi trade look like a good move so far. Go guelph!

Guelph won the OHL title 5 years ago. They went on to win 38, 13, 21, 30 games in their next 4 seasons. Missing the playoffs 2 times and losing in round 1 and then round 2 the other times. Sure, they are back now but with their large amounts of trades this year.. they will likely be winning 15-30 games the next 2 maybe 3 years. And why? Because they didn’t sell off in 2014-15 (which got them their round 2 playoff exit).
 

shot caller

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Apr 16, 2018
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Ok... now that everyone has spent a few days typing the envy out of their system - lets get down to the business that really should consume a healthy “offseason thread”.

Rumours!
Gossip!
Speculation!
Totally outlandish wants and needs!

All in a good way though... like the type of way that clearly will substantiate why we should all be capable (but somehow overlooked!!!) for a general manager’s or coaching position!!

In all of our never ending hockey wisdom - What draft pick or picks from this year is most likely to crack the roster?
Which prospect out of Finn Brown, Kalvyn Watson and Dominic Mufarreh is most likely to be a contributing factor?
What does the depth chart look like??
How high does Pytlik and O’Rouke actually go in the draft???
Dare I say it....who does not make this team????

C’mon people... these are all questions that require our help in solving!

Give me a roster (fulfilling the outlandish wants and needs category) that has a power play centered around a committed Caufield, a draft eligible beast in Pytlik, and a returning - so he has something to prove - Hayton!
See, it’s easy! I’ve totally fixed our power play with that lineup!

For real though. Let’s stop sulking and move on. I need something constructive to do while at work.
 

SSMHoundsFan

Greyhounds/FlamesFan
Dec 30, 2014
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Here's whose potentially returning from this year IMO:

Forwards
Kartye, Pucek, McLean, Johnston, Trott, Carroll, Peca, Kerins, MacKay, Pytlik, Hayton, Roth and Jacklin

Defense
Wale, Wawrow, LeGuerrier, O'Rourke and Calisti

Goalie
Taylor

I think Jacklin may see the axe, he was a healthy scratch for a good part of this season...
 

shot caller

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Apr 16, 2018
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Any proof to this? Elite Prospects show him entering the NCAA next season
In jest - I proclaimed a “committed” Caufield, seeing as how he isn’t committed.., and labeled it under the “outlandish” wants and needs” category!! That is what would be nice but most likely won’t happen.
Just want to start the off season chatter!
 

DWI Dale

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Mar 23, 2014
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The Soo
I would be really surprised to see Pucek back. I think the team can take another flier at an import. Particularly seeing as we could use some help on defense or goal.

I agree. Pucek was just ok and doesn't necessarily justify the import spot if we could upgrade. He's a big kid that plays small.
 

bwhite154

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Mar 27, 2019
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I would be really surprised to see Pucek back. I think the team can take another flier at an import. Particularly seeing as we could use some help on defense or goal.
Would be nice to find a robin lehner type in import draft to shore up or goaltending next year.
 
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HockeyPops

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What draft pick or picks from this year is most likely to crack the roster?
Which prospect out of Finn Brown, Kalvyn Watson and Dominic Mufarreh is most likely to be a contributing factor?
What does the depth chart look like??
We have been poking at the corners of these questions over in our Prospects thread but I will try to concisely respond here.

Here are my assumptions:
1) I assume the Greyhounds don't make any pre-season trades even though I hope Raftis does. We could use a couple more OAs, and we are starting to have a log jam at Center and Right Wing. I can certainly see Raftis having discussions about moving '00s like Jacklin or Roth, as well as a few '01s like Calisti or McLean in the off-season. If he does that would obviously impact our roster out of training camp, but for the purposes of this exercise let's assume he doesn't make any deals.
2) I assume the Greyhounds will draft an import defenseman or goalie. Let's say goalie for this exercise.
3) I expect the Greyhounds to carry 25 players out of Training Camp including Barrett Hayton. 15 forwards, 8 defensemen, 2 goalies.
4) Let's assume the greyhounds sign their top 2 draft picks again this year.

Here are the 25 players I can see making the team out of training camp, and an honorable mention in each position (forward, defense, goal).

1999
Peca, Jaden (RW)

2000
Trott, Zach (LW)
Roth, Ryan (RW)
* Boman, Noah (RW)
LeGuerrier, Jacob (LD)
Wale, Holden (LD)
* Import Goalie (G)

2001
Carroll, Joe (LW)
Pytlik, Jaromir (C)
Johnston, Alex (C)
Kartye, Tye (C)
McLean, Cullen (C)
MacKay, Cole (RW)
Calisti, Robert (LD)
Wawrow, Drew (RD)
Taylor, Ethan (G)

2002
Kerins, Rory (C)
* Mufarreh, Dominic (C)
* Watson, Kalvyn (RW)
* Brown, Finn (RW)
O'Rourke, Ryan (LD)
* Halushak, Matthew (LD)

2003
* Boudreau, Marc (LW)
* Brzustowski, Luc (LD)
* Holmes, Jacob (RD)

Honorable Mention
Forward - Tomasini, Tyson (2002)
Defense - Brown, Hunter (2003)
Goal - Parker, Owen (2002)

Notes:
Defense - I actually have 3 players from the 2003 draft making this team since the non-2003 alternative would probably be 2002 Cole McGuire to become the 3rd 2002 LD (not advised). I actually think Raftis might try to trade for an OA defenseman instead and give Brzustowski a year of Major Midget.
Forward - I put Noah Boman on the roster as a dark horse entering his D+1 year. But Tyson Tomasini is good enough to make this team if the stats are any indication. This is already becoming a real log jam at forward (particularly center and right wing). Raftis might be wise to move out a forward to make room for Tomasini.
Goal - We have lots of young goalies that are going to come into camp and try to steal Ethan Taylor's spot. Coulter Taylor, Noah Zeppa, Owen Parker. If we do bring in an import goalie, this battle for backup goaltender should be spectacular to watch.
 
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HockeyPops

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Potential Trades
Shopping around for overagers, I rank the teams based on the strength of their draft picks as follows (best to worst):

London
Flint
Windsor
Kitchener
Sudbury
North Bay

Oshawa
Owen Sound
Peterborough
Ottawa
Mississauga
Hamilton
Saginaw
Sault Ste. Marie

Barrie
Sarnia
Erie
Kingston
Guelph
Niagara

The top group is likely to buy this season if the team is doing well. The bottom group is likely to sell this season to recoup picks.

Shopping the rosters of the bottom 6 teams, I can see an immediate fit with Sarnia as a trade partner. They have an OA RD that they are likely to want to ship out (Nick Grima). They may also be interested in a package that includes a younger player from our roster instead of only picks, since their draft cupboard strength is not that far away from being in the middle group. I can see something like Calisti + 5th for Grima.

Thoughts?
 

mag1600

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Jun 15, 2012
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Only my opinion and this includes the following players presently on the team NOT having a spot for next year:
Calisti
Roth
Jacklin
Pucek
Hopefully, Raftis can make deals for these players and give them an opportunity to play regularly on another team.
Some may question me including Roth but last year in the playoffs he disappeared and this year in the playoffs he was non-existent.
 

HockeyPops

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Aug 20, 2018
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Only my opinion and this includes the following players presently on the team NOT having a spot for next year:
Calisti
Roth
Jacklin
Pucek
Hopefully, Raftis can make deals for these players and give them an opportunity to play regularly on another team.
Some may question me including Roth but last year in the playoffs he disappeared and this year in the playoffs he was non-existent.
I agree something needs to be done. Right Wing is a log jam:
Peca (1999)
Roth (2000)
Jacklin (2000)
Pucek (2000)
* Boman (2000)
* Watson (2002)
* Brown, F (2002)

Realistically all of these players could make the team next year, but we won't keep more than 4-5. The following season doesn't really get any better as only Peca is graduating from this class. If we do nothing, then our prospects aren't given a chance to make the team, and we fail to capitalize on the successful drafting. Moving established OHL players like Roth, Jacklin, Pucek makes room for our next group of prospects.
 

shot caller

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Apr 16, 2018
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Only my opinion and this includes the following players presently on the team NOT having a spot for next year:
Calisti
Roth
Jacklin
Pucek
Hopefully, Raftis can make deals for these players and give them an opportunity to play regularly on another team.
Some may question me including Roth but last year in the playoffs he disappeared and this year in the playoffs he was non-existent.
Totally respect your opinion - we’re all entitled to it and yours is typically credible. However, in Roth’s defense... when the lines are:
Frost - Pytlik - Howdeshell
Kartye - Hayton - Peca (interchanged with Pytlik where frost moved to center)
Johnston - Caroll - Trott/Mackay

How limited was Mclean and Roth’s involvement.
It’s not that he disappeared, he didn’t play. In the regular season he was trusted a bit more and it showed via his stats. In the playoffs he simply wasn’t used. Now - if you’re suggesting he hasn’t earned the trust of this staff and that’s why he wasn’t played and therefor is expendable... I won’t debate you on that but I will understand your logic.
Simply put - the kid didn’t just decide that its playoff time and make the decision for himself to disappear.
 

Fischhaber

Registered User
Sep 3, 2014
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Potential Trades
Shopping around for overagers, I rank the teams based on the strength of their draft picks as follows (best to worst):

London
Flint
Windsor
Kitchener
Sudbury
North Bay

Oshawa
Owen Sound
Peterborough
Ottawa
Mississauga
Hamilton
Saginaw
Sault Ste. Marie

Barrie
Sarnia
Erie
Kingston
Guelph
Niagara

The top group is likely to buy this season if the team is doing well. The bottom group is likely to sell this season to recoup picks.

Shopping the rosters of the bottom 6 teams, I can see an immediate fit with Sarnia as a trade partner. They have an OA RD that they are likely to want to ship out (Nick Grima). They may also be interested in a package that includes a younger player from our roster instead of only picks, since their draft cupboard strength is not that far away from being in the middle group. I can see something like Calisti + 5th for Grima.

Thoughts?

For one of the OA spots, I would love to grab a solid veteran goalie like Anthony Popovich or Luke Richardson. Those teams may want to give a younger goalie the reigns during a rebuild. We can still give Taylor a chance to take the reigns, but that would be nice insurance for cheap.
 
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HockeyPops

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Imagine that. Oshawa won a memorial cup a couple years ago and are back in the conference final. Now that's a recipe.

Wow that's great! Guelph also won an ohl championship s few years ago and are back at the conference final again. Another great recipe for winning. And does that suzuki and durzi trade look like a good move so far. Go guelph!

@hounds72 you obviously have a bone to pick with our management. But I don't know that I want these "recipes". The Soo Greyhounds have had fantastic success since Dubas turned this organization around.

Let's look at success over the last 6 regular seasons. Of the 18 franchises that haven't moved in that time, the Soo has the most wins (278), followed by London (271), Erie (253), and Oshawa (240). Guelph is in 12th (194). Sudbury is last (148).

Let's look at postseason success over the same time period. Teams that have advanced to at least the Conference Semis in every year? The Soo Greyhounds. That's it. Nobody else.

Of course we want to win that League Championship. It's been elusive for us. But sometimes that's sports. There is no "recipe" that guarantees you a league championship. But our management is putting us in position to compete for it year after year. That's how I define success.

Go Hounds.
 

Riverfront

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Jan 5, 2015
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Even though he had a decent playoff I would also throw the name of Joe Carroll out as trade bait to see what you can fetch for him. Along with
roth, Pucek, Jacklin . We need to get lucky with another good euro in the euro draft and add a couple of overage players to go along with
peca who I assume will be one OA for next season. However, the key to next season is to get Hayton back for his last season, if that does not
happen we will be fighting for a playoff spot for sure. Lets hope Arizona trades for a couple of veteran NHL centremen in the offseason this summer.
 

Canadian Game

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Jul 18, 2005
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Can someone tell me when was the last time a player, already signed to an ELC, returned to junior hockey for an overage season? Why are so many posters convinced that Matty V is coming back?
While not exactly an OA, Sean Day could be the most recent player who kind of fits the bill. For CHL players to be eligible for the AHL they must be at least 20 years old, or have played 4 years of CHL hockey. Since Sean day was given exceptional status and entered the OHL at 15, he played his 4 years, and was kept in the OHL for a 5th year at the age of 19 despite being eligible for the AHL.
 
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Radar9

Hounds/London !
Aug 11, 2012
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Hounds / London
Even though he had a decent playoff I would also throw the name of Joe Carroll out as trade bait to see what you can fetch for him. Along with
roth, Pucek, Jacklin . We need to get lucky with another good euro in the euro draft and add a couple of overage players to go along with
peca who I assume will be one OA for next season. However, the key to next season is to get Hayton back for his last season, if that does not
happen we will be fighting for a playoff spot for sure. Lets hope Arizona trades for a couple of veteran NHL centremen in the offseason this summer.
Roth
Jacklin
Pucek ,Will be on the team next year
 

HockeyPops

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Aug 20, 2018
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While not exactly an OA, Sean Day could be the most recent player who kind of fits the bill. For CHL players to be eligible for the AHL they must be at least 20 years old, or have played 4 years of CHL hockey. Since Sean day was given exceptional status and entered the OHL at 15, he played his 4 years, and was kept in the OHL for a 5th year at the age of 19 despite being eligible for the AHL.
Thanks for this! Certainly a peculiar case. I suggest a bigger difference between Day and Villalta is the timing of when they signed their ELC. Day signed his in March 2017, so was still slide eligible for the 2017-2018 season (his 5th season in the OHL). Villalta signed his in April 2018, so this season should slide, but next season can't slide.

I still can't see him back here next year.
 
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hounds72

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Jan 10, 2017
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@hounds72 you obviously have a bone to pick with our management. But I don't know that I want these "recipes". The Soo Greyhounds have had fantastic success since Dubas turned this organization around.

Let's look at success over the last 6 regular seasons. Of the 18 franchises that haven't moved in that time, the Soo has the most wins (278), followed by London (271), Erie (253), and Oshawa (240). Guelph is in 12th (194). Sudbury is last (148).

Let's look at postseason success over the same time period. Teams that have advanced to at least the Conference Semis in every year? The Soo Greyhounds. That's it. Nobody else.

Of course we want to win that League Championship. It's been elusive for us. But sometimes that's sports. There is no "recipe" that guarantees you a league championship. But our management is putting us in position to compete for it year after year. That's how I define success.

Go Hounds.
I have always said they have done a good job and have supported the hockey community and fans well.
But your a bit naive to think this is the best way to run a hockey club. There is tons of room for improvement. This puck possession style and a large group of small finesse players is designed to prey on weaker teams. That's a fact. Yes the team has performed well and it's awesome to watch all the wins...I'm just saying teams like oshawa and guelph and London never had so many ups and down and inconsistencies during there championship runs.
I support the team like you do but dont kid yourself that with the fire power we had the last few years and the weaker divisions we played in that we did tend to look really good against teams like sudbury and saginaw and flint. We were able to inflate our stats fairly easy that way and we didnt face teams like London oshawa and eerie alot. I believe Keefe even quoted the one year that he wished he played those teams more.
I'll support the team regardless but let's not put management on pedestal just quite yet.
 
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hounds72

Registered User
Jan 10, 2017
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80
Puck possession is a double edge sword. If you dont have the strength and size to get the puck back when you lose it you are in trouble. If your defense or your forward group cant consistently win the puck battle in the corner or remove guys from the front of the net or if you cant park a guy in front of the net in the offensive zone, you are not going to win games when the other team has talent, strength and is hungrier.
We are not reinventing hockey here. This is hockey 101 and every fan around me notices the same thing.
I'm backing the team 100 percent when I'm there but you have to take the blinders off a bit too!
I believe this is managements job to recognize this and I think thus far they have definitely brought in the talent but have forgot that we need the so called "sandpaper" too
 
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