Forwards
Joona Kiviniemi(18)(.4)
|
Matthew
Culling(18)(.31)
|
Ben
King(17)(.54)
|
Carter
Chorney(18)(.42)
|
Ethan Orourke(20)(.3)
|
Ethan Regnier(19)(.46)
|
Tyler
Smithies(19)(.18)
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Ian Briscoe(20)(.22)
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Owen Blocker(19)(.17)
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Eric
Houk(18)(.12)
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Tyler Lees(19)(.14)
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Kyle Buhanan(18)(.04)
|
Devin
Aubin(16)
|
||
Quinton
Waitzner(19)(.06)
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||
I have Ben King, Carter Chorney, and Joona Kiviniemi as their highest scorers, getting to the ppg mark could be a stretch but perhaps 1 of them will reach it. They have a couple more that will float around the .5ppg mark. It seems like a much more respectable lineup than last season.
This roster has a lot of "fillers" though and it's lean for scoring depth. Older and lesser talented isn't a good combination. We shouldn't expect much from swift offensively as they are in year 2 of rebuilding. They could easily change up their OA, and try to get something for cheap at the OA cutdown deadline.
An exciting player to look forward to is Ben King. King is their only 1st round draft pick and put up a lot of points for a 16yr old.
Defence
Alex
Moar(18)(.41)
|
Connor
Horning(18)(.46)
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Kasper Puutio(17)(NA)
|
Garrett Sambrook(19)(.18)
|
Christian
Riemer(19)(.13)
|
Austin Herron(18)(.05)
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Carter Spenst(18)(NA)
|
|
Wyatt Wilson(16)
|
Their defence has a couple bright spots with Connor Horning and Alex Moar. I would rate their defence at maybe a slight notch below average because they lack mature veteran top line depth.
If they added an OA back here I'd consider bumping them up to average, potentially above-average if their import pick is any good. They do have room to add a guy
Goaltending
Isaac Poulter(18)(.891)
I'm going to say a slight notch below average. I don't remember much of Isaac and he's only played in 25 games. They don't have much experience back here as of now. They also might look for an overage goaltender to shore this area up.
Draft History
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This doesn't matter a whole lot as they completely blew out their future cupboards for their big run 2 seasons ago. Their coaching staff, front office and the majority of their scouts were all-new last season. They were basically forced to trade away any good asset last season to recover all their missing draft picks.
Their management group did a decent job of recovering some picks. The incoming 16yr old group will be very lean for talent because that draft year(2018) was a write-off, but they were able to recover some picks in the(2019) draft, still, those players won't be available until next year when they are 16 and it will take a couple years still for them to mature.
Import & Overage
The Broncos have 1 OA spot open. They could use it in all 3 positions. They could upgrade their other 2 OA's as well. I Imagine they may eager for the October OA deadline to see if they can get a free upgrade. There doesn't appear to be a lot of talented excess players for cheap out there though.
Initial Thoughts
Not enough talent in their roster; however, they may not be in the basement. They should be able to compete with Red Deer in the central. I see them behind Calgary, Edmonton, Medicine Hat, and likely below Lethbridge due to their additions. Including this season they are still 4 years away from recovery and "up season".
That 4 years is a significant improvement from 7 years they were facing before the start of last season. That sounds crazy, but before the start of this last season, they had very few top round picks in 2019 and 2020. They almost completely re-fueled those draft years by shedding all their older talent.
To me reducing their downtime by 3 years with only 1 season played was a significant improvement and something that will fly under the radar when next season the fans are starting to get complacent with basement teams.
Still, I wish them luck in their recovery and hope swift fans can see that it isn't a coach or GM problem this year or next, it's that their past GM completely shred the team of anything valuable for their memorial cup run a couple seasons ago.
Next Up:
Winnipeg August 23rd
Regina Pats August 23rd
Final Review - Tentatively August 25th
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