Post 5 of 13 Pre-Season Reviews
Edit: Made a couple small edits
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I count 4 PPG players, (Hamblin, Preziuso, Kemp, Chyzowski) Two should hit the .75ppg range (Brown, Ostir) 5 more should hit the .5 PPG range (Hopwo,Lockner,McCarry,Sillinger,Anderson)
That's 11 of their 12 forwards. That's arguably the best depth in the Conference. This entire group returns except for 1 OA player
That's 11 of their 12 forwards. That's arguably the best depth in the Conference. This entire group returns except for 1 OA player
Scoring by committee type team with no real superstars just a lot of veterans. Their offense should be among the best in the Eastern Conference depthwise.
Defenceman
One of their better young defencemen Joel Craven had to call it a career after multiple concussions the past couple seasons. The Tigers possess a veteran presence with a lot of smart 2-way defencemen. They may be missing a PP Quarterback.
If I was an outside observer of the Tigers I'd say this group may be about average. As someone who's watched a lot of games, I'd say they look like a notch above average. Clayton, Longo, and Baker will be very hard to score against. Van Impe will finally get a chance to receive some more ice-time and show what he can do. There is always potential they look for that offensive defenceman down the road. It will push depth down and they will be better protected in case they have a top guy go out with an injury.
I'm going to go with a slight notch above average.
I'm going to go with a slight notch above average.
Goaltending
Mads Sogaard(18)(.921)
Garin Bjorklund(17)(NA)
Kaeden Freer-Lane(18)(.896 AJHL starter)
Liam Vanderkoi(16)
Sogaard is a 2nd round draft pick and among the best goalies in the WHL. He should be here this year and next. The Tigers goaltending should be among the best in the league barring injuries. Their backups will be inexperienced, but they have heavy competition for that backup spot. Whoever loses could be talented enough to have other teams ask about them in trade.
Draft History
Suggests the Tigers should have a strong 18yr old core, and a slightly below average 19yr old group. They have shored that up through trades. They have altered that chemistry a little bit acquiring some 19's and sending away some 18's.
Import & Overage
Overage Goaltender Jordan Hollett has left the team to pursue an education route.
Right now they have 4 OA's all forwards, while they can only keep 3
Both Imports signed and are in camp.
Both Imports signed and are in camp.
Initial Thoughts
It's a bit disappointing knowing that they could have had an extra 2 PPG players in their lineup with Rybinksi and Haden demanding trades in previous years.
The Tigers should have an interesting year. If they see themselves in contention they are definitely in a position to add. However, if the trade deadline comes and they have had an unexpected hiccup of a season it would be time to re-balance as they have an older roster.
3 comments:
Looks like 2-3 open forward spots, 1 defensive spot, and a backup goaltender spot open.
I'm looking at their roster and It almost seems to make sense if they were to go with 2 OA forwards and get an OA defenceman. Then come deadline time look at putting themselves over the top with a forward.
I also wonder about the forward import, if he is capable of a top 6 role or if it's a feet wet type of season.
It looks like there is going to be 3 big dogs in the central this year so we are hopefully in for a ride.
Steele is 19 and I wonder if it would not be of greater value giving a young gun ice time. He was energetic but I am not he brings why you Hope from a 19 yo.
What prospects do you think will fill the open roster spots?
I just realized I forgot about Baxter Anderson as well, my apologies
So both those players will be in tough spots. 19's need to be your best guys so they'll need to prove they belong.
He is in a tough spot. I personally feel Steele didn't get the ice time to show what he could do. Towards the end of the season, I could see it in his game where he had no excitement or motivation.
I think he would be very excited about a coaching change and with that comes a new opportunity. Having said that 19's need to be the better players on the team. With the roster the Tigers have, their isn't a whole lot of room.
They'll likely be given a shot to see what he can do. It'll be up to both of them to cash in on that opportunity.
As for prospects, there are quite a few guys looking for spots so training camp
Dru Krebs, Ryan Watson, Noah Danielson, Ashton Ferster, Rhett Parsons
A bunch more I'm missing.
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