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Post by jangle on Sept 13, 2024 5:26:22 GMT -4
You might have a connection to steen because i haven’t heard one person say this, word around rink is they don’t think he should even be top 6 if he was 19, really just doesn’t make sense why he is still even in Charlottetown. Ruccia is here with being top goalie in league. Gurionov a very skilled playmaker/ scorer who almost hit 30 goals last year and experience on good teams in past. Hughes is a workhorse big body physical player who almost hit 30 without even being a goal scorer, as well as a leader and a fan favourite. Need all the offense we can get with horth, morneau and huckins leaving… There’s a void on the back end, Voyaga and Plamondon are rookies who are going to have growing pains. Jardine is still unproven, there’s room for guys to step up. Steen has a lot of CHL experience, it’s not that crazy to see him being able to carve out a valuable role. Up front it’s easy to envision a scenario where you can construct a solid top 9 without Hughes, I’m not saying it’s right or wrong but I can understand it. If you’re projecting growth from players, the D might be the bigger concern. Ruccia is also not going to play every game so there’s opportunity to dress all 3 of the skating OA’s and it’s pretty clear, with there only being 20 skaters that they’re probably looking to add an OHL player who goes through waivers. See who/what becomes available to you and who plays better to start the year and make your 20 decision from there. Competition on a weak team, isn't a bad thing. I thought you could only have 3 Overage players on your roster? The roster isn’t finalized yet with 1 more game so anything could happen. This is a much harder decision than last years OA decision in my opinion. It will be interesting to see what Jim does! |
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Post by dmac99 on Sept 13, 2024 5:47:33 GMT -4
If steen was faster/meaner/better passer then it’s close. But he’s not so shouldn’t even be a discussion
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Post by regyhockeyfan61 on Sept 13, 2024 7:03:48 GMT -4
If steen was faster/meaner/better passer then it’s close. But he’s not so shouldn’t even be a discussion I agree, he’s not mean or tough with being an alright size. It doesn’t make sense why he’s even here over vos, there has to be more to the story, maybe a connection, maybe a favour? Again we are having this conversation, Ruccia , Gorionov yes, and Hughes should be a no questions asked yes, outscored Morneau and Huckins in the second half alone, 18 goals. With being injured early on he could’ve had 30. This year should be 30-40 with playing a hardworking hitting role as well. Him Butler and Shileds looked great together sets up Gurionov Michaud Campbell. That top 6 can compete with a lot of teams. |
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Post by bois on Sept 13, 2024 9:20:17 GMT -4
At the very least if Hughes wasn't being considered for a fulltime role this year he should have been traded as he is clearly good enough to play in the league as a 20 and our draft cupboards are still not fully stocked...
there is some validity to keeping 4 overages early in the season and dressing three skaters in games where Hickey plays for sure but honestly how many starts do we expect the rookie to make? I'd say he gets 8-12 by Christmas at most we know Ruccia is being looked at as a workhorse and the key to moving up in the standings this year
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Post by Briwhel on Sept 13, 2024 9:31:37 GMT -4
There’s a void on the back end, Voyaga and Plamondon are rookies who are going to have growing pains. Jardine is still unproven, there’s room for guys to step up. Steen has a lot of CHL experience, it’s not that crazy to see him being able to carve out a valuable role. Up front it’s easy to envision a scenario where you can construct a solid top 9 without Hughes, I’m not saying it’s right or wrong but I can understand it. If you’re projecting growth from players, the D might be the bigger concern. Ruccia is also not going to play every game so there’s opportunity to dress all 3 of the skating OA’s and it’s pretty clear, with there only being 20 skaters that they’re probably looking to add an OHL player who goes through waivers. See who/what becomes available to you and who plays better to start the year and make your 20 decision from there. Competition on a weak team, isn't a bad thing. I thought you could only have 3 Overage players on your roster? The roster isn’t finalized yet with 1 more game so anything could happen. This is a much harder decision than last years OA decision in my opinion. It will be interesting to see what Jim does! They have changed the rule a little bit I believe. The rule used to be that you could have 4 for 14 days from the beginning of the season or when you first have 4 available (if any are at NHL camps). Now, I believe that the 14 day rule has been removed (so that you can keep 4 until the end of the Christmas window but have to cut by the end of it). That being said, you can only have 3 signed to player cards, so every time you switch an OA, you have to rip up a player card to sign the other guy and there is a player card limit. |
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Post by dmac99 on Sept 13, 2024 9:41:14 GMT -4
how many Ontario players are you allowed to have? Most the successful teams have none or 1 at the most.
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Post by countryboy on Sept 13, 2024 9:42:40 GMT -4
I haven't seen any pre-season action.... no intrasquads, no games.... so I can't really comment and give my opinion how any of the 20 y/o players look. But here's my take on things.
What is likely a contributing factor to Steen making it this far is the lefty/righty breakdown. Steen and Topilnyckyj are the only right handed defencemen we are carrying at the moment. I've seen it posted here that "that doesn't matter too much at this level", etc..... but it does. We know in the NHL that coaches generally value players defending on their strong side and players mostly prefer to play on their strong side. A right handed defenceman is something of a unicorn as there seem to be fewer of those compared to the left shooting defencemen. While it may be tough to get 3 lefties and 3 righties to line up your defence, even having a break down of 4/2 is better than 5/1. I say all of this with the understanding that yes, sometimes players prefer playing their opposite side and that skilled and experienced blueliner, particularly one that can skate well (someone like Kearsey) is usually pretty adept at playing either side. In the end it boils down to how strong the players are that you are matched up with. If we are going 4 lefties and 2 righties on the blueline, then maybe the 3rd pairing is where you have a guy playing his opposite side and that third pairing should likely find that it's not playing against the top competition most of the time.
I've mentioned before that entering into camp they knew they were bringing in Voyaga, but would have no clue where he might fall on the depth chart.
The thing I'm most concerned about heading into this season is the lack of offensive potential we bring to each game. We weren't strong offensively last year, but now we are taking the offensive of Horth, Morneau, Huckins and potentially Hughes out of our lineup. Hughes' 21 goals were second on our team behind Horth who had 32. But 19 of Horth's goals were on the PP. So the truth is that Hughes was tied with Morneau (16 goals) as our top goal scorer at even strength.
But I'm not sure that it's a certain thing that Hughes is to emerge as a top scoring and offensive threat as a 20 y/o player. His four years in the Q has been as follows:
20-21 with Saint John: 7-0-0-0
-He joined the Sea Dogs after leaving prep school, joined Saint John mid-way through the season, but that was the COVID season and teams played limited games.
21-22 with Drummondville: 60-8-13-21
-Traded to Drummondville in the off season, and turned out a really solid 17 y/o rookie season. I forget the details of his trade, but remember SJ hosted the Memorial Cup in 2022, so the young Hughes was likely moved for veteran talent
22-23 with Drummondville: 30-5-2-7, Charlottetown: 32-12-7-19
-Something happened in his 18 y/o season in Drummondville and he didn't match his play at 17. The best thing that happened that season was the mid-season trade that brought him to Charlottetown where he fit in nicely during the season half of the season.
23-24 with Charlottetown: 57-21-14-35
As mentioned, this was one of our better offensive performances in a year we struggled to put pucks in the net.
Though the goal totals are healthy, in his best offensive season he didn't crack 40 points. Without really digging into the numbers game by game, I'll suggest that Hughes is a streaky player who can go on some big runs and put up a lot of offense in a short time. But he'll also have some quiet spells in there too... like the first half of his 18 y/o season in Drummondville.
He's a guy who is big and plays physical. When he's on the score sheet, more often than not it's for a goal he has scored... so he's a very noticeable player when on ice. But the fact that we are still looking at 4 20 y/o players means that the management must not be 100% convinced he can really take the next step and deliver consistent offense.
If it were me, I'd probably be picking Hughes over Steen, just because I think our defence is strong enough to take care of things despite the lefty/righty imbalance. They didn't worry about this when signing Jardine, when signing Plamondon, when drafting Voyaga and Radivojevic (another lefty) so why might it be a worry now.
But, when looking at the two players if they are considering them equals....
a 20 y/o righty defenceman
vs.
a 20 y/o big hard nosed winger with some offense
It's probably easier to find another winger somewhere to step into the lineup compared to finding another right shot D with some size and experience.
I do think they are looking carefully at OHL castoffs who might be available now and in coming days to maybe bring in for a look see.
Interesting times.
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Post by countryboy on Sept 13, 2024 9:45:56 GMT -4
If we run 4 over agers for a while, for games where Hickey plays, if Ruccia sits, then who is our backup. Niko Boudreau with the Western Caps, most likely. As awkward as it is having 4 over agers for 3 spots, it's probably even more awkward bringing in a different backup goalie for the odd night where Ruccia might be in the stands. Less than ideal.... the 20 y/o situation needs to be sorted out soon. At the very least if Hughes wasn't being considered for a fulltime role this year he should have been traded as he is clearly good enough to play in the league as a 20 and our draft cupboards are still not fully stocked... there is some validity to keeping 4 overages early in the season and dressing three skaters in games where Hickey plays for sure but honestly how many starts do we expect the rookie to make? I'd say he gets 8-12 by Christmas at most we know Ruccia is being looked at as a workhorse and the key to moving up in the standings this year |
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Post by jangle on Sept 13, 2024 9:48:14 GMT -4
I thought you could only have 3 Overage players on your roster? The roster isn’t finalized yet with 1 more game so anything could happen. This is a much harder decision than last years OA decision in my opinion. It will be interesting to see what Jim does! They have changed the rule a little bit I believe. The rule used to be that you could have 4 for 14 days from the beginning of the season or when you first have 4 available (if any are at NHL camps). Now, I believe that the 14 day rule has been removed (so that you can keep 4 until the end of the Christmas window but have to cut by the end of it). That being said, you can only have 3 signed to player cards, so every time you switch an OA, you have to rip up a player card to sign the other guy and there is a player card limit. Thanks for explaining! Well if that’s the case, who knows what Jim has in the works. Maybe a trade before Christmas. I believe Hughes could bring something to us especially if he has a strong start. I’d hate to see him go. He’s a hard worker and hustles and I love those players! Not putting too much weight on preseason results but what I’ve seen so far is a lack of hustle and giving up on the plays. We are too weak on defense to even consider giving up on the puck and then we end up being out played. Obviously it’s early and that can be improved upon and I’m sure it will. But my point is - we lack players with Hughes’ grit. Wish I could be a fly on the wall with the coaches lol |
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Post by Score on Sept 13, 2024 9:58:30 GMT -4
how many Ontario players are you allowed to have? Most the successful teams have none or 1 at the most. It's obviously an issue with you. Majority of your recent posts are focused on Steen....and now Ontario. Does it matter where a player is from? |
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Post by countryboy on Sept 13, 2024 10:00:52 GMT -4
No rules..... When a player comes here from Ontario he must pass through OHL and QMJHL waivers. As long as he meets these criteria, you can have as few or as many Ontario players as you wish. The organization has always had a number of Ontario products in the lineup, especially with Jim in charge. I guess the operate on the philosophy that there are so many people in Ontario, there are bound to be a few more guys who slip through the cracks compared to in Quebec and on the East Coast. Mostly we've had really good players come in from Ontario. Lucas Romeo came in at 17 and is a great player in the league. Brendan Clavelle came in at 18 and was our captain at 20. Hunter Drew started at 18 as a guy who did his best work with the gloves off and eventually got an opportunity to play in the NHL. There have been some 5/6 D, 4th line players too.... guys like Colin Van Den Hurk, Cayse Ton, etc. I'm sure it can be frustrating for a local guy or a drafted guy to get cut to see the job he was looking for go to someone from out of region. It's always frustrating not making a team when you feel you should. But generally we've had pretty strong results with the Ontario players we bring in. how many Ontario players are you allowed to have? Most the successful teams have none or 1 at the most. |
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Post by dmac99 on Sept 13, 2024 11:01:13 GMT -4
You can look at it that way or you could look at who lost out on development at the sake of someone who made us a 14-16 placed team instead of 18th. If you are 18th you get 1st pick, if you are 14-16 place you get 4 playoff games. Maybe it is not that important to be mediocre.
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Post by regyhockeyfan61 on Sept 13, 2024 11:59:23 GMT -4
If we run 4 over agers for a while, for games where Hickey plays, if Ruccia sits, then who is our backup. Niko Boudreau with the Western Caps, most likely. As awkward as it is having 4 over agers for 3 spots, it's probably even more awkward bringing in a different backup goalie for the odd night where Ruccia might be in the stands. Less than ideal.... the 20 y/o situation needs to be sorted out soon. At the very least if Hughes wasn't being considered for a fulltime role this year he should have been traded as he is clearly good enough to play in the league as a 20 and our draft cupboards are still not fully stocked... there is some validity to keeping 4 overages early in the season and dressing three skaters in games where Hickey plays for sure but honestly how many starts do we expect the rookie to make? I'd say he gets 8-12 by Christmas at most we know Ruccia is being looked at as a workhorse and the key to moving up in the standings this year Hughes has has basically 20 back to back seasons on a bottom 3 team in the league. his point total not reaching let’s say 50 because he wasn’t playing on a top team… if he was he would have close to 50 points in back to back seasons. He goes out and works for what he gets, with him having a full season with the strong 06 forwards i see him sky rocketing. Gurionov as well, you got 2 20s that can lead the way and we can be a top offense team in league. They must be looking at someone else to take for D. Steen is just not a good enough 20 year old, he has size, doesn’t use it, it would be different if he’s out there manhandling even weak teams like saint john, but he’s not, with his feet as well, i can see why no OHL teams wanted him. We will see how it fairs out… |
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Post by countryboy on Sept 13, 2024 12:47:17 GMT -4
It's not like Goriunov's stats are exceptionally stronger than Hughes over the balance of the past 3 seasons. I'm detracting some points from Hughes because he hasn't had a 40 point season....but looking at Goriunov
17 y/o 65-12-11-23
18 y/o 65-23-19-42
19 y/o 63-29-19-48
He's been in the 40s twice but has yet to crack 50. He's been more productive, but not by much. Notice that Goriunov has been very durable... he's only missed a handful of games over his three years.
There may not be a whole lot of difference between Goriunov and Hughes production wise.
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rob16
Draft Pick
Former WHL fan. New Islanders fan.
Posts: 42 
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Post by rob16 on Sept 13, 2024 13:22:18 GMT -4
Another factor is player preference. A number of bubble 20 year olds in recent years across major junior have preferred to take on a starring role in junior A with an elite team before starting university career. Blake Eastman was an example of this mindset last year. I have no inside information, but have to wonder if perhaps Hughes expressed a preference of playing in Summerside this year and Caps are trying to arrange a trade with Grand Falls. Vos also seems like a guy that could find a spot on some Q team if he so wished.I agree that eye test suggests that Hughes may have better potential this year than Madden, but us as fans are not always aware of extenuating factors.
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