First look at Training Camp

[Gman]

I haven't seen Adam Bezak mentioned... is he not reporting?

[jimmy]

gman said:

I haven't seen Adam Bezak mentioned... is he not reporting?

Bezak is slated to arrive on the 18th ... visa problems due to his having switched agents over the summer.

[jimmy]

buckybuckbuck said:

billy said:

Stephens is one of the guys that really stood out to me along with Bolduc, Lamoureux, Sill, Dimitruk and Tolles. Watson may habe been the best player on the ice overall. I also agree on Frazee, the first half of the game he was one of the better players.

The first guys i'd cut...Herr(unless Lamoureux can't handle the tough guy job) Brousseau Warner Dupuis Croft Peltak Blain and Rousseau.

I agree with your cuts. I thought Dupuis might be alright but I haven't been watching the goalies as much.

According to Flynn in this mornings paper, plan is to open full camp on Thursday with four goalies, Riopel, Sniderman, and two others. So two of the Cooling, Babiak, Dupuis, Bolduc group will be gone after Wednesday. Bolduc is probably a CEGEP kid, so if he survives Wednesday, probably a good indication that he is going to be the backup behind Riopel this season ... otherwise they won't bother keeping him past Wednesday as they would have to cut him in the next couple of days for schooling reasons and would be down to three goalies for the rest of camp.

[Dalkiel]

well, heres my opinion of a few players as today was my first look at the rookies.

Sill-he's got leadership written all over him
Gomes-good player but out of shape
Mcausland-welcome to the Wildcats, I'll enjoy watching a 2007 version of Theoren Fleury without the problems
Brown-out of shape but has great potential, his line was the class of the game
Watson-agree with just about everyone, best player out there today.
Dimitik-I hope he stays, probably the best D we have out there today, I can even learn to deal with that visor
Bolduc-good but not the best out there today
Babiak-looked great, unfortunate last goal but made up for it in the shootout, I'd like to see more of him
Cooling-Didn't impress me but I'd love to have a Goaltender with his size
Lamoureux-I hope we find a spot for him, he's a perfect fit for the enforcer role but with the depth we have it may be difficult
Herr-Has the same mental capacity of Cormier and unfortunatly the same skill, thanks for coming out.

All in all I think that Watson, Brown and McAusland line was awesome, this would be a great line in a year or 2 but could put up some points this year.
I think with McAusland's style there will be no need of Brenton unfortunalty

[curtis]

I think Brenton was going to lose his spot even before MacAusland reported. It's too bad, there are a lot of good, hard-working kids who aren't going to get spots on the team.

[SteveUL]

curtis said:

I think Brenton was going to lose his spot even before MacAusland reported. It's too bad, there are a lot of good, hard-working kids who aren't going to get spots on the team.

There is really no room up front to add extra guys unless they are cutting a few returning players ... we have pretty much made a commitment to 5 new forwards ... Brown/MacAusland/Bezak/Brannon/Sill ... and are only losing 2 forwards from last year ... Gaudet and probably Lincourt. Looking at some simple line combinations it will be tough to find good icetime for everybody ....

Marquardt (20) - Mangan (20) - Bezak (18)
Cameron (18) - Labelle (18) - Eagles (19)
Lessard (18) - Sill (19) - Brannon (18)
MacAusland (16) - Brown (16) - Watson (18)
Brenton (18) - Morehouse (20) - MacLelland (19)
LePage (19)

It will tough to cut a guy like Lamoureux (18) ... great size and very good skater and he reportedly brings toughness. Many are high on Stephens (17) although I'm not sold on him. Add those two above and suddenly you have 6 lines (18) of forwards ... when 14 is probably all you want. I just don't see Stephens or any other rookie besides Lamoureux making the final cut. They would probably like to sign Stephens and keep him for next year as we will be lacking 17 yr old forwards this year ... maybe the Beavers could work out something to let him play in Moncton.

Lepage is an easy cut at 19 (possibly tradeable for an 8th) ...

I'd hate to see Brenton go but he doesn't score enough ... he has fantastic speed and is a good PK guy and I fear he'll turn into an offensive threat somewhere else ... he was only 17 last year.

The Wildcats are high on Maclelland and are considering him as captain material next season. Is Sill better than him now ? These guys are sort of the same player and I wonder if we need two.

Morehouse is the logical captain for this year but where do you insert him in the lineup to give him regular icetime ? Who do you bump out of the top 3 lines that I show above ?

Its possible that we could deal Lincourt (or Mangan or Marquardt) and Brenton for a 20 YO dman ... Andricopolous maybe ... but the team we trade with would need to have an open 20 YO slot or a Dman they'd like to move to add a forward.

On D ... there are a few more open slots ...

Only Pianosi (18), Barberio (17) and Baca (18) are locks ... then we have returning Tolles (19) and Goyens (19) ... Gomes has shown skill but is 19 ... Dimitruk's (17) decision will have an impact on whether or not we add another younger guy or an older guy. We haven't seen enough of Eastman yet ... Little (18) is not impressive but doesn't look bad either ... and I've been impressed with a few others like Cody Wilson (very agressive). We'll probably keep 8 Dmen so it could look like this ...

Pianosi - Baca
Barberio - Goyens
Tolles - Gomes
Little - Demitruk

If Demitruk declines then you look at adding 2 guys like Little or Eastman or Wilson ... not many dmen have really stood out. If you can swing a deal for a 20 YO Dman then adding a couple of younger Dmen as your spares is more preferable.

Bottom line is there is next to zero room on forward and Lamoureux is the only guy I see having a shot at making the team ... and he has to drop the gloves if he wants it.

[Dalkiel]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Eagles is on the outs. He is injury prone. He may have skill but I find he is missing something, maybe the ability to finish off the play and also has the puck knocked off his stick too easy.
I can only imagine the bag of worms I opened with that statement but its just what I think.

[Dalkiel]

I can also see Brown not making it this year but I could be wrong if his presence this year was part of the negotiation to get him. Thats just based on 2 periods of play

[jimmy]

steveul said:

curtis said:

I think Brenton was going to lose his spot even before MacAusland reported. It's too bad, there are a lot of good, hard-working kids who aren't going to get spots on the team.

There is really no room up front to add extra guys unless they are cutting a few returning players ... we have pretty much made a commitment to 5 new forwards ... Brown/MacAusland/Bezak/Brannon/Sill ... and are only losing 2 forwards from last year ... Gaudet and probably Lincourt. Looking at some simple line combinations it will be tough to find good icetime for everybody ....

Marquardt (20) - Mangan (20) - Bezak (18)
Cameron (18) - Labelle (18) - Eagles (19)
Lessard (18) - Sill (19) - Brannon (18)
MacAusland (16) - Brown (16) - Watson (18)
Brenton (18) - Morehouse (20) - MacLelland (19)
LePage (19)

It will tough to cut a guy like Lamoureux (18) ... great size and very good skater and he reportedly brings toughness. Many are high on Stephens (17) although I'm not sold on him. Add those two above and suddenly you have 6 lines (18) of forwards ... when 14 is probably all you want. I just don't see Stephens or any other rookie besides Lamoureux making the final cut. They would probably like to sign Stephens and keep him for next year as we will be lacking 17 yr old forwards this year ... maybe the Beavers could work out something to let him play in Moncton.

Lepage is an easy cut at 19 (possibly tradeable for an 8th) ...

I'd hate to see Brenton go but he doesn't score enough ... he has fantastic speed and is a good PK guy and I fear he'll turn into an offensive threat somewhere else ... he was only 17 last year.

The Wildcats are high on Maclelland and are considering him as captain material next season. Is Sill better than him now ? These guys are sort of the same player and I wonder if we need two.

Morehouse is the logical captain for this year but where do you insert him in the lineup to give him regular icetime ? Who do you bump out of the top 3 lines that I show above ?

Its possible that we could deal Lincourt (or Mangan or Marquardt) and Brenton for a 20 YO dman ... Andricopolous maybe ... but the team we trade with would need to have an open 20 YO slot or a Dman they'd like to move to add a forward.

On D ... there are a few more open slots ...

Only Pianosi (18), Barberio (17) and Baca (18) are locks ... then we have returning Tolles (19) and Goyens (19) ... Gomes has shown skill but is 19 ... Dimitruk's (17) decision will have an impact on whether or not we add another younger guy or an older guy. We haven't seen enough of Eastman yet ... Little (18) is not impressive but doesn't look bad either ... and I've been impressed with a few others like Cody Wilson (very agressive). We'll probably keep 8 Dmen so it could look like this ...

Pianosi - Baca
Barberio - Goyens
Tolles - Gomes
Little - Demitruk

If Demitruk declines then you look at adding 2 guys like Little or Eastman or Wilson ... not many dmen have really stood out. If you can swing a deal for a 20 YO Dman then adding a couple of younger Dmen as your spares is more preferable.

Bottom line is there is next to zero room on forward and Lamoureux is the only guy I see having a shot at making the team ... and he has to drop the gloves if he wants it.

Very good analysis Steve, it matches my thinking pretty closely.

Ice time up front is a major issue, which could have negative implications on team chemistry ... as you say, we have more or less committed to five new forwards (Bezak, Sill, Brannon, Brown and MacAusland), while only losing two from last year (Gaudet and one overager) ... not only do we have too many bodies, but we have left very little room for natural progression, that is to say, 17 year olds who played 3rd and 4th line last year would typically be expecting to move up. You mention Lepage and Brenton as being odd men out, and I tend to agree at first glance, yet we haven't seen either of them yet - for all we know one or both could have had a huge summer and returned ready to break out into PPG scorers ... early indications are that Watson, whom many of us speculated may be on the outide looking in, is having a great camp ... and I doubt that they went to all the trouble of landing Brown and MacAusland to have them sit in the stands and play 30 games each ...

As I said, I worry about what this may do for team chemistry. Ideally, we should carry 14 forwards, and, planning on Brown and MacAusland being regulars, to me the 13th and 14th spots should be for kids trying to get established in the Q (maybe Lamoureux, Stephens, Pettit, Frazee, etc..) - if you place a vet in that role, you risk disgruntlement in a hurry.

We should have moved two or three forwards at the draft for a pick (out of the Lepage, Brenton, Eagles, MacLellan, Lessard group) or for a good young d-man (maybe dangling one of Cameron or Labelle could have got us a good 18 year old d-man). Perhaps it is not to late to deal some guys for a pick ... but if we wait until after they are cut, their value will be rock bottom, or we will lose them for nothing to waivers.

[bikerboy]

see Sill , Brown , and MacAusland , are already signed , so spot in the roster are takin by them

[curtis]

jimmy, I wouldn't lump Lessard in with Brenton/Eagles/McLellan. We saw serious improvement in his game over the course of the year, I'm expecting big things from him as an 18 year old. To me he is in the same class as Labelle and Cameron.

I think Brown makes it for sure. This is another re-building year, we can afford to invest a roster spot on a player of his potential. I'd go as far as to say I'd rather see Brown make the team than Eagles. Eagles doesn't really distinguish himself from the other forwards on the bubble, other than he's played for Flynn before.

We never know if we're seeing Eagles play at 100% healthy. At the same time, another team might see a lot of upside there.

[jimmy]

curtis said:

jimmy, I wouldn't lump Lessard in with Brenton/Eagles/McLellan. We saw serious improvement in his game over the course of the year, I'm expecting big things from him as an 18 year old. To me he is in the same class as Labelle and Cameron.

I think Brown makes it for sure. This is another re-building year, we can afford to invest a roster spot on a player of his potential. I'd go as far as to say I'd rather see Brown make the team than Eagles. Eagles doesn't really distinguish himself from the other forwards on the bubble, other than he's played for Flynn before.

We never know if we're seeing Eagles play at 100% healthy. At the same time, another team might see a lot of upside there.

I think Eagles could have some value to a contending team that is looking to add some secondary scoring ... he would be cheap, and doesn't tie up a 20 year old spot ... we may be able to get a 4th or 5th for him.

Looking at all the extra bodies we have up front, and the lack of a blue chip option to back up Riopel, along with Flynn's comments in todays paper that there will be no easy games this year in our division, I am starting to think that we may go with a tandem of Sniderman and Riopel again this year, with only two overage forwards.

[Dalkiel]

The only way I see Sniderman staying is until Christmas, after the trade deadline he'd be gone one way or another. I still doubt he'll stay in any scenario.

[buckybuckbuck]

jimmy said:

curtis said:

jimmy, I wouldn't lump Lessard in with Brenton/Eagles/McLellan. We saw serious improvement in his game over the course of the year, I'm expecting big things from him as an 18 year old. To me he is in the same class as Labelle and Cameron.

I think Brown makes it for sure. This is another re-building year, we can afford to invest a roster spot on a player of his potential. I'd go as far as to say I'd rather see Brown make the team than Eagles. Eagles doesn't really distinguish himself from the other forwards on the bubble, other than he's played for Flynn before.

We never know if we're seeing Eagles play at 100% healthy. At the same time, another team might see a lot of upside there.

I think Eagles could have some value to a contending team that is looking to add some secondary scoring ... he would be cheap, and doesn't tie up a 20 year old spot ... we may be able to get a 4th or 5th for him.

Looking at all the extra bodies we have up front, and the lack of a blue chip option to back up Riopel, along with Flynn's comments in todays paper that there will be no easy games this year in our division, I am starting to think that we may go with a tandem of Sniderman and Riopel again this year, with only two overage forwards.

I'm definitly inline with you thinking. I would like to see a movement from a 18-19 year old team to a 18-17 year old team that can win the Mem Cup next year and the year after.

[curtis]

I just don't think you can invest a 20 year old slot on a goaltender unless he's your clear #1 (like Tordjman in 05/06).