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Post by donjohnson on Aug 29, 2024 11:02:20 GMT -5
Preseason roster has 13F 7D 2G. That’s pretty bare bones even before NHL camps open. Someone is getting signed soon. Trouble is, there weren't a lot of names at camp who looked like they were deserving of a spot...maybe we just go with a short bench in the preseason...have to imagine the following names are gone for the preseason games against the Soo: Mangone (maybe gets a FA invite) Willis (Nashville) Chernyshov (Injured/San Jose Hay (Tampa Bay) Sima??? (Maybe a FA Invite) Zayne (Calgary) Oke (Likely FA invite since he's been the past 2 seasons) Do the players have to get signed to play in the exhibition games??? Maybe we could just invite or call up a few players to play in those. |
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Post by donjohnson on Aug 29, 2024 11:12:36 GMT -5
Seeing a lot of talk on the hfboards London page that they may have 4 imports for 2 spots if Halttunen comes back. Ruslan Gazizov would provide some good offensive punch (1.3ppg) and plays with grit and we could get him for very cheap since he's an OA import. Would upgrade on Forgione and fill the open import spot. Would leave yet another open spot on defense though.
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Post by kingpin794 on Aug 29, 2024 13:07:08 GMT -5
Seeing a lot of talk on the hfboards London page that they may have 4 imports for 2 spots if Halttunen comes back. Ruslan Gazizov would provide some good offensive punch (1.3ppg) and plays with grit and we could get him for very cheap since he's an OA import. Would upgrade on Forgione and fill the open import spot. Would leave yet another open spot on defense though. I think it’s easier to get decent defensemen that it is to get sure fire top 6 F’s. Michnac went for a 5th so Gazizov couldn’t be more than a 4th and 6th. I’d take him in a heart beat. I can also see them being fine with letting Epperson and someone else stepping up on offense. Use the resources we have for D only. Personally I’d take the better known asset for cheap, swap some middle 6 F’s out, and make some savoy moves on D. |
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Post by donjohnson on Aug 29, 2024 13:31:58 GMT -5
I'm thinking Gazizov is just going to get waived and if he does, there's only so many people who can house an OA import (Niagara just jumped on one). If we're interested we could throw a 6th or 7th rounder at him but I don't think you'd need to give up two picks to get him if he has no value to the Knights. Even if Halttunen goes pro, they have 2 other imports who are already signed...one of the three will have to move on.
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Post by donjohnson on Aug 29, 2024 14:13:17 GMT -5
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Post by donjohnson on Sept 5, 2024 15:27:22 GMT -5
I wouldn't be surprised to see us not name a captain for a while. I think a lot of next year for us is going to hinge on where we are heading into the deadline. I think we could take another run, if things start well and adding will help, or we could just as well start building for the future. While we lose a lot of skill this year, we still have some strong anchors who will only improve going forward. I know that Parekh gets a lot of flack from a few folks, and those folks are pretty critical of his defensive ability, but both the OHL and the CHL considered him to be the top defensemen this year, so it looks like those folks are out-voted. lol. I expect he will improve even more defensively and offensively going into next season, and could be a major anchor for us into the near future. I always kinda chuckle when we try to predict captains on here because none of us know how these guys are off the ice, and that's 90% of what determines a captain. So, I don't know how official it is because nothing has been announced but if you look at the scorer's sheets from the games in Kitchener, the "A's" rotate around but the "C" is Ethan Hay's for all three games. I'm guessing he's going to be the captain this year or maybe it's just for the exhibition games??? Here's the breakdown of who wore the C and A in the three games C - Hay (3) A - Bishop A - Gervais A - Misa (2) A - Willis A - Forgione A - Mangone A - Guo A - Sima Brantford: chl.ca/ohl/reports/games/27993/official/Kitchener: chl.ca/ohl/reports/games/27996/official/Erie: chl.ca/ohl/reports/games/28001/official/ |
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Post by kingpin794 on Sept 12, 2024 8:41:13 GMT -5
Interview with Zayne here and the first thing I notice is that he has put on some size. Can see it in his neck and shoulders. Good he's putting in the work to get stronger. x.com/NHLFlames/status/1834003996631032021 |
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Post by MidlandSpiritFan on Sept 12, 2024 10:44:13 GMT -5
Interview with Zayne here and the first thing I notice is that he has put on some size. Can see it in his neck and shoulders. Good he's putting in the work to get stronger. x.com/NHLFlames/status/1834003996631032021I would expect to see improvement in his defensive game after attending Calgary Flames prospects and main training camp. |
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Post by eric8199 on Sept 12, 2024 12:02:48 GMT -5
Another year of development will do a lot for a kid. Especially one who was the best defenseman in the OHL and CHL last year, which some seem to overlook.
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Post by kingpin794 on Sept 22, 2024 18:09:03 GMT -5
Watching this last preseason game and I like what little I've seen of Najim. Kid looks comfortable out there. Obviously on the small side. Probably best that he's in junior B this year but he's got good tools.
Also they had Brad Walch working color with Dillon Clark. Don't know if that's gonna be a regular thing or if it was a one off. Still cool to see him around the team.
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Post by donjohnson on Sept 23, 2024 5:39:54 GMT -5
Also they had Brad Walch working color with Dillon Clark. Don't know if that's gonna be a regular thing or if it was a one off. Still cool to see him around the team. At the end of the broadcast Dillon said that Derosiers would be doing some, Walch would be doing some and he also teased a mysterious 3rd person...it's probably bpfox 🙂 |
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Post by donjohnson on Sept 23, 2024 10:10:05 GMT -5
Nice to see Charlie Schenkel look human in the Dow last night...he looked unbeatable every time we saw him in person but he let in a couple softies last night. Will be interesting to see what the Soo does with him when they have a drafted goalie sitting behind him.
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Post by donjohnson on Sept 26, 2024 19:42:13 GMT -5
Seeing a lot of talk on the hfboards London page that they may have 4 imports for 2 spots if Halttunen comes back. Ruslan Gazizov would provide some good offensive punch (1.3ppg) and plays with grit and we could get him for very cheap since he's an OA import. Would upgrade on Forgione and fill the open import spot. Would leave yet another open spot on defense though. Gazizov got signed to an AHL contract so he's off the board |
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Post by donjohnson on Oct 4, 2024 14:06:46 GMT -5
I've said on here a lot that I think we should trade Zayne and rebuild the team...after seeing what Owen Sound got for Barlow (who was likely going to hold out and demand a trade) I think it's a no-brainer to move Zayne at the deadline this year.
Barlow got two players (06 and 07), (2) 2nds, (2) 3rds, 5th & 7th. That's for one year of a player.
Zayne will likely be back next year so I think we'd get an '08 first rounder, an 06 defenseman (to fill Zaynes spot) and a crap-ton of draft picks. In a year where London is absolutely going to be loaded, it's a no brainer to make this move. I think we'll still be a good team without him and it will be less of a rebuild and more of a reload with our younger players like Harmer, Zhilkin, Clouthier and more.
We're still a pretty old team (8 - 19yo players) and only 3 of those will be coming back next year so we'll for sure be losing 8 players from this year's team. If we don't restock this year, we're going to trade away Zayne and Misa next year and it's going to be a total basement job. I think making a couple strategic moves this year lessens the drop and keeps us relevant next year as part of the Memorial Cup rebuild.
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Post by MidlandSpiritFan on Oct 4, 2024 16:10:58 GMT -5
Zhilkin needs to get healthy. Not in the lineup again tonight at Sarnia.
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