This offseason has been busy for a number of teams. Most notably, last year's defending Kehler Cup champions, the Dayton Musicmen, have opted to rebuild rather than try to defend their title. This would normally be great news for the top teams in the league, but the problem is that going into this upcoming season, the battle for the cup will be like a WWF Battle Royal! So many teams have loaded up in the hopes of capturing the Kehler Cup. Some of the top teams are looking to capture the Kehler Cup for the first time!
One team that made significant moves are the Calgary Chinook (or should we say the Musicmen West). They have gone on a shopping spree of former Musicmen. Calgary acquired Shea Weber, Antoine Vermette, Sidney Crosby, Andrei Markov, Artemi Panarin and Joe Pavelski. GM Eugene Yip is poised to try to repeat the success of the Musicmen with their players! Eugene has built a large surplus of talent to allow him to make such moves. They very well could be the team to beat.
Another team with a recent busy offseason is another contender for the cup, the Hamilton Tigers. GM Chuck Taylor made significant moves earlier in the offseason, and is continuing to tweak and upgrade his roster. With depth at C, GM Taylor traded Evgeni Malkin for Patrick Kane, providing some help at RW. The Tigers also acquired some depth at D by acquiring Brayden Coburn from Georgetown.
Never to be outdone in terms of the number of trades, GM Matt Young made a number of key moves to push his team back into cup contention by acquiring key assets like Jordan Eberle, Brent Burns, Alex Gogligoski (who did not even get a chance to take a breath as he was immediately traded again), Evander Kane, Gustav Nyquist and Blake Wheeler. GM Young is always tweaking his roster and he is hoping that with Copenhagen retired and Dayton rebuilding that this may finally be his year!
Former champions, the Reykjavik Puffin, have made a few significant moves. They had made a big splash in acquiring stud dman, Victor Hedman earlier in the year. GM Chris Wolter then used some of this ridiculous depth at RW to acquire MVP candidate Evgeni Malkin. GM Wolter is hoping that Malkin's leadership can help the Puffin recapture their glory.
The second best team in the league last year, the Georgetown Millers, have not made any significant moves this offseason, but have fine tuned their roster. GM Kash acquired some goaltending depth with Peter Budaj and Anton Khudobin, and signing Ben Chiarot to replace the traded Brayden Coburn. GM Kash is counting on his existing team to capture the Kehler Cup with his nemesis Musicmen seemingly on the decline.
The Minnesota Norsemen also vaulted themselves into not only playoff contention but possible cup consideration by acquiring arguably the best 2-way forward in the CCHL, Patrice Bergeron, and Vezina tropy candidate Devan Dubnyk. Minnesota has a young, and up and coming young team that will certainly make some noise this year. Bergeron's leadership will help bring along the wealth of young talent that the Norsemen have, namely Anders Lee, Sebastian Aho, Mitch Marner and Brandon Carlo. The success of this team all depends on how well those youngsters do.
Finally, we have another up and coming team, the Siberia Icecats. GM Saouaf has been stockpiling picks and talent and has not been afraid to use it this year to give the team a shot at the cup. Anchored by generational talent, Connor McDavid, GM Saouaf has put together a solid team. We spoke with GM Saouaf and this is what he had to say. "I have seen what the other top teams in the league have been doing and I knew that if the Icecats were going to be successful, I had to improve our roster. My goal has been to not simply be a top heavy team, but to build a team from top to bottom that can match up with anyone in the league offensively and defensively. I want to create a matchup nightmare for the other teams." Indeed, it appears that GM Saouaf has done that. His recent acquisitions of Alex Steen, Mark Stone and Adam Lowry has allowed the Icecats to roll out 3 solid scoring lines, while helping to improve the team's penalty killing. Upgrading Tyson Barrie with Jared Spurgeon has provided the Icecats with a formidable defensive roster also. GM Saouaf continued, "I hated having to trade away key, young talent and picks, but you have to give to get. I wish Tyson, Brett, Nick and the others well in Ottawa and I hope they flourish there".
Well sports fans, this upcoming season may be one that is unparalleled in terms of competition in the CCHL. Who will outlast the others and be crowned the Kehler Cup champion? Time will tell, but get that popcorn ready and bring it on!
Written by Silvio Saouaf/GM of the Siberia Icecats...
good stuff, thanks
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