As the Loons are coming to the end of our first training camp here in Capeside, I wanted to take a few minutes to touch base with our fans. In our last article, I spoke about my reasons for moving on from Puljujarvi after I had worked so hard to acquire him. Well, I am happy to say that I was able to bring him back to Capeside. Jesse made it known publicly that he wanted to remain in Capeside, and thankfully Siberia and I were able to make that a reality. However, it was a pricey reality for us in parting with Johnathan Dahlen and a 2020 first rounder.
Our biggest need has been and continues to be scoring, and we feel like we addressed that need tonight. A few moments ago I agreed to send a package of Alex Wennberg, Tyler Toffoli, and prospect CJ Seuss to Fort Erie for James Van Riemsdyk. I believe that JVR will solidify our top 6 along with fellow new acquisition Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Capeside recently parted with Mika Zibanejad in order to acquire Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Even though Mika was easily our highest point producer during the summer league, we believe that the flexibility that RNH provides by being able to play on the left wing and also center was worth the gamble. RNH closed out last year on a hot streak after moving over to left wing, and we believe he will continue that this upcoming season. Hopefully, Pierre Luc Dubois (PLD) can see this as an incentive to continue to improve and the first line center spot will be his as early as next year. The downside of boosting our scoring is that we had to trade away some solid prospects in Cal Foote, Johnathan Dahlen, and Jonah Gadjovich. But we believe that our success in the recent draft allowed us to use our farm system in order to give our new fans a team that can have playoff aspirations.
Training camp showed us a lot. We like what we saw from our prospects and are very excited about the future. Oliver Wahlstrom, Jay O'Brien, and Jakub Lauko really impressed the coaching staff in their first camp. Ryan Donato's play has forced our hand to make him an everyday contributor to the Loons. By deciding against placing the "M" tag on Ryan we then had to cut ties with Derek Dorsett and eat his 2.5 million. But Ryan deserves the opportunity. Training Camp has also showed up where our holes are. We will be on the search for a puck-moving defenseman prospect. Puck moving, scoring defensemen is where the game is trending and we need to add that to our system. We also will be keeping our eyes open for a scoring right wing as that is a definite need with the departure of Toffoli.
Capeside may not lead the CCHL in much this year, but we will definitely lead in player initials with PLD, RNH and now JVR. The Loons are off to an inconsistent start in the preseason, probably due to the constant tinkering by me. However, I believe that each move had made us better and I know that coach Janney and captain PLD will find a way to get everyone on the same page.
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