Roster Review for the Victoria Ronin...

There was an unfortunate omission from the last report regarding the Ronin wingers. Luke Kunin's agent Pete Tutili immediately contacted the Victoria front office to inform them that Luke is in fact a valued member of the team. In fact the team traded Caleb Jones & Carl Soderberg to Minnesota to acquire him ! The franchise has sent a letter of apology to Luke and offered him first choice for his number if and when he makes the club.

Luke joins both Dylan Sikura and Taylor Raddysh on the right side on the depth chart. Apparently the torn ACL is now fully healed and Luke put up 15 points in 21 games for the AHL Iowa wild before being called up to Minnesota where coach Boudreau has said he plans to insert him into a top 9 role but is expecting more from him going forward.

Now on to a review of the defensive status of the team.

Unlike the forwards or goalies the team has approached the defensive side of things from a different perspective. The decision was to build the club around established younger players with NHL experience rather than draft them for the most part. The thinking was that defensemen often take a little longer to percolate before becoming full time NHL players so with that in mind the club went ahead and traded a number of picks in the upcoming draft and some older established players in order to improve the talent level of younger players at the higher levels.

The top 2 true defensive prospects are Lucas Johansen and Dennis Cholowski. While Dennis appears to have established himself at the NHL level, Lucas also appears to have an NHL future. Both are puck moving skaters who can hopefully jump into the play to create offensive chances for the Ronin in the future. Cholowski was initially passed over by the Ronin in talks with the Musicmen, but when given a second chance they didn't hesitate to pull the trigger. His ice time may have more to do with a lack of talent in Detroit but he is making the most of his opportunity.

The remaining players are already in the NHL for the most part. We'll start with Tomas Chabot who checked into a few different CCHL clubs before finding a home in BC. Like Cholowski, Chabot has also made the most of his opportunity in the NHL and has put up some very impressive numbers. Look for him to make his debut in Victoria next season. Esa Lindell is now an NHL defensemen but is still quite young. The Ronin have plugged him into the lineup and keep him there for the future. He played 80 NHL games last season and has 32 so far during the current one.

Scott Mayfield took a bit longer to make the team but now that he has, it appears he has earned the faith of the head coach and is getting quality minutes in the NHL for Long Island. I've seen him play the last few minutes for his team on more than one occasion so clearly Trotz trusts him. Brett Kulak made the Flames last season and played 71 games as the #6 dman. Personally I think that is a major statement as Calgary is very deep, yet he became a victim of the numbers game and was dealt to Montreal. For the last couple of games he has been paired with Weber. Not sure how I feel about his ratings next season but he now appears to be a regular for the Habs. Julius Honka has also made the Stars but was scratched for a 7 game stretch before getting back into the lineup yesterday. He currently at 20 games played and is battling with other younger players to get into games under coach Montgomery. The Dallas blueline is really young and hopefully develops into a solid unit, I know I'm pulling for them not just because I have 2 of the kids there.

The last possible candidate is Jordan Schmaltz. Schmaltz is the same age as Ben Hutton, Esa Lindell and Jacob Trouba yet has not broken into the Blues lineup. Like Honka he has played in 20 games so far this season so perhaps all he needs is to improve on his consistency to earn the coach's trust. Its doubtful he ever plays minutes for the Ronin, but with the right move or circumstances anything can happen.

So overall the Ronin look to have quite a lot of depth on the blueline, but they will have a tough time breaking into a roster that has Tyler Myers, David Savard, Marco Scandella, Travis Hamonic. They also have Ben Hutton who according to reports decided to commit to offseason training and proper eating habits. He may not be a world beater but coach Green is playing him quite a lot so far this season so perhaps last season's benching for poor conditioning hit home.

All the players listed are under 30 years of age which is exactly what the Ronin had hoped to accomplish when they began their retooling project.

Thanks for reading!