At a glance
2018-19 record: 43-34-5, 91 points, 4th in Corfield Conference, 11th overall standing
2019 Kehler Cup Playoffs: lost to the Dayton Musicmen in seven games in Corfield Conference First Round.
Additions: F: Derek Ryan, Matthew Tkachuk, Bobby Ryan, James Neal; D: Sami
Vatanen, Scott Harrington
Subtractions: F: Henrik Sedin, Tyler Bozak, Jason Pominville, Mikael Backlund; D:
Alex Pietrangelo
The defending champion Calgary Chinook performed well below their expectation with
91 points and got within one win of advancing to the second round of playoff last season
and will have much of the same lineup to try and get over the hump this season.
General manager Eugene Yip was successful in retaining the Chinook core with
contracts for forwards Panarin and O’Reilly, and defenseman Mark Giordano. With
Panarin signing for a whopping 14 million per year contract, the Chinook need to find
ways to fix the financial problem with the projected balance well below the league
average this season. “There’s not much we can do. “said Eugene “Salaries have
inflated exponentially for the elite players in the league over the last few seasons. We
have to find ways to stay competitive. You can’t have four good lines in today’s CCHL
with this trend of increasing salaries.”
That core has been together for the past three to four years but much of it is fairly
young, including Barkov, 24, Gaudreau, 26, forwards Aretmi Panarin 27, Ryan O’Reilly
27, David Pastrnak, 23. Newly acquired Matthew Tkachuk in the offseason is only 22
and will be a big part of the core this season.
“This season would be our last season challenging for the cup. Big changes are coming
regardless of the outcome, it is just sooner or later depending of our performances.”
Said Yip.
Eugene said he expects more scoring and better power-play production out of the
Chinook this season with Barkov, Gaudreau, O’Reilly, Pastrnak and Tkachuk all having
career years in the NHL and Giordano winning the Norris trophy with his close to point
per game production.
Nino Niederreiter, 27, scored 12 goals last season and will be asked to produce more
playing on the bottom two lines. Veteran two-way forwards Jakob Silfverberg and
Defensemen Kris Letang also will be asked to do more offensively.
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