CCHL Views From the Commissioner's Office - Summer edition

With the draft now in the rearview mirror, it's time to pontificate about the future of the league and where we go from here. 

I'm happy to say that everyone, by-and-large, seems happy about our first every all online draft.  I was very happy about how it all went and appreciate everyone supporting another of my crazy ideas to improve the CCHL. 

We did a survey a few weeks ago to ask about the prospect reserve list and limit the number of prospects.  After careful consideration and a suggestion from the Swedish contingent of the league, we're going to do it a bit differently. 

We are going to ask, in the near future, for a list of anyone on your prospect reserve list that you want to keep but with a caveat.  That caveat is that the player will need to have been drafted within the last seven years in order to move to the main prospect list.  Once we have the list, we will eliminate the prospect reserve list. 

As for the limit on prospects, we have decided that a limit isn't the most effective way to do it as each year we would need a drop list.  Instead, we are going to add a column to the prospect sheet with a year in it seven years from their CCHL draft date. 

Essentially this means that the player has seven (7) years from the time of their CCHL draft to make it to the main roster.  If within seven years the player does not make it, they are deleted from the prospect sheet. 

Why seven years you ask?  In doing some studies of drafts from 2005-2015, there are literally only a handful of players that made the disk after seven years; with some of them having gone to Europe for awhile before coming back.  They were also, shockingly, not impact players at all for their respective teams. 

Goalies are a bit of a different breed that can take longer than seven years, but studies also show that most of the time they have at least appeared as a backup regularly by the time they are 25.  We also draft a lot of goalies after their initial draft year which can extend that window to 26-28 in a lot of cases.  It's not an exact science but most impactful goaltenders are on the disk by the time they are seven years post-draft. 

WORLD JUNIOR STYLE TOURNEY COMING TO THE CCHL? 

One of the things I've discovered this off-season is a process to take our prospects and convert them to Simon T ratings.  I've done quite a few of these to see how it looked and the ratings are really good as it compares all of the leagues to one another to generate ratings. 

It got the wheels turning a little bit as most of us love the World Junior tournament.  What if we did something in the CCHL for this?  After getting feedback from a few people I flushed out the idea a bit more and decided with the executive committee that we can put some financial fun into it for the league bank accounts. 

The plan is to run this tournament from Dec 21-31, over the Christmas break.  While we have always run games during this time, we're going to take a ten day break from the regular season schedule and just run the prospects tournament to allow everyone to take a break over a time of year that is generally busy for most. 

We'll have a whole lot more information on the World Junior style tournament in the coming weeks/months but this is sure to be exciting change this Christmas season. 

That's all for now.  I hope everyone is staying safe, Covid-free and is just about set to enjoy the resumption of sports in North America. 

-Matt

2020 CCHL Draft Recap from Siberia

Hello sports fans. Well, the 2020 CCHL draft was unprecedented as this year it preceded the NHL draft! With the NHL shut down due to COVID-19, the NHL draft is likely delayed until October or November 2020. League commissioner, Matt Young, in consultation with the league administration team, made the decision to hold the CCHL draft and not delay it. This decision was met with some mixed emotions. The biggest concerns were that some GMs would not be able to know who their favorite teams drafted, and the very present concern that some CCHL picks may not actually be selected by NHL teams. That second concern made all of the later round CCHL picks a bit more risky than usual.

The draft would also set a new standard, by going fully online. In a brilliant move, Commissioner Young moved the draft to an online site. While there was some skepticism about the new format, the draft was a huge success, completing in record time. Kudos to Commissioner Young!

There was a lot of fireworks in the days leading up to the draft as the Capeside Loons continued their flurry of trade activity by trading all the way up to the 2nd pick! Calgary owned the first pick and made it known that the pick was not for trade! And with an elite talent like Alexis Lafreniere available, who could fault them! With the first pick in the CCHL draft well known for months, the second pick suddenly became the most interesting pick. Would Capeside go with the consensus #2 pick, Quinton Byfield, or would they go with the quickly rising German winger, Tim Stutzle. In a bit of a stunning turn of events, Capeside went with Stutzle. Fort Erie, which traded back from #2 to #4 and #5, was salivating when the Wisborg Donuts selected countryman and elite winger, Lucas Raymond. That left Fort Erie to select Byfield and the top rated dman in the draft, the smooth skating Jamie Drysdale. The early part of the draft could not have gone any better for GM Young.

After pick 5, the picks continued with no real surprises. The defending champion Siberia Icecats took a bit of a risk in drafting top goalie prospect, Yaroslav Askarov, with the 11th pick in the draft. Yaroslav is said to be the best goaltending prospect since Carey Price, but goalies can be hard to predict. Capeside then closed the first round with winger, Jacob Perreault, son of former NHL player, Yanic Perreault.

Georgetown had a string of 4 consecutive picks, selecting 3 forwards and one of the biggest defensive prospects, Helge Grans. Grans is a solid defenseman from Malmo, Sweden. Every team is looking for the next great Swedish defenseman! The Sudbury Miners also had 4 picks, selecting 2 forwards and 2 defensemen. Capeside dominated the second half of the draft, collecting a plethora of picks in the later rounds. GM Czepiel was active during the draft, negotiating a number of trades. The Amos Comets did not have an official pick in the draft, but GM Quesnel was able to negotiate a few trades to acquire some talent in this draft, trading away future picks. Former champs, the Minnesota Norsemen, had their first official pick in the 9th round, selecting goaltender, Brett Brochu. GM Kallum managed to collect a complete set of players from Sweden, drafting at least one at every position. The league was shocked when GM Kallum drafted Maxim Krovyakov from Russia and Simon Knak from Switzerland, as they do not meet the standards of Swedish or Finnish prospects.

The feel-good moment of the draft was when GM Yip of the Calgary Chinook drafted Hugo Styf in the 7th round. There was much consternation at whether this uniquely named prospect would get drafted. GM Yip received cheers for this selection! Unfortunately, for every story such as this with a happy ending, there are others that are more tragic. Also uniquely named prospects Primo Self, Ivan Ivan and Jan Sir were not able to find homes. We hope that some team finds them a home in the next CCHL draft. For only a dollar a day, you can adopt a uniquely named prospect. Won't you help these poor prospects?

Well, that's it for this year, sports fans. Now we sit and wait for the NHL draft to see where these prospects end up. Until next year, so long!

I Wanna Get Lost in Your Rock ‘ n Roll and Draft Away (SEA)

As we all know any sports league that drafts persons of high school and college age has it down to an exact science. In other words every player drafted will make the league and have a career reflecting their drafted position. Thus all #1 picks will be perennial All-Stars and retire with Hall of Fame statistics some 15-20 years after being drafted…..what’s that you say…it isn’t an exact science some #1 picks will never live up to their hype and late round or even last overall picks may forge out a nice little career in the league….well what do you know.

With that in mind let’s take a quick look at the most recently completed CCHL amateur draft.

For the purpose of this exercise we will look at the 22 1^st Round picks made by the CCHL teams and compare them to their projected draft position from various sources.

The comparison was done for the entire CCHL draft but there were certain factors that limit the “accuracy” for later round picks.

First many sources have limited draft rankings thus a player chosen 225^th overall in the CCHL would not be found on many if any rankings lists. There were 7 sources used with 2 of those ranking 300 draft eligible prospects while one only ranked the top 31 or enough to cover the 1^st Round of the NHL.

Second Youtube videos or message boards from hockey related websites were not used. Not that there are not credible lists from persons who follow the sport but rather there are numerous lists that vary in number of picks or prospects they cover. Also determining which lists are credible (i.e. not a “fanboy” list, or 1^st time person has made one) would require hours and hours of time that this beautiful bastard does not have.

Finally the NHL’s Central Scouting list and any other sources that breakup prospects into different categories or do not create one list, regardless of length, were excluded. This was done to keep things simplistic as does the 8^th ranked European skater fall ahead or behind the 13^th ranked North American skater. Does the #2 ranked RW slot in ahead of the #4 ranked C or the #3 ranked D?

With all that being said below is the 1^st Round of the CCHL draft compared to an aggregate ranking from 7 other sources. Ultimately we will see how the CCHL’s collective GM knowledge is when the NHL makes their picks to see how closely our selections align with theirs.

Name		CCHL Pick	Aggregate Ranking	CCHL Team
Alexis	Lafreniere	1	1.1	CGY
Tim	Stuzle	2	3.3	CAP
Lucas	Raymond	3	5.0	WIS
Quinton	Byfield	4	2.1	FOR
Jamie	Drysdale	5	6.1	FOR(2)
Marco	Rossi	6	5.1	LIE
Cole	Perfetti	7	7.1	SUD
Alexander	Holtz	8	7.3	HAM
Jake	Sanderson	9	10.3	SIB
Seth	Jarvis	10	14.9	GEO
Yaroslav	Askarov	11	11.4	SIB(2)
Anton	Lundell	12	9.7	CGY(2)
Dylan	Holloway	13	15.6	SUD(2)
Jack	Quinn	14	14.7	POR
Rodion	Amirov	15	16.0	VIC
Connor	Zary	16	18.6	MOS
Dawson	Mercer	17	15.9	SEA
Kaiden	Guhle	18	21.0	TAM
Mavrik	Bourque	19	20.9	SPR
Jan	Mysak	20	25.2	POR(2)
Hendrix	Lapierre	21	27.1	SUD(3)
Jacob	Perreault	22	25.7	CAP(2)

Looking at the chart a few things to note.

One can ignore the decimal number and round up or down accordingly if they wish but it was kept in just to reflect the actual average ranking.

** Jan Mysak appeared on only 6 lists. It was the only list that ranked just one round (31) of prospects

Nothing deviates too much in the top 9 picks of the draft, with only Raymond two spots higher and Byfield two spots lower from CCHL picks and the composite rankings.

As to be expected there starts to be a little deviation as we get further along in the draft.

#10 Seth Jarvis chosen about 5 spots higher than his aggregate

#12 Anton Lundell selected a couple spots lower than his aggregate

#13 Dylan Holloway the opposite of Lundell as Holloway was selected about 2-3 spots higher

#16 Connor Zary like Holloway chosen about 2-3 spots higher

#18 Kaiden Guhle like Zary and Holloway chosen above his aggregate by 3 spots

#20 Jan Mysak who was only listed on 6 source rankings went about 5 picks higher

#21 Hendrix Lapierre the biggest deviation in the 1^st round being chosen about 6 spots higher

#22 Jacob Perreault the final pick of the CCHL 1^st Round is about 4 spots higher than his aggregate.

Of course in the CCHL teams trade away their draft picks like Halloween candy so quite often you have teams with multiple picks in a round. This year 7 1^st round picks were traded resulting in 6 teams having multiple picks in Round 1 (Calgary, Fort Erie, Siberia, Sudbury, Portland and Capeside) with 1 of those, Sudbury, having 3 picks.

Having multiple picks in a round can lead to teams making the 2^nd or 3^rd pick in a round for a reason other than the perceived “best player available”. A team may pick a player a little earlier than projected in order to add depth to a position where they have few prospects. They may choose to use their extra picks on a player who they may have seen play or will have a chance to see play. A GM may also be willing to use a pick on a boom or bust type player since they have already added a couple of “safe” players with their other picks in that round.

This is not to say that was the case in Round 1 however any or all of the above may have been a GM’s criteria when making their picks.

Sudbury has already traded away one of the 3 players they drafted in the 1^st Rd sending Dylan Holloway to Amos. Sudbury and Amos might have already discussed and agreed to a deal leading to Sudbury selecting Holloway rather than a different prospect with the 13^th overall pick. Deals such as this would or could have impacted where a player was chosen.

One thing to note is that with no NHL draft having occurred GM’s in the CCHL may not have chosen the players they did as they may have rather preferred to select one chosen by their favorite NHL team.

It will be interesting to see if trades start to occur in earnest come later this year after the NHL draft concludes. Some CCHL GM’s may try to pry away prospects from other CCHL teams because that player was chosen by their favorite NHL team and they were not fortunate enough to have selected them in the CCHL draft.

Until then……

Millers post-draft Prospect Rankings

After some serious wheeling and dealing the Millers halved their 2020 draft picks from a high of 18 down to 9, with the lowest pick being #76 overall. Georgetown ended up drafting 7 forwards and 2 defensemen. The club had hoped to add a Goalie with a 3^rd or 4^th round pick but none of the ‘keepers the team had targeted in that range were available when their picks came up.

The updated prospect list will be presented both numerically and by position.

Bold indicates 2020 Draft pick                                         *indicates is included on 2020-21 roster

Top 20 Prospects 1. Alex Newhook 2. Arthur Kaliyev 3. Barrett Hayton 4. Ty Smith 5. Tyler Madden 6. Joel Farrabee 7. Ian Mitchell 8. Seth Jarvis 9. Jan Jenik 10. Brendan Brisson 11. Martin Fehervary 12. Lukas Dostal 13. Samuel Fagemo 14. Helge Grans 15. Marat Khusnutdinov 16. Martin Chromiak 17. Jesse Ylonen 18. Andrew Peeke 19. Antonni Honka 20. Blake Murray

G                                                                            G                                 

Lucas Dostal

Mitchell Gibson

Zachary Emond

D

Ty Smith

Ian Mitchell

Martin Fehervary

Helge Grans

Andrew Peeke*

Michael Anderson

Antonni Honka

Peter Dilibertore

C

Alex Newhook

Barrett Hayton*

Tyler Madden

Brendan Brisson

Marat Khusnutdinov

Blake Murray

W

Arthur Kaliyev

Joel Farabee*

Seth Jarvis

Jan Jenik

Samuel Fagemo

Jesse Ylonen

Martin Chromiak

Tyler Tullio

Sudbury Miners 2020 CCHL Draft Review

CANADIAN PRESS (Sudbury, ON):

Did the Sudbury Miners find some prospect gold, with the draft being held right in the heart of the Nickel City??

With the 2020 CCHL Entry Draft now in the books, that’s the question that the collective media and fans of the Sudbury Miners will be asking General Manager Terry James in the years to come.

James offered up a quick summary to reporters this past weekend before the summer holidays and gave a quick review on how he felt his team did during this years’ draft.

“We’re very pleased and excited,” James said.  “We drafted players they we feel can be real contributors to our team and be to compete for a job sooner rather than later.  Others, we feel will take some grooming and development, and they probably won’t be CCHL-ready for a few years but with the amount of picks we had, we were able to re-stock the cupboard.  I think we’ve added some skill at different positions and hopefully it bodes well for the future.”

Armed with 10 picks in the first three rounds of this years’ CCHL draft, the Miners were able to re-stock the cupboards with some talented young men and improve their prospect pool, as they continue to try and build a team that will be in Kehler Cup contention for years to come. 

The Miners did pull off one significant trade after the draft, trading 13^th overall pick, Dylan Holloway to Amos, in exchange for Amos’ 1^st round pick in 2022. 

Given the additions that the Miners have injected into their line-up this off-season, they are one of a handful of contenders with a realistic shot at the Cup this year.  It has the potential to be a very good season for the Miners in 2020-21.

Below are some of the Miners more notable picks from this years’ draft:

·         Cole Perfetti – C (1^st Round, 7^th Overall):  A highly productive pivot who can set it up almost as well as he can score it himself. Has nice puck skills to go along with a very good hockey sense.

·         Hendix Lapierre – C (1^st Round, 21^st Overall):  Teams may have been scared off due to injury concerns but the Miners could afford to take a chance on him.  A creative player with quick hands and a knack for offense.  

·         Braden Schneider – D (2^nd Round, 24^th Overall):  Projected by many to be a 1^st round pick, so the Miners were pleased that this kid fell to them in the second round.  A throwback, two-way player who has a safe floor as a CCHL player.

·         J.J. Petreka – W (2^nd Round, 26^th Overall):  A nifty offensive player who has strong anticipation skills and the confidence to jump into openings and drive hard. His finishing ability is hinged on a quick and accurate release where he limits the movement of his bottom hand to add further deception.  Just drafted by London in the 2020 CHL Import Draft.

·         Ozzy Wiesblatt – W (3^rd Round, 46^th Overall):  The frenetic ball of havoc plays the game like he’s just been shot out a cannon. Loves to create chaos on the forecheck and has enough skill to create chances and points from the forced turnovers. You’ll love him on your team, or hate playing against him.

Overall, fans should not expect to see any of these players with the Miners next year, or even the year after, but it should be a draft that pays dividends down the road, given the high ceiling for a good majority of the players picked.