After a disastrous pre season, the Loons came out flying once the regular season started. Even with a few set backs as of late the Loons are still in the Corfield Conference top 4. We knew this was going to be a transition year as we start to integrate our top prospects into the lineup. Our goal is to make the playoffs and go from there. We are not kidding ourselves by thinking that we are bringing a championship home this year and we try to remind ourselves that every time a interesting player gets put on the trade block.
Our forward group is still a work in progress. Right now we lack fire power. It may not be that way next year with the progression we are seeing out of Wahlstrom, Zegras and Garland. But right now we simply do not score enough goals to compete with the Seattle's, Comets, Falcons and Miners of the world. We have been in the market for an upgrade, but only if it makes sense to both our payroll and the direction of the team of building around youth.
Our blue line is undoubtedly our strength and is what is winning us games. McAvoy has been the MVP and is proving to be well worth the investment we made in him. At only 23 he will be winning the Loons games for a long time. Newcomer Justin Faulk's success in the neon green and black is going to create headaches for us once the off-season arrives. Both him and Kreider will be UFA and we are already scheming on how we can possibly keep both after misinterpreting the UFA rules... That executive has been subsequently terminated. A few seasons ago the Isotopes posted a blog around defensive prospects around the CCHL and the Loons were toward the bottom of their list. That one blog created a change in our philosophy and now we believe that our back end will be in good shape for the long term with Perunovich, Thrun, Harris and Rathbone waiting in the wings to fill in behind McAvoy, Werenski, Brodin and Carlo.
Our goaltending has been all over the place this year. It was Grubauer, then Campbell, Grubauer again, Rask, Vasilevskiy stopped by briefly, Oettinger left and returned and now our battery seems to be set at Bobrovsky and Gibson. The Loons future in net will be built around Oettinger and Commesso once they are ready to take over.
After a few promotions our farm system still is in decent shape, here is our updated top 10 if any CCHL team is looking to send some offers our way
10. Henry Thrun - Solid, good all around D man at Harvard that has recently gone through a small offensive explosion.
9. Jordan Harris - Just hoping Jordan's Boston roots pushes him to choose free agency over signing with the evil Canadiens
8. Drew Commesso - playing great in net behind a surprisingly lousy BU team
7. Tyler Boucher - learning the ropes at BU - size is already there just needs to work developing his game against players who can match his physicality
6. Jakub Lauko - is ready for the NHL just waiting for his spot
5. Jack Rathbone - NHL ready plays a similar game to Quinn Hughes - may need to get away from the Canucks to get a real shot
4. Scott Perunovich - is destroying AHL competition, hopefully St Louis trades him
3. Matt Boldy - was destined to make the Wild after a strong camp but an ankle injury keeps him on our prospect list
2. Matt Beniers - the second of our Matty B's - expected to see time with the Kraken later on this year
1. William Eklund - made the Sharks and is showing that he will be a star once he packs on some muscle
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