Draft comparision -Wisborg Donuts

 Draft comparision -Wisborg Donuts

The NHL draft has just about finished and it is time to see how the blind draft went for Wisborg Donuts.

Lucas Raymond- a bit surprisingly Byfield fell into the hands of Fort Erie when Stutzle and Raymond was pushed up a notch and taken as number 3 in CCHL. Lucas went as the more forecastered number 4 pick in NHL. So a pick later (+1) in NHL.

William Wallinder- was pick number 25 in the CCHL draft, while he fell to the top of the second round in the NHL So a draft postion at 25 was transformed to number 32 (+7).

Zion Nybeck- was picked with number 47 in the CCHL draft while he fell massively in the NHL to number 115. The explanation is probably more size related than talent related. Time will tell who was correct but a diffenrence of +68 picks.

Calle Clang- was chosen by Donuts at pick 113 but the NHL teams where more positive to his skill set and picked him at number 77. So the first player so far that was a bargain for Donuts, at -36 picks.

Oskar Mangusson- picked as number 135 by Donuts in CCHL but fell pick 211 by the hands of the NHL teams. So another +76 picks later.

Leo Loof- went as number 157th pick in the CCHL draft but the turned out to be a bargain in comparision to the NHL as he was picked already at slot 88. So a solid -69 slot bargain for me!

The four last players picked by Donuts where not favoured by the NHL gods and was left undrafted and can't be in this comparison.

So out of the 6 players 2 turned out to be bargains for Donuts while 4 could have been waited on if the NHL bosses are correct. But I can see both Lucas and William taken in the right range and would I have waited with them for my next pick, they would probably be off the board. Trying to weigh in the first picks as most important the big miscalculation on the Donuts is Zion Nybeck who went a lot later than expected and far later than projected by all scouting services. All in all I lost 47 draft positions compared to the NHL draft. But who says the NHL GMs are right anyway....

Amos first blog

 Amos, QC

07-10-2020

 

At a couple hours of the official start of the CCHL 2020-2021 season, we are quite excited.

After a long summer of trade talk and players movements, we are finally at one day of our season debute against the Victoria Ronin.

 

It all starts in March when I receive an e-mail from Mr. Young regarding to see if I had interest in filling a GM spot for a Team in the CCHL. I hesitated a bit because it was way different from usual league I used to see. I finally accepted the challenge and decided to move the team in our brand new arena here in Amos, which I never regretted.

The Dispersal draft was really exciting to participate in. Couple of nice players, prospects and picks later, I managed to build a not that bad team with a lot of players to trade. Not knowing all the salaries aspect and rules made me do a couple beginner mistakes. I worked hard and build a team that was about to do right in the upcoming season. But it was that, didn’t really liked the players I had and decided to turn everything around and restart with young players I really like this time.

 

So, players Suzuki, Schmaltz, Kunin to only name few of them were acquired from big names we had. I’m really happy with the result. I think that The Amos Comets became a really young balanced team that can do great things.

I Still have a lot to learn about some rules but learnt to know a couple of really great people that helped me a lot through the process that I would like to thank. Some particular thanks to Silvio & Trevor for the big help this summer. A special thank to Matt for making me a CCHL GM, for the great hockey talks and sharing his knowledge with me.

Chinook 2020/21 Season Preview:

 Chinook 2020/21 Season Preview:

 Some positive signs coming during Calgary Chinook rebuild 

Led by new GM Eugene Yip, the Calgary Chinook will look to continue rebuilding, with a good crop of young guns set to become regular NHLers in the not so distant future. The results won't be pretty, but it's still an exciting time for Chinook fans. 

Last season, general manager Eugene Yip decided go into a full rebuild, parting ways with captain Mark Giordano and dealing Panarin, O’Reilly, Carlson, Letang, Pietriangelo, and Backlund before the trade deadline. Returning are young and promising players and prospects such as Matter Tkachuk, Brady Tkachuk, Nils Hoglander, Fiala, Mangiapane. 

With the hockey god at their side, they eventually turned one of the 1st round pick into this year draft top prize left winger Alexis Lafreniere. “Yeah, we got really lucky. “ Said GM Eugene “With Lafreniere in our system, I can say we are one or two years ahead of our rebuild. “ The Chinook also drafted Center Anton Lundell and Right Winger Tyson Foerster. They don’t stop there, with four more 1st round pick coming in the 2021 draft. The Calgary Chinook are filling the cupboard as fast as they can. 

“We are still looking to stay competitive this year, our main goal is to make the playoff and eventually win another Kehler cup for the city of Calgary.” Said GM Eugene. “Our first line (Barkov, Gaudreau and Pastrnak) is as lethal as any team’s first line. The Tkachuk brothers with Derek Ryan will be tough to play against nights in and nights out. 

With the addition of UFA signings such as Carl Hagelin, Core Perry, Patrick Marleau, Dan Hamuis, Jamie Oleksiak and PK Subban, these veterans will be mentors to some of our young stars in the team. 

The CCHL veterans are expected to bring experience to a fresh-faced lineup as well as help with toughness and scoring. 

"They've been in the league for awhile and they know what it takes already," Barkov said. "Whereas trying out young guys, you're not sure sometimes how they're going to pan out or if they're going to break into the league. It's nice having guys who've been there and done that." 

Calgary will kick off the season Wednesday when they battle the Portland Owls in Calgary.

Sudbury Miners - 2020-21 CCHL Season Preview

 

Sudbury Miners - 2020-21 CCHL Season Preview

 

CANADIAN PRESS (Sudbury, ON):

 

The Sudbury Miners appear to have turned a corner.  Based on their past couple of seasons, they have continued to make progress and have even enjoyed some small successes.  Their young core got another taste of the playoffs in 2019-20, and if last year’s first round win versus Springfield was any indication, they are ready to contend.

 

Kehler Cup odds: 15-1

Key Additions: Brayden Point - C;  Artemi Panarin - LW;  Seth Jones - D;  Roman Josi -D.

Key Departures: Sean Monahan - C;  Dylan Larkin - C;  Mikhail Sergachev - D;  Kyle Palmieri - RW.

 

The Sudbury Miners ended their 2019-20 season with a 41-30-11 record, good for 6^th in the Canosa Conference and were able to clinch a playoff berth on the second last game of the season.  They were able to avenge the previous seasons’ playoff loss to the Springfield Isotopes, before bowing out to the eventual champion Siberia Ice Cats in 6 games.

But, now pressure begins for the Miners.  Management feels that the time has come for the Miners to truly contend, and made a number of off-season moves to support this.  They are deeper and more talented than last year’s team but with that, expectations are much higher.  This rabid fan-base, is starting to grow impatient when it comes to a lack of playoff success and is looking for a long playoff run this season.   Anything short of a Conference Final berth would be deemed a disappointment.

 

UP AND COMING PLAYER TO WATCH

Highly touted winger, Travis Konecny is looking to continue his upward trend as one of the top producing wingers in CCHL.  He has the offensive skills and grit to become one of the Miners most productive players.  He is slated to start on a newly formed second line with Brayden Point and Zach Hyman.  The hope is that with Point’s playmaking abilities, Konecny can fill the net and add to what appears to be a dangerous Miners attack.  It is not unreasonable to expect 25-30 goals from Konecny this season.

 

WHAT A SUCCESSFUL 2020-21 SEASON WOULD LOOK LIKE

After a couple of years of progress with their young core, it seems that simply making the playoffs again this year will not be enough.  This fan-base is hungry for a winner.  A first round bye and winning a playoff round, (or maybe even two) would have to make one think that the season would be a success.  Whispers around the Nickel City is that management has expectations of a Conference Final berth with this team.  One thing is for certain - remaining at status quo is not an option this year.

 

BIGGEST REMAINING QUESTION

Ideally, all of the off-season changes work out perfectly and the Miners do contend as expected.  But, the CCHL season is long and there are always events that happen to change things during the season.  The real question is that with these heightened expectations, how will this team respond when they are expected to win?

 

TOP 10 PROSPECTS

1.  Spencer Knight, G – Boston University (NCAA)

2.  Grigori Denisenko, LW – Yaroslavl (KHL)

3.  Victor Soderstrom, D – Brynas (Swe.)

4.  Cole Perfetti, LW – Saginaw (OHL)

5.  Peyton Krebs, C/W – Winnipeg (WHL)

6.  Philip Broberg, D – Skelleftea (Swe.)

7.  Nick Robertson, LW – Peterborough (OHL)

8.  Lassi Thomson, D – Ilves (Fin.)

9.  Dylan Holloway, C – Wisconsin (NCAA)

10.  Connor Timmins, D – Colorado (AHL)

 

PREDICTION:  2^nd in Canosa Conference.

Sudbury Miners - 2020 End of Summer Review

 

Sudbury Miners - 2020 End of Summer Review

 

CANADIAN PRESS (Sudbury, ON):

 

The completion of CCHL Entry Draft usually signifies that summer is here and it is supposed to be a time of rest and relaxation.  But for Sudbury Miners General Manager Terry James, it was the opposite.

With a number of significant moves made just before and after the draft, James feels that he has put together the best team he has had during his time in Sudbury and feels that they have a real shot at creating some noise this upcoming season.

“As a management group, we felt that with the development of some of our younger players and with the prospect depth we had, we were comfortable making some aggressive moves in order to give our team its best shot going into the 2020-21 season”, stated James.  “We know we are in a tough conference this year, with a lot of good clubs, so we knew moves had to be made in order for us to challenge.  We are excited for this year to start”.

During his end of summer press conference, James talked about the major moves he made this summer in detail and the expected impact each will have on the team.  Each move has been summarized below.

 

·         FOR trades S. Jones & I. Mikheyev to SUD for M. Sergachev, A. Stralman, Akil Thomas  & SUD 2nd-20

With this deal, Sudbury acquires a true top pairing defenceman, who will pair with Roman Josi, acquired at the end of season.  Mikheyev provides good depth, is solid defensively and comes in at a good cap hit.   The price was not cheap, as Sergachev is just starting to scratch the surface of what he can become.  A solid deal for both teams involved.

 

·         SUD trades S. Monahan & SUD 1st-21 to BIS for Lassi Thomson, BIS 1st-21 & BIS 1st-22

With the acquisition of both Brayden Point and Pierre-Luc Dubois at the end of last season, to go along with Sebastian Aho, Monahan was an expensive luxury that the Miners could not afford to have on their 4^th line.  They were able to move him for a top prospect and a couple of first round draft picks to re-stock their prospect cupboard.

 

·         SUD trades T. Seguin, Hendrix Lapierre, Justin Barron & Gabriel Fortier  to AMO for A. Panarin

This was a deal that surprised a lot of people as the Miners traded fan favourite Seguin in the deal.   But when a player of Panarin’s calibre becomes available, you got for it.  He gives the Miners a true top scoring winger and he is slated to start the season on the top line with Aho.   The pairing has the potential to be something special and the Miners hope they can wreak havoc in the Canosa Conference.

 

·         SUD trade D. Larkin, Alex Formenton-p & SUD 3rd-21 to GEO for B. Boeser, B. Hayton-m & GEO 2nd-22

It was clear with this deal, that the Miners were dealing from a position of strength at center, already having Aho, Point and Dubois as their top 3, not to mention prized rookie Kirby Dach waiting in the wings.  The Miners needed to upgrade their talent and depth on wing, and were able to get that in Boeser, while also securing a top prospect in Hayton.   A good deal for both teams.

 

·         SUD trades K. Palmieri, Simon Holmstrom-p and $2M to ISL for B. Rust...

It was no secret that James was looking for some more scoring on the wing, and he was finally able to find that in Rust.   A responsible forward in his own end as well, Rust is slated to start the season on the top line with Aho and Panarin.  That trio could pose some problems for opposing goalies this upcoming season.

 

There has been a substantial amount of roster turnover since their second round loss to Siberia last spring, but given all of their off-season moves, the Miners are deeper and more talented than the roster they ended with last season.  Fans and Management are optimistic and hopeful in the Nickel City, that James has pulled the right trade strings this off-season and they will be rewarded with a long playoff run in 2020-21.

Maybe even win it all.   You never know……stranger things have happened. 

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!