Hockey season is right around the bend. The boards are going in at Nationwide and the Jackets prospects, along with your friendly neighborhood prospect geek, are off to Traverse City, Michigan for the annual NHL Prospects Tournament at the Centre Ice Arena.
Starting off with the how the tournament is set up, the eight teams are split into two divisions named after Red Wings legends Ted Lindsay and Gordie Howe. The Jackets will be in the Howe Division with the Minnesota Wild, St Louis Blues and the host/defending champs Detroit Red Wings. The Lindsay Division features Jackets division rivals the Carolina Hurricanes, New York Rangers along with the Dallas Stars and the Buffalo Sabres who should boast the highest pick playing in the draft in 2nd overall pick Sam Reinhart (Buffalo hasn’t released it’s roster as of this writing).
Each team will play the three teams in its division in a round robin and then face off against the team that finished in the same spot in the other division.
The Jackets are bringing probably their best roster ever and hope to improve on back to back second place finishes in their division (4th overall in the tournament both times). The team’s forward and goalies are probably the best in the tournament. I know I’m biased and our roster is loaded but I think this team will do well this year and it’s mainly because no other team in the tournament’s roster really impresses me. Let’s take a look:
FORWARDS
As I said above, the Jackets boast probably the best forward corps in the tournament and why do I think that? We’re bringing four first round picks. This marks the most for any team in the tournament as others have two on their entire roster. The Jackets are a big team – averaging 6’1 with only six players listed under 6’0, five of them being forwards. These five include the organization’s leading scorer Oliver Bjorkstrand who put up 109 points including 50 goals.
Other “little guys” include Marko Dano who can slot in on any of the team’s four lines. And there are a group of snipers including Julien Pelletier and Peter Quenneville, TJ Tynan (the smallest player in the tournament) and first round pick Sonny Milano. Milano will be in the Jacket’s top six -probably on the top line. Speaking of the top line, it will more than likely be centered by Jackets top prospect Alexander Wennberg.
For when things get rough the Jackets are bringing power forwards Josh Anderson, Nick Moutrey and first round pick Kerby Rychel. While those three are expected to put up points, the team’s true tough customer is Mike DiPaolo (you can see his top five fights HERE). DiPaolo can play forward or defense but the Jackets have him listed as a forward. Friend of the blog Jonathan Dunphy has told me that DiPaolo is the best tough guy in the Q by a mile.
A non first-round pick I’ll be watching closely is Markus Soberg who is coming over to North America to play after playing in a league that doesn’t get a lot of coverage in Sweden. Also on the roster is Springfield center Lukas Sedlak who put up 14 points in his rookie season.
The lone free agent invite at forward is Kyle Hope who is signed by Springfield after having played with Owen Sound of the OHL. Manny Paiva the TV voice of the Attack told me that Kyle started as a D-man but “he plays hard, good skater his everything. Been in trouble for crossing the line” and that the “guys in the room loved him.”
DEFENSE
Two tournaments ago (2011) the Jackets only brought draft picks on defense to Traverse – this year, the team only brings three draft picks. The team’s defense is massive – boasting only one player under 6’1 in 2014 7th round pick Olivier LeBlanc. The team’s top D-man will be Dillon Heatherington. Heatherington had a breakout season last year and set new offensive highs despite being an defensive defenseman.
The elder statesman of the tournament is Thomas Larkin. As the oldest player in the tournament, the big man was impressive in last year’s games – he was very physical and unleashed a point shot I didn’t know about. One of the Jackets more well rounded D-men is Austin Madaisky who hopefully can stick in one place after bouncing between Evansville and Springfield last year. Olivier LeBlanc is also a well rounded D-man who despite being skilled is not afraid to drop the gloves, but as I said there are guys travelling with this team that can do that.
The defenseman I’ll be watching the closest is quasi local pick (Indiana) Blake Siebenaler. Blake has only played D for three years but is drawing comparisons to Paul Coffey with his skating ability/skillset.
The last four spots are made up of invites Isaac MacLeod of Boston College who appears to be a defensive defenseman scoring only 27 points in 142 games. Marcus McIvor also sounds like another defensive defenseman with North Bay’s play-by-play man Matthew Sookram telling me he’s one of the better players in the league at clearing the zone. He also said Marcus possesses a pretty good point shot but a wrist shot that they call “the knuckleball” on radio broadcasts. It actually surprised Sookram Matthew hasn’t signed a contract yet.
The other two who will be attendance are Kevin Ryan who was third team all Atlantic Hockey last year, and Nick Walters who was described by Brandon Wheat Kings radio voice Bruce Luebke as a “pretty straight forward D. Comparable to Mark Stuart. Not flashy but does everything well enough. Gritty, good team guy.”
GOALIES
The Jackets are again only bringing two goalies to Traverse. Unlike last year – both are draft picks. The Jackets are bringing the duo that will be in Springfield this year, Oscar Dansk and Anton Forsberg. This is the first time possibly ever the Jackets will supply both goalies from its AHL affiliate. Anton was very good in his time with Springfield and Oscar was one of the top goalies in the OHL having finished third in voting. After getting the majority of the starts last year I bet it’ll be a even split between the two in Traverse.
LINEUPS
As for lines they’re hard to predict. The Jackets are bringing only 14 forwards meaning only two will sit. A top six I’ve thought would look good is a line of Sonny Milano, Alexander Wennberg and Oliver Bjorkstrand. The defense will have more players sitting as the team is bringing 10. A pairing that I think would work is Dillon Heatherington and Blake Siebenaler as Dillon can stay back while Blake leads the rush.
Like I said last year, teams don’t normally name captains for the tournament – they rotate between games. The only players on this year’s roster that wore letters last year are defensemen Dillon Heatherington and Austin Madaisky. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Heatherington, Wennberg with a few other possibilities. Also worth considering that Olivier LeBlanc and McIvor wore letters for their junior clubs.
As per usual, I’ll be live from Traverse City starting with the Jackets skate in the IceHaus on Thursday before the boys the road. Then I’ll have my usual level of coverage. First game is Friday at 3:30 against Minnesota. It’s almost hockey season, boys and girls.
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