Greetings, all! For one last time we’re recapping the OHL and WHL along with the Memorial Cup which a CBJ prospect was…well, he got to go to Red Deer.
Kole Sherwood-London Knights (OHL)
Regular Season Stats 63GP 12-22-34 +9 53PIM
Playoff Stats 7GP 0-0-0 -1 0PIM
Kole sat for all of the Western Conference Final and Memorial Cup games. Hopefully, with a good summer Kole can return to London and be a bigger part of the Knights.
Jordan Maletta-Niagara IceDogs (OHL)
Final OHL Career Stats 314GP 82-109-191 -21 278PIM
Final Regular Season Stats 68GP 34-25-59 +10 55PIM
Final Playoff Stats 17GP 2-9-11 -1 15PIM
Jordan had a quiet OHL Championship round. He only picked up an assist in a wild game three victory. You don’t see Jordan’s assist in the highlights but he assisted on Josh Ho-Sang’s goal to make it 4-1 Dogs after one. Unfortunately, the IceDogs fell by a score of 6-5 in overtime.
Jordan went pointless in the IceDogs game four loss and was then off to Lake Erie to join the Monsters on a PTO.
As for next season, Jordan will be in Lake Erie with the Monsters but playing time could be a battle as Lake Erie isn’t losing much as far as who is on the roster, especially up front.
Blake Siebenaler-Niagara IceDogs (OHL)
Final Regular Season Stats 65GP 7-22-29 +4 15PIM
Final Playoff Stats 17GP 1-5-6 +2 2PIM
Blake went pointless in the OHL finals, and like Jordan, he was off to Lake Erie to join the Monsters. Also, like Jordan, Blake should be in Lake Erie next year fighting for ice time as the team’s blueline is also already crowded.
Keegan Kolesar-Seattle Thunderbirds (WHL)
Final Regular Season Stats 64GP 30-31-61 +10 107PIM
Final Playoff Stats 16GP 7-8-15 +5 8PIM
Keegan and the TBirds faced off against the Brandon Wheat Kings in the WHL Final and it didn’t go well for Seattle. Keegan was pointless in games one and two before being part of both goals in game three. Seven minutes after the Kings took a 1-0 lead, Mathew Barzal passed to Keegan down low for a shot. The rebound went out front with Alexander True getting to it and potting one into a wide open net. 38 seconds later, Keegan struck when Barzal took a pass from Ethan Bear, stickhandled for a bit and found Keegan at the circle. Kolesar fired a one timer to give the TBirds a 2-1 lead. Seattle allowed a late third period goal and ended up losing in overtime to put the series at 3-0 Kings.
In game four ,the TBirds showed signs of life. In the third, with Seattle leading 3-0, Keegan dropped the puck along the boards and Ryan Gropp gathered it and was off to the races. He skated through two Brandon defenders and scored to make it 4-0. Later in the third, with Seattle leading 5-0, off a faceoff Keegan passed to Ethan Bear who pass to Barzal. The next pass in the sequence went back to Bear who waited and hammered it home to make it 6-0 in a 6-1 Thunderbirds win.
Keegan was held pointless in a 8-4 game five loss in which the Wheaties scored five straight after trailing 4-3.
Keegan will be back in Seattle next season and should be one of the Thunderbirds go-to offensive weapons, especially if Mathew Barzal is on Long Island.
Quickly we have to say “au revoir” to two prospects as it was announced before the June 1st deadline that the Jackets would not be signing 2014 draft picks Julien Pelletier and Olivier LeBlanc. Both players will re-enter the draft. I thought Olivier might be worth a signing but as I said above, the Monsters blueline is full and Olivier is a bit undersized compared to pretty much any CBJ draft pick.
We did receive some good news – it was announced that the Jackets will hold onto Elvis Merzlikins‘ rights indefinitely as long as he plays in a country that has no transfer agreement with the NHL like Switzerland.
There you have it folks – another year in the world of CBJ CHL prospects. I’ll be back with an AHL Final recap along with my annual prospect awards. After that, watch for my coverage of the greatest time of the year – the NHL Draft. I’ll be in Buffalo and in arena…for day two.
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