OHL Weekly Ramblings - April 12th

[Dean Youngblood]

OHL Player of the Week – Tom Kuhnhackl
Windsor Spitfire and Pittsburgh Penguin prospect Tom Kuhnhackl has been named the OHL Player of the Week (ending April 10th) after scoring four goals and one assist for five points in three playoff games with a plus-minus rating of plus-4. Kuhnhackl was the hero for the Spits in Game 7 of the first round when he scored the game-winning goal in the final minutes of the third period.


OHL Coach of the Year - Matt Leyden Trophy

Owen Sound Attack's bench boss, Mark Reeds, has been named the OHL Coach of the Year and is the recipient of theMatt Leyden Trophy.

Reeds led the Attack to their best regular season finish in franchise history with a record of 46-17-1-4 for 97 points to lead the OHL’s Western Conference

Reeds is the organization’s first Matt Leyden Trophy winner since the club moved to Owen Sound from Guelph in the 1989-90 season. Jacques Martin is the franchise’s only other winner in 29 seasons capturing the award back in 1985-86 for the OHL and Memorial Cup Champion Guelph Platers in his only season as an OHL Head Coach before moving to the NHL

Congratulations Mark Reeds.



OHL Rookie of the Year and All-Rookie Teams Announced

Last week, the OHL announced that Nail Yakupov was the unanimous Rookie-of-the-Year recipient as he took home the Emms Family Award for the OHL’s Top Rookie. Yakupov recorded 49 goals and 101 points which was 18 points more than the next rookie, teammate Alex Galchenyuk.
Check out a Nail Yakupov Video Compilation

The OHL also named their All-Rookie Teams as voted on by OHL General Managers. Your First All-Rookie Team consists of:

center Alex Galchenyuk (Sarnia Sting), left-winger Lucas Lessio (Oshawa Generals), right-winger Nail Yakupov (Sarnia Sting), defencemen Nick Ebert (Windsor Spitfires) and Jesse Graham (Niagara IceDogs) with goaltender Malcolm Subban (Belleville Bulls) between the pipes.

Check out the Second All-Rookie Team here
Dobber Thread here



OHL Overage Player of the Year - Leo Lalonde Memorial Trophy

The OHL will announce the winner of the Overage OHLer of the Year Award on Wednesday. Finalists include:Varone (Erie), Akeson (Kitchener), Cantin (Mississauga), Nesbitt (Ottawa), Czarnik (Plymouth), and Valiquette (Sudbury). All are worthy nominees for me. My vote goes to Varone or Akeson.


NHL/CHL Mourns after the passing of VP of Central Scouting EJ McGuire

Yahoo's Sunaya Sapurji writes from the heart on her experiences with the kind EJ McGuire.
CHL Mourns the Passing of E.J. McGuire



2011 NHL DRAFTEE WATCH

OHL's Ryan Strome (Niagara IceDogs)
Check out this video interview of 2011 NHL Draft Eligible player Ryan Strome.


WHL's Sven Bartschi (Portland Winterhawks)
Last week in the ramblings I released some video compilations on 2011 NHL prospects. The latest is Sven Bartschi who is a teammate of Nino Neiderreiter



U-18 World Championships featuring OHL Stars

The U-18 World Championships officially get underway Thursday, April 14th in Dresden, Germany. There are loads of NHL draft eligible prospects participating and their draft stock could improve during this international tournament.

Team Canada has 14 OHLers participating on its roster and there are lots of draft eligible for the NHL Draft in June (Ryan Murphy, Brett Ritchie, Daniel Catennacci, Mark McNeil and Seth Griffith to name a few.

Dobber Thread here.



CCHL Rookie of the Year Nathan Pancel has committed to the Sudbury Wolves

Pancel was the Sudbury Wolves fifth round pick in the 2010 OHL Priority Selection and is coming off a fantastic season scoring 37 goals, 25 assists for 62 points in 59 games. Pancel has yet to play a game for Sudbury in the playoffs but is practicing with the team (I believe).



OHLers Signing ELCs with NHL Clubs

• Shawn Szydlowski (Erie Otters) agreed to an entry-level contract with the Buffalo Sabres Friday morning. He will report to Buffalo's AHL affiliate in Portland. Szydlowski was pointless and minus-1 in two games for the AHL’s Pirates.
• Alain Berger has signed a three-year contract with the Montreal Canadiens
• Peter Holland (Guelph Storm) and Taylor Beck (Guelph Storm) have joined the Ducks and Predators™ AHL squads. Peter Holland appeared in three games for the Syracuse Crunch (AHL) and recorded three goals and six points. Damn impressive! Taylor Beck played in four games for the Milwaukee Admirals (AHL) and finished with one assist and a minus-2 rating.
• Mark Visentine (Niagara IceDogs) has signed an ELC with the Phoenix Coyotes. Visentine continues his strong play for the IceDogs as they continue their OHL playoff series against the Oshawa Generals.
• Anthony Luciani (Erie Otters) and Gregg McKegg (Erie Otters) have signed ELC with the Panthers and Maple Leafs, respectively. In McKegg’s two-game AHL debute, Gregg recorded a goal and finished minus-1. Luciani had a strong three-game debut with the Rochester Americans as he notched two goals, one assist and was plus-2. Keep an eye on both of these former Otters next season. Luciani is very small (5’8â€�) so it will be interesting to see how he does
• Bruins Prospect Ryan Spooner (Kingston Frontenacs) recorded one goal, three points and was plus-two in just two games. Good debut
• Leaf prospects Jerry D'Amigo and Andrew Crescenzi (both Kitchener Rangers) joined the Marlies for their final few AHL games.

[Dean Youngblood]

....continued.......


NHL Central Scouting Services Releases Final Draft Rankings: OHL represented by 58 Player
I had initially planned on scouring through the final rankings and making a list of the OHL representation but the OHL Network has graciously did that for me. I plan on doing an in-depth analysis of some of the OHL draft eligible players so look for that to come.
OHL Network: 58 OHL Players in Final NHL Central Scouting Draft Rankings

OHL Sights and Sounds
Plays of the Week: First Round Playoff Highlights – Here is some great footage featuring some of the spectacular plays in the first rounds of OHL playoffs. You have to feel for these OHL goalies at times.
Beauty Goal by Mitchell Theoret of the Niagara IceDogs. (Go to 4:20 mark of the video)

DY’s Gift To My Readers
Here is a great resource if you are interested in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft prospects. The guys over at THW (The Hockey Writers) have released the “2011 NHL Entry Draft Guide: The Next Ones”.
It is full of articles that the panel has been working on for the last couple months and features information on the best-of-the-best in the June draft.Normally, I would post this as a new thread but I am going to only mention it here as a gift to you. Enjoy.
Sean Couturier – A Ten Tool Prospect
THW’s also look at what Sean Couturier brings to the table skill-wise.

OHL PLAYOFF NEWS
Scoring Leaders
Christian Thomas (Oshawa Generals) continues to lead the OHL in playoff scoring with 7 goals, 10 assists for 17 points in 8 games.
Sudbury’s Michael Sgarbossa and Plymouth’s Tyler Brown are tied for second with 14 points each.
For the full scoring leaders click here

OHL Playoff Tracker

The Memorial Cup hosts, Mississauga St.Michael’s Majors, have yet to lose a game in the OHL Players. After sweeping Belleville in round one, the Majors look to continue their stellar play when they face the Sudbury Wolves tonight in Game 3. Mississauga leads the series 2-0. Game time @ 7:00pm.
The Niagara IceDogs currently lead their series with the Oshawa Generals two games to one. The Generals will host Niagara tomorrow night (7:05pm) in Game 4 of the series.
The Owen Sound Attack will look to complete the sweep over the Plymouth Whalers Wednesday night when they visit Plymouth for the 7:05pm game.
Lastly, the Windsor Spitfires and Saginaw are currently tied at one-game a piece and will face off tonight in Saginaw’s barn (7:05pm).



Enjoy the Playoff Hockey (both OHL and NHL). I will post more as the information comes out. I apologize for this being released a day later than normal.

[TML]

Good stuff as always DY!

[Dean Youngblood]

Good stuff as always DY!

Thanks TML. I am glad you are reading



Update:

Mississauga wins 6-3 over Sudbury and takes a 3-0 lead.

Windsor is losing 5-2 in the final minutes of the 3rd so it appears Saginaw will take a 2-1 lead in the series

[Dean Youngblood]

OHL Playoff Roundup: Tuesday Night

Always a quick way of catching up on last nights' games

Saginaw won 5-2 and leads the Windsor series 2-1.

Mississauga won 6-3 and leads the Sudbury Series 3-0. The Majors have yet to lose a game yet in the playoffs - pretty remarkable.

The last time I seen that happen is when our Bantam team swept our way (3 series) to the OMHA Finals where we then got swept ourselves

[tryhard87]

The Majors have yet to lose a game yet in the playoffs - pretty remarkable.

The last time I seen that happen is when our Bantam team swept our way (3 series) to the OMHA Finals where we then got swept ourselves

We did the exact same thing in Bantam (about 5 years ago). Except we ended up sweeping the other team in the Finals who was also undefeated at that point. I've been on both sides winning and losing an OMHA in my lifetime though.

[tryhard87]

Have a good time at Game 3. Out of curiosity, how much were your tickets? Teams range from $24 to $64 per pair of tickets and it's been a hot topic in OHL Discussion.

Plymouth Whalers to watch:
- Stefan Noesen (draft eligible and he has been a beast in the playoffs; his stock is improving by the minute. Let me know his style of play)
- Rickard Rakell (I hope he gets back into the lineup)
- Jamie Devane (leafs prospect returning from suspension for Game 2)
- Tyler Brown (Overager recently signed with Philadelphia Flyers)
- Robbie Czarnik (Tied for Plymouth's regular season scoring lead with Noesen; LAK prospect)

- Scott Wedgewood (NJ goalie prospect; He has been playing out of his mind)

Cheers

I figured I reply to this in this week's thread. My internet was down for a good 4 days and I didn't see this until now.

The first game I went to in round 1 I got a pair of tickets for 34 bucks (seats were 2nd row from the blueline penalty box side).

The game I recently went to (round 2 vs the Whalers) the tickets were 40.50 for a pair. The seats went up a buck for the 2nd round and I got the most expensive tickets (VIP - which are the 3 sections behind the player benches).

Now since I'm still 18 my tickets are classified as Youth. Adult tickets are 2.25 more per ticket.

Wedgewood got pulled after two periods are allowing 4 goals on 34 shots (his team was down 4-0 after 2). He kept his team in the game for the most part until the middle of the 2nd when Owen Sound got two PP goals (one 5 on 3) to go up 3-0. His team didn't show up to play until the 3rd period when he was sitting on the bench.

I can't say anybody stood out on the Whalers. They were dominated.

Joey Hishon impressed me more than the last time. He had the puck on his stick a lot. He created a lot of opportunities. He was pointless in the game though.

I noticed in both the Knights game and the Whalers game I saw both teams went after Hishon, hitting him every chance they could get, harassing him and not leaving him open. Hishon did a lot of gumming in both games back at his opponents, this game it was mostly with the Whalers captain Schmitz.

That's all I got this time. The game isn't too fresh in my mind as it was 4 days ago on Monday.

[Dean Youngblood]

Thanks TryHard.

I was kind of curious how much ticket prices were. I was really routing for Plymouth and was disappointed to see them swept. I thought they would put up a good fight against OS. I am betting that their series with Kitchener took a lot out of them.