[February 28th] OHL Weekly Ramblings

[Dean Youngblood]

February 28th Weekly Ramblings


OHL Player of the Week
- Guelph Storm's Taylor Beck (Nashville Predators' Prospect) has been named the OHL Player of the Week. Beck had a tremendous week scoring four goals, nine assists and 13 points in four games.

Record-Setting Ellis
- Windsor Spitfire defenseman Ryan Ellis reaches 300-point mark this past Sunday. Ellis is only the second Spitfire to record 300 points and the first defenseman to do so.


NHL Trade Deadline: Former OHLers On the Move




- The NHL trade deadline has passed and I thought it might be fun to look at which players traded today were former OHLers.

• Tom Sestito (Plymouth Whalers) traded to PHI
• Jason Arnott (Oshawa Generals) traded to WSH
• John Mitchell (Plymouth Whalers) traded to NYR
• Chris Campoli (Erie Otters) traded to CHI
• Kevin Montgomery (London Knights) traded to EDM
• Rusty Klesla (Brampton Battalion) traded to PHX
• Dennis Wideman (Sudbury Wolves/London Knights) traded to WSH
• Brad Boyes (Erie Otters) traded to BUF
• Brian McGrattan (Guelph/Sudbury/Mississauga/Owen Sound/Oshawa/Sault Ste. Marie) traded to ANA

New York Islanders-Sarnia Sting Connection


-Do you want to know who the the Islanders are going to draft each year? Take a look at the OHL Sarnia Sting's roster. The Islanders seem to draft youngsters from the Sarnia Sting.

• Matt Martin was drafted by the Islanders and has seen time with the Islanders.
• Last week, former Sting captain Mark Katic (D) made his NHL debut with the Islanders and was quite impressive
• Next up? Stamkos' former linemate Justin DiBenedetto (F) has been called up to play for the team from Long Island.
• Who could be the next Sting drafted by the Islanders? Brett Ritchie and Brandon Francisco are 2011 eligible

First to 50
- Ottawa 67's forward Tyler Toffoli (LAK) is leading the CHL Scoring Parade(article). The King's prospect was the first OHL to reach 50 goals this season when he scored in Ottawa's losing effort on Friday night.

- Oshawa's Christian Thomas needs 3 goals to reach 50 goals. Sarnia's Nail Yakupov needs 7 goals to reach 50. The last time the OHL had three 50-goal scorers in same season was in 2007-08. Brett MacLean (61), Steven Stamkos (58) and Luca Caputi (51) reached the milestone.


Memorial Cup Schedule
- The OHL has released its schedule for the upcoming Memorial Cup in Mississauga from March 20-29th

Yakupov Watch
- Check out the featured article on "Nail Yakupov: The next best name in hockey" by yours truly over in the PG Advised section.

- Record Breaking Goal: Yakupov tied Steven Stamkos' team rookie goals record on Thursday night when he scored his 42nd of the season and surpassed Stamkos on Sunday scoring just minutes into the game to notch his 43rd. Congrats Nail!

NHL/OHL Prospect Signing Deadline
- The deadline for NHL teams to sign their drafted OHL prospects is June 1st. Check out the list of OHL players that will need to be signed before then


2011 Draft: The Case for .....
- The Bruins 2011 Draft blog does a great job at following prospects and recently started a section called "2011 Draft: The Case for" profiling 2011 draft eligible players.

The Case for Dougie Hamilton (OHL)
The Case for Jonathon Huberdeau (QMJHL)
The Case for Gabriel Landeskog (OHL)


Injuries
-Peterborough Pete star Matt Puempel is likely going to miss the remainder of the season with surgery required to his recently hip injury. Puempel is eligible for the 2011 NHL Entry Draft and we will likely see his stock drop because of this injury. Check out the full story on Puempel's Draft Stock here

- Ex-OHL Michael Liambas who was banned from the OHL in 2009 for his hit on Ben Fanelli is back at his dirty play again. Liambas was playing for the University of British Columbia this year and did his best Todd Bertuzzi impression last week during a game where he punched Eric Hunter in the back of the head. Full story here


OHL Sights and Sounds

- OHL Plays of the Week (incredible save - check it out)
Story here
Video here

- Check out this weeks OHL News Radio Edition where Terry Doyle talks about Team Ontario's Winter Games among other topics.


The Latest CHL Rankings (as of Feb 23, 2011)


1. (1) Saint John Sea Dogs (49-5-1-2) QMJHL
2. (2) Saskatoon Blades (46-12-0-2) WHL
3. (4) Montreal Juniors (42-9-4-4) QMJHL
4. (3) Mississauga St. Michael's Majors (42-12-0-2) OHL
5. (5) Red Deer Rebels (41-14-3-4) WHL
6. (6) Quebec Remparts (40-15-1-2) QMJHL
7. (9) Portland Winterhawks (40-16-0-3) WHL
8. (8) Owen Sound Attack (38-16-1-3) OHL
9. (7) Niagara IceDogs (36-14-2-4) OHL
10. (-) Drummondville Voltigeurs (38-14-5-2) QMJHL



OHL Scoring Leader Updates


Leading Forward Scorers (as of Feb 28th)

1. Jason Akeson (Kitchener - undrafted) 24G-78A-100P [Last Week - 1st]
2. Tyler Toffoli (Ottawa- LAK) 50G-45A- 95P [LW - 2nd]
3. Ryan Strome (Niagara -2011 Draft Eligible) 28G-64A-92P [LW - 1st]
4. Nail Yakupov* (Sarnia - 2012 Draft Eligible) 43G - 44A - 87P [LW - 4th
5. Ryan Ellis (Windsor - NSH) 21G - 66A - 87P [LW -6th]
*denotes Rookie

Leading Defensemen Scorers (as of Feb 28th)

1. Ryan Ellis (Windsor - NSH) 21G - 66A - 87P [Last Week - 1st]
2. Ryan Murphy (Kitchener - 2011 Draft Eligible) 24G-51A-75P [LW - 2nd]
3. Josh McFadden (Sudbury- 2011 Draft Eligible) 15G -43A-58P [LW - 3rd]
4. Dougie Hamilton (Niagara -2011 Draft Eligible)11G -39A-50P [LW - 4th]
5. Jesse Blacker (Owen Sound - TOR) 10G - 40A - 50P [LW - 5th]

New Information will be posted throughout the week as it is released.
Feel free to ask questions or post comments.
Enjoy!

[Godin]

Great stuff! Appreciate it.

[StormSurge24]

My boy Taylor Beck!

Man Guelph has been on fire at home the past little while (8 straight wins) and hopefully they can continue that success into the playoffs. They will be a tough matchup for anybody there matched up against. Hopefully they can suprise and make some sort of a run.

[Dean Youngblood]

Just a few further thoughts and interesting facts

- Seven teams in the OHL teams have a losing record.
- Of those, five of those are in the Eastern Conference.
- The 6th through 8th place Eastern Conference playoff teams (currently) have a record below .500
- In the Western Conference, no team that currently holds a playoff position (top 8) has a record below .500

- Sarnia would currently be ranked 8th (ahead of Belleville) if they were playing in the weaker Eastern Conference. Even the last place team in the Western Conference (Sault Ste. Marie) has a better record than the 8th place team in the East (who has a playoff spot).
- IMO, something needs to be changed with the playoff format

Here is an interesting article on "Windsor Spitfires favour playoff change"

[Nights]

Loving Ellis completly killing it this year as a defenceman. Sure, he's an overager, but nice to see.

Also nice to see Blacker on that top 5 in D scoring.

[JagrBomb]

holy crap how did i miss this. awesome stuff!

[Dean Youngblood]

holy crap how did i miss this. awesome stuff!

Thanks praba.

The OHL Ramblings are usually posted on Monday in the OHL Section of PG Advised (sometimes Tuesday if I get behind in life)

[Princeton]

You rock Dean.

Posts don't get any better than this.

REP

[Ballsakic]

Well Done dean

[Dean Youngblood]

You rock Dean.

Posts don't get any better than this.

REP

Thanks. I enjoy following the OHL so it's my pleasure passing on cool articles and relevant statistical evidence

There are other past editions of the Weekly Ramblings in the OHL Section of PG Advised too.

[Dean Youngblood]

FLYERS SIGN OHL's LEADING SCORER
As littleranger mentioned in another OHL thread, the Philadelphia Flyers have signed two undrafted elite OHL scoring threats in Jason Akeson (OHL leading scorer) and Tyler Brown (Plymouth Whalers)

Yahoo! Sports has published a good article on the signing of Akeson and his journey to this point in his career. The article also addresses other undrafted players who are now currently signed by NHL clubs (Matt Calvert, Jake Muzzin and Scott Timmins)

OHL: Late arriver to leading scorer; Akeson lands deal with Flyers

FIGHT!
Check out this video of a fight between Sudbury's Justin Sefton and the Soo's David Broll, who was knocked out cold and needed assistance off the ice.

[messierforlife]

Excellent breakdown Dean!

[ccsitdown]

Nice work, Youngblood, great breakdown. I'll have to start digging for this on Mondays.

A couple opinions of you, as it can be hard to follow the O well out west. Question on a couple of middle-of-the-roaders as far as the stats parade is concerned:

Any opinion on Peter Holland's play? He seems to have been overshadowed by Beck, so I haven't read that much on him.

Also, after a slow start (adjustment?) Tom Kuhnhackl seems to have put up a respectable season. What's your take on his game, how's it coming along?

Thanks, always so much better to get an opinion from someone who sees the players instead of just the odd mention in an article.

Keep up the good work!

[StormSurge24]

Taylor Beck is at it again, 3 points in the first period tonight in Barrie.

[StormSurge24]

Just a few further thoughts and interesting facts

- Seven teams in the OHL teams have a losing record.
- Of those, five of those are in the Eastern Conference.
- The 6th through 8th place Eastern Conference playoff teams (currently) have a record below .500
- In the Western Conference, no team that currently holds a playoff position (top 8) has a record below .500

- Sarnia would currently be ranked 8th (ahead of Belleville) if they were playing in the weaker Eastern Conference. Even the last place team in the Western Conference (Sault Ste. Marie) has a better record than the 8th place team in the East (who has a playoff spot).
- IMO, something needs to be changed with the playoff format

Here is an interesting article on "Windsor Spitfires favour playoff change"

I don't agree with a playoff change. look at basically every single league there is out there, there is a considerably weak confrence.

If we change the OHL, are we gonna change every league?

The NHL (11th place in the West would be 7th in the East)
The AHL (11th in the West would be 8th in the East)
How about the Dub? (10th in the west makes the playoffs in the east)
Non-hockey, the NBA (I don't have the actual stats, but the East is alot worse then the west)

I say just leave it as is, it's working fine for the league.

P.S. Notice how it is the Eastern Confrence in every league that sucks?