Next Year's team

Well now that the season is finally over, the team can look ahead to next year. I think the team is going to be young again but should be improved.


Goaltenders

Amundrud
Hamm

No reason not to think they'll be the two goaltenders next year. Don't need to rush Luding or Grybowski who will be 16 and can play on a regular basis n Midget or play in Jr. A.

Defense

Martin (19)
Reid (17)
Higson (17)
Kustra (16)
Dwyer (18)
Stewart (17)

No offense to Dixon and Schacher but they got their ages working against them. Both will be 20 and can be upgraded.

Won't be surprised if they go for another Import D-man. With the 2nd overall pick, they better not screw it up. Another Jyri Niemi would be nice.

Room for a good 20 year old addition.


Forwards

Graham (19)
J. Uhrich (19)
Hebig (18)
McCarty (18)
Sloboshan (18)
Soshnin (18)
Gingras (17)
B. Hagel (17) If he comes, could be a good one, among top scorers in AMHL
J. Patterson (16)
L. MacKenzie (16)
C. Hausinger (16) - Didn't get invite to UNTP, considering WHL
J. Robinson (16) - Could be going the college route.
B. Dunn (17) - Came in the Forsberg deal. See how he does.

Armour and Braid may have to fight off rookies to keep their spots, especially if Robinson and Hausinger sign.

Guess it's possible they add another import forward if there's no d-men that they like. Another Russian to go along with Soshnin would be nice.

Overagers - Blades need to upgrade their 20 yr olds up front. Not a huge fan of Zajac and for a team that struggled to score goals this year, I don't see Zajac's 11 goals cutting it. They got a steal when they got McKechnie from Seattle. If they can pull off two trades like that, that'd be awesome.

Well not much of a shock to see us get "the first round pick" again this year, but we don't have it in lieu of the Collin Valcourt deal however we do get to pick 12th and 19th, hopefully we can find diamonds in the rough with those 2 picks....., let's hope the import draft pick is a Nikita Scherbak 2.0 or a Jyri Niemi type of defenseman!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is to hoping management pick great players

:D
I just want to point out, congrats to Nik Amundrud for making the top 10 saves of the year.
He placed number 3!!!!!!!!
I hope to see more of that next year!!!!!!!!!!

patterson and hausinger would help to jump start things. the two of them playing together would be a lot of fun to watch, and a lot of fun for them too being able to play together. add sloboshan, hebig, soshin all a little older and one years experience and its a nice start.

I have to agree with Trav about the overagers a definite need to UPGRADE, but it looks like the team has already committed to Zajac as one. I think its a little premature to commit to him, I would wait and see what is out there closer to the end of training camp and make a decision, and it could still happen to .The year was not much or any improvement from the year before ,like it was said the team struggled to score ,and ill say it struggled to keep the puck out of the net. Don't expect much improvement or any for 2015/2016 season ,but hope I will be wrong.

I was surprised but not surprised to see them commit to Zajac so early.

They did the same thing at the end of the 2013-2014 season when they said that Stovin would be a 20 yr old. At the time I was surprised as I didn't feel like he was worth a twenty year old spot but he had a great season and is doing really well at the ECHL level.

I can't see Zajac putting up the same kinda numbers that Stovin did last year. Woods needs to keep an open mind when he's dealing with the overage situation. Pretty sure there's going to be a few good 20's available.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Trav

I was surprised but not surprised to see them commit to Zajac so early.

They did the same thing at the end of the 2013-2014 season when they said that Stovin would be a 20 yr old. At the time I was surprised as I didn't feel like he was worth a twenty year old spot but he had a great season and is doing really well at the ECHL level.

I can't see Zajac putting up the same kinda numbers that Stovin did last year. Woods needs to keep an open mind when he's dealing with the overage situation. Pretty sure there's going to be a few good 20's available.

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zajac won't put up 30-30-60 numbers, he will be a good leader on and off ice, and that will be important.

it's a memorial cup year in the whl next season with red deer hosting, so that could make for higher trade prices.

ideally you need your 20's to be brought up from within, they have to be your leaders, and among your top skilled guys too.