2020 Off Season - How Long will it Last & Other Ramblings

[dsquared]

Well the board is back! Well the Pats picked a good year not to make the playoffs.... Kinda sucks for Kelowna - I guess the CHL will find some way of making it up to them - but like the Pats did a couple of years ago the team was ready for this year.
Next week is the 2020 bantam draft - the 1st pick seems a lock - with Connor Bedard - who should probably be in the league when it resumes. I am interested to see who what positions they draft - considering they need help at all of them.
Every sport is pushing their season forward - I wonder when the CHL will start? Given that any vaccine is at least 18 months away. Will they resume in empty barns?

[dsquared]

Well It's Official

[Reider]

It's really unfortunate that the CHL couldn't finish the season as we'll never know who would have won all of the Championships etc..

The CHL is a gate driven league (as is the CFL), so I'm not sure how they could play the season without any fans. The Riders are supposed to host the Grey Cup this year and the Pats have already signed and tomorrow will draft the first ever player to be granted exceptional status in the WHL. I hope the worst case scenario doesn't happen with those two leagues. As it is, some people are already predicting Connor Bedard to make the NHL at age 18. If he misses playing his 15 year old season due to the season getting canceled and he makes the NHL at age 18, that only leaves his 16 and 17 year old seasons with the Pats. I"m trying to stay optimistic about everything though as there's still lots of time before the WHL season is supposed to start.

Signing and drafting Bedard is fantastic for the Pats' organization, but what's also great is the fact that the Pats have a lot of picks in this year's (deep) bantam draft, plus there's still the import draft. And perhaps there's a chance that signing Bedard may help in recruiting other good players, who are either on the fence or have refused to sign and report thus far? There's a lot of opportunity for the Pats acquire a lot of really good players this off season.

I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe and hopefully this madness is over sooner rather than later.

[chopper]

Hi all;

We're up and running again and I'm thankful for that. We have a very exciting young phemon coming to our club and the East Division. There should be a lot of interesting and exciting things to both witness and talk about.. I'm hopeful we will be back to relative normalcy by the time the season begins. It's impossible to predict how long Bedard will be here but if he is here 3 or 4 years, it will build the organization exponentially. He will make others on the team so much better.

Beyond Bedard I hope the Pats have great success today at the draft today. They also must try to add some more high end pieces especially forwards. I hope they stay with Canadian kids for the most part who are committed to playing in the WHL. It may be easier now with Bedard here. The Pats also need to find way to seriously bolster their team beyond Bedard i.e. the Import Draft and perhaps revisit the Guschin thing one more time.
The also have to find a seriously tough competent winger for Bedard who can compliment him offensively and also be there to ensure liberties are not taken against Bedard. A Leedahl type player is a must IMO. The Pats have to find ways to put some more high end talent on their team right now. They can't waste the Bedard years.

After the draft today I fully expect the Pats to get seriously busy and do everything necessary to put a playoff calibre team on the ice. I think there could be some exciting times ahead.

[dsquared]

Didn't realize it until today but PG has 3 first round picks this year. - They should be in a position in a year or 2 to be a power house.

[dsquared]

So the Pats used 1 of their 2nd round picks to get Ross - a 20 y/o goalie from Seattle.

I guess it's bye-bye Buskey as he also will be a 20 y/o next year. I didn't think Buskey was that bad. He would have had better numbers in the past season if he had better d in front of him. I can only assume Paddock did his homework and checked with the Flyers before the trade to make sure Ross was not destined to move up to the AHL next season. Finally on the topic of goalies - there does not appear to be anybody favoured for the backup position as Kieper, Belluk and Spencer were at best mediocre.

[chopper]

With the acquisition of Roddy Ross the Pats now have 5 OA's…Ross, Buskey, Walker, Desnomie, and Krane. Obviously Buskey won't be back and he will be joined by one of the others mentioned.
Paddock seems to intimate he needs better goaltending out of the gate to avoid a 1-9 start like last season. I watched all the games and feel confident saying there were a lot of other areas of concern as well.

Ross is a very good goalie already drafted with pro potential. There should be no issues at that position out of the gate. They are very high on Kieper so I would bet that he will be a 16 year old backup this season. His regular season stats were very…meh! However his playoff stats were great and in fact almost unconscious…. he was facing around 50 shots a game until his team was eliminated. He stole one game for his team with his performance of around 70 shots. I would bet they groom him this season.

D-men: Goaltending aside the Pats need to improve substantially over last season. They have a number of returning d-men but most fall into the journeyman 4 to 6 depth chart guys. IMO the closest to a star would be Ryker Evans. They don't have that big star minute eater who can play all situations. Factor in they are planning to bring Layton Feist into the fold and he is only 16. They will have to do some work with their d-corps if they expect to make playoffs this year. They also need a d-men coach.

Forwards: The Pats have a bunch of kids with potential. The likes of Dubinsky, Brook, and Englot certainly come to mind plus others. Now they just have to start showing off their capabilities. I thought Englot and Smith were very good last season. Brook will need to have a healthy start to his season but should bring something good. A lot of people think Dubinsky was a little off from where they expected him to be. I hope he's ready for a breakout season. Desnomie and Krane are two guys who have decent offensive skills but can't be described as exceptional OA's. They have to stay keen and see if a trade for a quality 19 year old forward is in the cards.

I feel once Bedard gets his feet under him he's going to do phenomenal things for the team. They will need to locate a big truculent/offensively capable winger to ride shotgun. They have to know that fact!!
Bedard by himself at 15 won't be able to take them to the promise land. They will need to surround him with some real talent so as to maximize his vast skills. They will need to upgrade their offensive talent some way. Getting a star player at the Import Draft is a must and perhaps revisiting the possibility of either/or Guschin or Smilanic reporting here.

[Some_Arrogant_Jerk]

I think when you upgrade your goaltending, it is counter-intuitive to then downgrade your defence. Walker may have been last years best defensive dman, and he brings some experience and likely leadership skills on the backend. Im not so sure we have anyone who can step up and fill his minutes.

Denomie and Krane are both good OA candidates, but often on young teams, you have to work from the net and out. One of the forwards will have to go, and it likely wont be the higher producing local kid. But itll depend how confident the staff is with their offensive depth. We will see how many 02s come into camp proving they can handle consistent top 6 minutes. Remember that Paddock likes to tinker; its going to be really hard to know who is here in 6 months.

[dsquared]

There is an article in today's LP about Danil Gushchin - last year's import pick - who thought he was too good for the dub. In it, Greg Harder reports that the Pats are still thinking that they might get him to come to Regina with the pressure of a NHL team. I don't think that's a very good idea - considering 2020 is Guschin's NHL draft year- he could turn out to be only a 2 year player. However there is going to be some probability that next season will be delayed in starting - so that only amounts to a 1 1/2 year player. His situation reminds me of the cr*p that Martin Hanzal put us through. I say ditch the bum and pick somebody they know will report to the Pats.

[dsquared]

It looks like the regular season will start 2 weeks late if the league gets the go ahead from all the provincial/state governments. They have tentatively scheduled a start of the regular season for Oct 2, 2020. We are are starting to see some sparks of life.