Season 14 Season Preview Part. 1

by James Ashton and Shannon Goodfellow

Another Season in the books and through sheer willpower I’ve finally finished Part. 1 of the season preview. 

Oromocto Senators 20.6 : 1

Let’s look into the future…………

McTavish , Johnson, Hughes, Barron (wtf happened to this guy) , Lecavalier and Hull and Morrow. 

That’s a pretty solid future nucleus for a team's future.   But what about the next wave. 

The Senators have half of the 1st rounders in the upcoming draft and could become the first team to own two of the top 3 picks without having to make trades and concessions to make it happen. 

With Vernon the missing piece in this rebuild expect Oromocto to make sure that happens. The draft’s top 6 are very forward heavy with every position available as it is harder to swap people around. 

We're not talking about this season, we’re moving on and only talking about positive Oromocto stuff. Hopefully the farm team is good again.

Albert County Renegade 11.6 : 1

I have a new term for you: it's called the Reverse Nason. It’s not in the urban dictionary or new sex position..  We’ll get to that in a bit. 

The forward depth is fantastic with the top two including new addition Walstrom from Saint John can move Stutzle back to 2nd line duties so hopefully he can finally stay healthy. Somehow my boy Eichel remains a consistent scorer even outsourcing Mcdavid last year, however father time has started wrecking havoc on his skills. Luckily Cole Sillinger was snagged to fill the future of the second line.

Wallstedt is growing and my other boy Gibson is in a deeper swifter decline. The defense was purged in free agency as both Hughes and Boquist were lost in free agency (with 1st round compensation) and Power’s scoring had an offseason misstep. These are the obvious weaknesses of the Renegade. 

So the reverse Nason -  if nothing comes trade wise either through the season , resign Brady and release hell on any defense rfa or ufa  that is foolish enough to be at the meeting. 

Dorchester Devils 10.8: 1 

The Kedwick Golden Knights are better farmers than anyone in South Esk , Cains River or  Albert County.  

On the forwards side they take average or guys that would likely be life farmers and turn them into legitimate 3rd fourth line players. Take a look sometime, you’ll see guys that come in as defensive savants and become point per game farmers.  So far they are averaging 10 goals a game and Recchi is 7th in team scoring. 

On the main roster players like Lucious, Greig, Yegor and Buium are products of the factory and can be a depth machine for this team moving forward. You have Beniers and Seider as the leaders of the forwards and defense and with the right price and product lengths this team could be a force. 

However there are some questions that are starting to creep up. What is the Samsonov plan? Obviously resigning is the first option but what are we talking about price wise and lengthwise. Next is the next in line coming in the season 16 draft or is it a trade target already in the league. 

Can’t wait for that Barkov contract to finally end

Riverview Royals 10.5 : 1

This was before the Murray trade Nov. 3rd , I’ve had writers block + NFL Sunday + Battlefield 6 + Blue Jays Watching 

The Royals have made it their goal to contend with adding Lundestrom ,Farabee and Robertson through trade to add to a stacked defense core that is the team's building block through its history. 

The top line has potent scorers with the future coming soon with the team  having drafted Dave and Robitaille in the last two drafts and the emergence of Mike Silinger .

 Maybe they are a year away from being in contender status with the two young studs giving the team the depth in need as it drops off when you go line after line and having to contend with possible matchups against Saint John, Cains River and Miramichi. 

If Venhi can hold off for two years then we could be in the Anderson era and with young goalies it can be a tricky proposition. The last two examples are Cossa and Walstead who are getting lit up in their first 2 seasons. However with  some of the elite goalies crossing the dreaded 30 year old age perhaps it’s the right time for  Anderson to come along. 

Moncton Melons 8.9 : 1 

This was before the Murray trade Nov. 3rd 

Welcome to the loosest cannon in the league.

We always keep an eye to see if the Melons self-destruct button is close to being pressed. With 11 players needing new contracts for next season including Hughes, Cozens, Kakko, Zadina , Perrault , Miller Harley and Commeso this could be challenging for a team that is always against the cap. Luckily they have 53 million in cap space to strategically figure this out.

Or it could be the greatest rental package since Blockbusters rental plans. What would a Jack Hughes trade to a contender look like and free agency on top of that. How many assets would have to be given up for that type of package. Also Jon has his own first this year except he’s in the conference as Trent.

The team shored up the depth with Thomas Harley who had one of the most unpredictable meetings of all time as his number kept getting called for various reasons. The teams weak goaltending is what bring them down to this ranking unfortunately. 

Up Next Bathurst , Cains River, Miramichi , Saint John and South Esk.

By James Ashton