NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE RINKS

By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds, DUBNetwork.ca Warriors Beat Writer

1. Playoffs? We talkin’ about playoffs?: No, actually we aren’t. The Western Hockey League announced Monday that ‘the season will conclude following the completion of the 24-game Regular Season schedule’. There was some talk that given the success of the Regina Hub that perhaps there would be a move to at least have some sort of intra-division playoff to determine a champion of the East, but given the Covid measures the government has continued to extend due to the exploding number of cases in Regina especially, the news doesn’t come as a surprise. From a Warriors perspective, head coach Mark O’Leary mentioned that this season was all about development, so I get the sense that Moose Jaw is happy to pack it up after April 26, and get to work bringing in reinforcements (aka Europeans) to surround its young core for 2021-2022. I do feel for the likes of Saskatoon and Brandon, who as I wrote in last week’s column, could have competed for a Memorial Cup in a normal year. 
2. No O: Another point O’Leary made after Monday’s win over Prince Albert was that those in the Hub, and the Dub at large, should be thrilled that they at least got to even play these 24 games! The Ontario Hockey League will not have that opportunity, as the season was cancelled officially Tuesday, leaving many NHL draft hopefuls without recent samples of, and opportunities for development (the ones that are not going to the World U18s later this month, at least). I feel for those people in Ontario quite a lot: to have lost an entire season is brutal for a lot of reasons, and a couple of people I have talked to have mentioned lawsuits vs. the government to recoup some of the monied investments teams have made in rosters, et al for this season. Covid sucks.
3. Embarrassing Leafs: One of the huge sources for frustration in Ontario is that the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators are deep into their campaigns, but special treatment for the megabucks of the NHL should not come as THAT much of a surprise. That said, the Leafs faced a Vancouver Canucks team Monday night who had not played in weeks due to Covid, and the effort for the second and third period from Toronto is another example of how I have never seen a team as talented that can take its collective foot off the proverbial pedal as they can. Does Jack Campbell need to be better? Sure. But it’s almost like after a great trade deadline, they’ve started playing as though they just need to simply show up and the other team will hand them two points. Kudos to the Canucks and their Coach Travis Green for a good game plan, but with 10 games left in this Leafs’ season, I am extremely concerned. The answer is a lot more than goaltending, and it’s a lot more than just adding Nick Foligno and Ben Hutton to the roster.
4. Magical 1, 2, 3: I just started covering the WHL closely this Hub season, specifically focussing on the Moose Jaw Warriors for DUBNetwork, if you’re just joining us, and I have to say: I am so, so, so excited for this young crop of kids just coming into the league. The 04’s and 05’s are the real stories of the Hub for me, and that 2020 draft has shown how awesome it was league-wide already. The Nos. 1, 2, and 3 picks in that draft, Connor Bedard to Regina, Riley Heidt to Prince George, and Brayden Yager to Moose Jaw, have all already made enormous impacts on their markets and the league as a whole, and I predict that in a couple of years we will look back at those three as one of the best Top 3 picks-groups we’ve seen. They are so impactful, so mature, and piling up points already, and man is it exciting! Are you in the Regina or Moose Jaw areas? Get your tickets to watch these kids as soon as you can.
5. The last WHL draft’s biggest steal: It did not take a genius to pick any of those three where they were, I’m sure nobody will be upset with me for saying, but one club looking great right now is the Winnipeg ICE. GM Matt Cockell and staff took B.C. boy Zach Benson 14th overall, and the return on investment has been awesome. Eight goals, 17 points, with an electric release, and great offensive instincts are what he brings to the table, and while he hasn’t had to face the other team’s best D-pairing at all in the Hub, due to the presence at the top of the Winnipeg line-up of Peyton Krebs and company, that is the ideal situation for a 15-year-old rookie, and the sky is the limit for Benson’s talent level. That prep school loop is here to stay in the west as a real high-level alternative to the provincial minor hockey levels, and guys like Benson (who went to Yale Academy Prep), Bedard, and Swift Current’s Mathew Ward are just the start. I’ll say it right now: Benson, the steal of the 2020 draft. What a stable full of talent the Winnipeg ICE have…good grief! Benson, Karter Prosofsky, Conor Geekie, Chase Bertholet, Skyler Bruce…the list goes on.
6. Sillinger out: The Medicine Hat Tigers got a real good return of investment on their No. 11 pick in 2018 in Regina’s Cole Sillinger, even though he’s spending this year in the USHL with Sioux Falls. His move to play a full season in the USHL instead of an abbreviated one in the WHL has not hurt his draft stock at all, it appears, but unfortunately, he will not be representing Canada at the IIHF U18s in Texas at the end of April. Cole was picked initially, but Hockey Canada announced without explanation that he was pulling out Monday, and TSN insider Bob McKenzie followed up on the subject with a tweet referring to his absence is due to “Covid protocol”. It’s too bad we won’t be able to see him, but he’s still going to give in the middle of the first round in the next NHL draft at any rate. Hope he’s alright! Sillinger becomes the second player to pull out, as Winnipeg’s Carson Lambos did the same due to injury over a week ago.
7. Uncle Bob’s draft rankings: Speaking of Uncle Bob, he released his mid-term draft rankings ahead of the U18s this past week, and he and I agree on many things, with the biggest that our opinion of Edmonton’s Dylan Guenther is enormous. I’ve seen people drop Guenther into the middle of the first round, but like Bob, I have him in the Top 5 easily. He also has potential Moose Jaw Warriors goaltender Jesper Wallstedt (who I talked about last week) in the Top 10, Sillinger at 13, and Ryder Korczak, also of Moose Jaw, down at 53. It’s not a great draft overall, to be honest, and that usually means variance of opinion on where prospects will go is bound to be very big.
8. SJHL’s legit Chel tourney: The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League started its first-ever ‘Best in Sask’ NHL 21 video game tournament this past weekend, and from what I’m told, there are some serious pro-level players in the field. The idea is that there are four players in each division, with 12 divisions representing each of the clubs in the league, and they will all be playing for a cash prize of $2,500. A few actual SJHL players are playing that I know of, including Notre Dame’s Hardy Wagner, Melville’s Zach McIntyre, and Dylan Thackeray, Estevan’s Eric Clark, and Flin Flon’s Noah Kuntz, which I think is cool! (I’m not even going to pretend I’m not cheering for Hardy.) The Gamertags everyone is expecting to see by the end are world-class NHL players that go by the names ‘OWNTHEBLUE’ (Yorkton Terriers Division), and SHAW_BROz (Melfort Mustangs Division), but I am told the man himself Tanner Goetz (the owner and CEO of Munz Media) is a real player in the Nipawin Hawks Division! Love what the league is doing with ESports.
9. NCAA Transfer portal gone wild: It isn’t big news to too many people up here, but the fact that the NCAA added another year of eligibility for college hockey players down south, mixed with a one-time ‘free transfer’ (meaning: players can transfer to another school without having to sit out a year) has led to an unprecedented number of players looking to do so. The number of players who are at least interested in moves around the Division I ranks is reportedly in the hundreds, though that doesn’t mean there will be that many moves as there are not unlimited open spots either. One example of a guy looking to move in this ‘transfer portal’ that will be familiar to SJHL fans is former Battlefords North Stars Canalta Cup champion Levi Kleiboer, who has not yet found a spot to move to from the University of Maine. There are plenty of Sask connections on the list, including Regina native Harrison Blaisdell, who is looking to leave North Dakota, and Tyler Heidt, the brother of Riley, who is seeking a move from Merrimack. You can peruse the whole list here if you so desire: https://www.grandforksherald.com/sports/hockey/6979174-The-Heralds-2021-mens-college-hockey-transfer-board
10. The soccer world on fire (Bonus): The soccer world was set ablaze this weekend with the announcement of a ‘Super League’, that is intended to feature only the world’s wealthiest European clubs, in an attempt to grab at guaranteed money and stability without the need to compete with slightly poorer clubs. Real Madrid and Barcelona of Spain, and Juventus of Italy were the ringleaders, and initially had a bevy of high-profile English clubs on board as well, but the Brits have reportedly been scared off by threats by the European (UEFA) and International (FIFA) associations, as well as an unprecedented backlash on social media. While plenty of North Americans came down just as angrily on the idea as those in the rest of the world, it is a pretty North American-style notion…a claim of a monopoly on the best of that sport, with no fear of relegation or devaluation of franchise value. I don’t want to bore you with the details if you aren’t a soccer fan, or state them again for you if you are (as you’ve probably heard all about it in that case), but I think it will simply die out as an idea. It seemed so for sure on Sunday, and it seems dead on Tuesday! How about that!

(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)