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***Citizen of Adraa*** · 03-23-2019, 05:32 PM

So, end of the season comes, and with it, another SMJHL season for the S46 rookies. In this article, let’s compare their previous and recent season, and see who improved, who didn’t and who looked arguably the same.

Let’s go with some overall statements though. In the first round, all 10 teams are represented, with only Halifax (4), Lethbridge (2), and Anaheim (2) having multiple rookies drafted in the first round. There is one true rookie in form of the 16th overall pick that we will get to later. There aren’t any massive drops in performance, however we have several massively better seasons, and there are few major playstyle changes to some players that are almost too big to believe. So, let’s dive in.

1st overall, from Montreal, now playing for Halifax, is Hamilton’s Nikolai Evans. His first season was mostly looking towards a clean, controlled performance, not too physical, but still willing to sacrifice for the team as the shots blocked would suggest. Gaining 7 G and 13 A, being -1 with only 12 PIMs, 25 hits and 60 shots blocked, his rookie season was decent, albeit not fantastic. In this trend, he continues on to the second season. He slightly raises the point production to 20 A while having the same G and +/-, however his physicality increased dramatically, boasting almost triple his hits from previous season with 68, also however raising his PIMs to 44. Gaining about another minute and a half on his average ice time, Evans is looking solid, even if he isn’t quite a shining superstar.

2nd overall, from Colorado, again drafted by Hamilton, is Anastasia O’Koivu. A different style of player, O’Koivu had a very dry spell to start her career with only 1 G and 4 A, however being even on +/-, her 65 hits and 38 shots blocked show us a responsible defensewoman, even if having a bit too many PIMs with 46. To continue her career though, O’Koivu managed to evolve nicely, tripling her points to 15 with 3 G and 12 A, adding 22 hits to clock in 87 of them, and slightly raising her shots blocked counter to 44, even raising her PIMs only slightly to 50, however, only posting a -5 on her +/-. Another player then, that seems to do a solid job for her team, however not being flashy or really a superstar caliber one.

3rd overall, from Anchorage, drafted by Tampa Bay, is Oliver Cloutier. First forward of the draft, Cloutier had a fairly unimpressive rookie season, mostly caused by only measly 11 minutes of ice time. 6 G and 7 A, 3 on +/-, 10 PIMs, 35 hits, 5 blocked shots, seem as a decent set of stats for a player that clearly wasn’t relied upon in their first season. However, Anchorage decided to change that up by almost doubling his ice time, resulting in Cloutier nearly tripling his point production to 20 G, 18 A and 38 points, staying positive on +/- with 2, and only adding 2 more PIMs, while raising the physicality with 64 hits compared to the 35 of last season. This stat line show a massive improvement for Cloutier, and Anchorage is lucky to have had such a great player in their back pocket, as he seems to be one of the main threats of the roster now.

4th overall, from Lethbridge, drafted by Buffalo, is Monkey D. Luffy. Already a massive season from him as a rookie, Lethbridge massively enjoyed drafting him as he posted a very impressive 15 G and 16 A for 31 points, even if holding a -4 +/-, albeit on a struggling Lethbridge roster, so that number is actually more impressive than it seems. 20 PIMs aren’t a massive problem, with 56 hits and 9 blocked shots, Luffy has showed his skill in full force in the S45 already. Improving slightly coming into the S46, he improved to 17 G and 21 A, completely switching his -4 to 12 on +/- with the surge of his team, and even cleaning up his play with 6 less PIMs with similar hits and shots blocked numbers. Luffy therefore has shown early and hasn’t dissapointed, maybe proving to be a great very early on into his career.

5th overall, from Anaheim, drafted by Minnesota, is Mathias Seger. Another player that had a decent, but not stellar season to start of his career, Seger scored 5 times to add to his 12 assists for 17 points, posting a measly -11 on the struggling Anaheim team. 44 PIMs with 40 hits aren’t that great, however, 56 blocked shots are much nicer to hear. Did Seger improve coming into his next season? Definitely so. Staying at 5 G, getting 30 A for 35 points is the most apparent improvement, even if his +/- stayed only at -9. Doubling his hits, he only raised his PIMs by 16, and even if he dropped a few blocks, Seger has proven he is a decent defenseman for his team and is definitely looking really good.

6th overall is Halifax‘ Jimmy Slothface, drafted by New Orleans. Another good rookie season, 11 G and 16 A add up to 27 points, and having a positive +/- on the fairly atrocious Halifax is a fairly decent feat. 8 PIMs with 37 hits and 5 blocked shots then complete a fairly good start for Jimmy. The second season hasn’t however brought much of an improvement, luckily, not much of a regression either. 10 G and 15 A and +1 are very similar stats to the previous season, however the physical side showed up with Slothface gaining 57 hits and 10 blocks, however, with the cost of 21 PIMs. He is also the first player of this countdown to have had a major on him. For Slothface then, it’s more of a dissapointing season after a really good start, leaving him to be a fairly mediocre choice. However, there is believe there is more to be achieved for him.

7th overall is another Halifax player Perry Morgan, drafted by New England. His first season is clearly more about being a physical, pass first shutdown defenseman. 2 G and 12 A for 14 points with +2, 85 hits and 47 shots blocked do completely point you to that direction, even though Morgan got a countdown high 89 PIMs with a major thrown in aswell. His second season, however, sees a massive, and I can’t even comprehend how massive, shift in his playstyle. Halving his hits, goint to a third of his PIMs and even losing a few blocks, Morgan decided he wants to produce points. 10 G and 16 A almost double his production, creating a offensive defensman that Morgan definitely wasn’t in his rookie season, and creating a massive shift in identity that I am not exactly sure how happened. However, as decent as his first season was, the second one hasn’t been much different, even when comparing to a completely new field of players. Morgan showed he has many talents that he can leverage, and hopefully can be whatever NEW needs him to be. He clearly showed that he has the potential to be flexible.

8th overall is the third Halifax‘ player, Andrej Doskočil, drafted by Manhattan. Similar to Morgan, first Doskočil’s season is the one of a shutdown defensman, physical, but not too skilled with the puck. 1 G and 10 A with horrific -15 even on the fairly awful Halifax, Doskočil has been a bit of a liability. With 44 PIMs on his 92 hits and 48 blocks though, he has at least done what he has been learned to, be big and scary. Unlike Morgan though, Doskočil hasn’t shifted his playstyle, only evolved some parts of his game. 2 G and 24 A to go over a double of his points are a nice start, and with -4, his defensive abilities improved decently aswell. Slightly more PIMs are balanced out by 115 hits and 57 blocks, which are among the highest in the countdown. Overall, Doskočil isn’t going to be a producing machine, but if you need a second pair body to throw at your opponent, Doskočil seems to be growing into this role very nicely.

9th overall is Detroit’s Kalvin Zvejnieks, drafted by Hamilton. Zvejnieks had a fairly quiet first season, with 3 G and 16 A, posting a -2, and not having a particularly amazing number of hits at 57, with 10 blocks to go alongside it, even managing to not have a particularly great PIMs with a sizeable 35 with a major, Zvejnieks hasn’t had quite the greatest start to his career. His second season proven to be somewhat of a improvement, with 9 G and 19 A, gaining in the hits department and dropping a few PIMs, it was a bit of a redemption from Zvejnieks, and he managed to raise into the ranks of the fairly competetive forwards. It remains to be seen whether Zvejnieks can evolve further, but so far, Hamilton is getting a decent forward out of their pick.

10th overall is Vancouver’s Borromini Cannellini, drafted by LA. Probably the biggest surprise of the first round, in the negative way, Cannellini dropped fairly low to what was expected for a player of his background. Maybe it was the fairly unimpressive first season that caused this. 5 G and 13 A for 18 points aren’t awful for a rookie, but are not an amazing statline either. Cannellini on top of that posted a -5, with 19 PIMs and a major, 45 hits and 8 blocks, not having the greatest defensive game either. However, Cannellini has proven everyone absolutely wrong for doubting his abilities. An astonishing 25 G and 29 A for 54 points, he is far and beyond the best scoring player on this countdown, with the second place only barely north of 40 points. This level of production of course comes with 28 on a +/-, and even if he has been significantly more penalized than he was in his first season without much meaningful additions to his hits stats, just the shear ammount of production this guy has is astonishing. Not probably, but surely a great gem for LA.

11th overall is Colorado‘s Nick Brain, drafted by the Winnipeg Jets. A very quiet first season, again caused by the countdown low 10,59 minutes of ice time, Nick has managed to obtain 7 G and 6 A for 13 points, holding on to a 5 on +/-, with 49 PIMs and 71 hits, being more of a physical presence up front than a scoring one. Brain definitely proven his point with his second season aswell, only mildly raising up his production to 13 G and 9 A, but getting a 107 hits with exactly the same 49 PIMs and 1 major. He is still one of the least played players of this countdown, but it doesn’t show much where Brain wants it to show. His physicality is really good, and when he is able to back it up with some points, Winnipeg might not consider him a superstar player, but someone who they will definitely enjoy as a really nice depth piece.

12th overall is St. Louis’ Gordie Boomhover, drafted by New England. Boomhover was enjoying a fairly decent first season, with 12 G and 13 A, being +1 on middling St. Louis that only really started being good in the playoffs, with 40 hits, 5 blocks and 18 PIMs. The ice time here might have been better, but his 15 minutes aren’t exactly horrible compared to some. The second season has been once again a nice, even if not really amazing, evolution of a player. Raising the bar to 17 G, staying on 13 A, and adding 26 hits to get to 66, while only mildly raising his PIMs to 25 mainly thanks to a major, Boomhover has been a decent force to count with, even if not being the forefront of the attack for St. Louis. He definitely hasn’t regressed and hopefully should keep evolving further.

13th overall is Anaheim’s Jerry Mander. Most of us have probably heard of him as one of the hardest hitting players in the league, but there is more behind the physical play. With 13 G and 10 A, even though he posted a fairly weak -9 on the fairly awful Anaheim, he has had a impressive 110 hits, the highest of this countdown for rookie season, and had one of the higher on ice times for a rookie, mainly thanks to the fact Anaheim had to rely on their rookies fairly heavily. Once this gone out of the way and Mander could get a bit less pressure on him, with being one of the only to drop ice on time, and fairly significantly by 3 minutes, he started doing even better. 17 G, 15 A and posting a positive +5, gaining 127 hits while actually decreasing his PIMs even with a major, Mander is doing it almost all with the exception of blocking shots, althought I believe Anaheim can forgive him that. So Mander, that has been showing of nicely so far, is on a good way to becoming one of the scarier players out there.

14th overall is the fourth Halifax‘ player on the countdown, Matt Kholin drafted by Tampa Bay. Kholin has definitely enjoyed a successful first season, with 15 G, 17 A, even with a -7, Kholin has shown his feel for the puck and a decent eye and hockey IQ. Even if the physicality is low, with only 32 hits, it’s not reflected by 21 PIMs with a major, with Kholin definitely having a exciting first season. The second one, again, is a bit of a regression, similar to Slothface. 10 G and 17 A, althought improving to +2, mean that he hasn’t shown as much of an offensive flair as he did with his rookie season, although some other areas show a decent improvement, like cutting down the already fairly low PIMs to half, with 11 with a major, adding up with 47 hits, show us a disciplined, even if a bit less physical play. Kholin is looking promissing, and Tampa Bay shouldn’t be scared yet about the somewhat lackluster performance for their first rounder.

15th overall is Kelowna’s Guy Zheng, drafted by New England as their third first rounder. Guy Zheng was one of the most relied upon players in his rookie season even on a fairly established team like Kelowna. It reflects on his stat line, with 7 G and 24 A, posting 31 points, even though flashing an unfortunate -14, showing a bit of a lackluster defensive capabilities from Zheng. Added up with a very low 37 hits, the one thing redeeming him is the fairly impressive 51 blocked shots, showing up with some of that sacrifice for his team. The second season, again, is an evolution on the previous one. Adding the heat up with 10 G and 32 A, he is the second highest scoring player on this countdown behind a very impressive Cannellini. His very bad -14 turns into a very good +19, and while he drops a few hits and blocked shots, his PIMs go down too, making him a very nice and dependable first pair scoring defenseman. Overall, a really good pick already fairly deep into the draft at 15th.

16th overall is the first player that we won’t be able to directly compare with his previous season, Lethbridge’s Brendan Kennedy Jr., drafted and now playing for Calgary. He came into the SHL as a true rookie, so his stats are going to reflect a sudden change in the quality of opponents, however, I believe Kennedy has dealt with this with honor. Posting 5G and 20 A, the decent scoring didn’t reflect on his +/- with -10, but the amazing 60 blocked shots with the production balance it out alongside only a fairly mediocre 60 hits for a 42 PIMs hit. Surprisingly enough though, moving up did not hurt some stats too much. 4 G and 10 A are definitely a down, but being -4 isn’t bad. Dropping some blocks to only hit 43, however gaining 76 hits and cutting down on his PIMs slightly make him a fairly interesting player to watch further, as he seems to be doing fairly decently for his fairly awful 13 minutes of ice time, by far the lowest on the S46. Kennedy however seems like a decent piece for Calgary and I am sure they are happy with their drafting here.

So, there we go. Top 16, all looked on and evaluated. Overall, the best player of the top 16 seems to be by far Cannellini, posting impressive numbers, and running away from the rest of the SMJHL with his point totals. Between the other players though, it seems to be a good mix of decent scoring, good physicality, and mainly, decent development besides few minor hiccups that aren’t extremely worrying anyway. So, all of us can keep a keen eye on who gets called up for the S47 out of these guys and see their performance among the big leagues, and the rest that keeps seeing their careers and mainly skills develop down in the SMHJL, that we can directly compare to these numbers and see whether or not they aren’t slowing down or having issues with their game.

2902 words, ready for grading.

***goldenglutes*** · 03-24-2019, 08:20 AM

Solid article, thanks for the kind words too

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