Going into the SMJHL Season 72 Draft, the Newfoundland Berzerkers had a dilemma. It was very likely that their top performing players would finally receive their respective calls to the big league. And as suspected, the entire first line was called up. This consisted of wingers Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Antoine Beauregard, and center John Hopoate. These three scored for a combine 97 goals in Season 71, just over 33 percent of the goals the whole team scored. Their offense can't be understated, leaving a massive question mark in the Berzerkers scoring for the upcoming season.
With this in mind, the Newfoundland Berzerkers select with their first round pick Sad Ketchup, a promising winger prospect who could be expected to put up some numbers. After a couple of trades, in the twilight hours of the draft, the 'Zerkers select Roman Roy and Entropy Sanchez at 36th and 37th respectively. There wasnt much of a book on them going into the draft, but the team took a shot in the dark, needing to fill the roster with someone. These two were also wingers, with the expectation that on of the three forwards drafted could swap to center for the teams sake. Eventually it was determined Ketchup would be the one converting to center. It was jarring at first, but he bought in, working on his faceoffs in practice.
To see if the three had any chemistry, they were put together during the pre season. They certainly did. In 7 games, the line combined for 14 goals and a combined 38 points. Now numbers in the pre season don't mean too much, but one thing was very clear. These three clicked and this would be the second line moving forward into the regular season, which I call The Kid Line.
After a full 66 game season, The Kid Line blew away all expectations. Roy scored 27 goals, and 32 assist for 59 points, a very good stat line for a rookie. The other two on the line were even better! Both Ketchup and Sanchez were point per game players, with Sanchez scoring 28 goals and 38 assists for exactly 66 points. Ketchup scored 32 goals, 38 assist for 70 points. These three absolutely tore up the smjhl together. With a combined 87 goals, they contributed to about 29 percent of the total goals scored by the Berzerkers this season. While this doesn't quite reach what the old first line was producing, you can't be upset with the overall outcome of this rookie line. Despite having huge skates to fill, they stepped up as rookies in the league and performed.
The Newfoundland Berzerkers ended the season 6th in the league and second in their division. While the playoffs aren't finished as of writing this, the first round is complete. The 'Zerkers beat the Kelowna Knights in 6 games but the offense from The Kid Line is lacking compared to their play in the regular season. Is this an issue? Or just a small sample size of a single round in the playoffs. Only time will tell, and we'll be able to better analyze the trio once the playoffs are complete.