11/14/2021


Embros back at you with thoughts now that one quarter of the season has been completed. This entry might be less focused and more free flowing than some of the others, since I’m having some thoughts on a lot of topics. I’ll start with my own performance up to this point of the season.

I am not a gifted offensive player, so I am looking for signs of improvement in the advanced statistics. I remember from another entry in this diary that an incredible 66 shots per 60 minutes were allowed when I was on the ice over our first three games of the season. There has been improvement through 17 games, with the above metric having dropped to a more respectable 42.3 shots per 60 minutes. My score in this category was the team worst after the first three games and quite probably the league worst. My Corsi Relative also turned positive and at 2.3, is tied for fourth on my team. My improvement over the following 14 games was likely due to finding some chemistry with some line mates, changes in tactics implemented by our coaching staff, as well as my own dedication to playing a simpler positionally sound game.

However, despite some improvement in my game showing up in some deep dive statistical categories, I still have a league-wide worst 6.1 goals against per 60 minutes and a PDO of 96.1. Too many quality chances are being given up when I’m on the ice and too few quality chances generated. In my defense, (slight pun intended), I am seeing a considerable amount of ice time on the penalty killing unit early in the season, and my five on five time has just begun to increase. Some of this poor performance could be due to the quality of competition I’m facing.

My goal is to look at my performance at the halfway point of the season and see improvement upon my 1 goal, 1 assist and 2 point performance during the first quarter of the season, as well as continued improvement in my performance as measured by the advanced statistics.

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Next, my thoughts are drifting farther to the horizon. I’m starting to look at what the Scarecrows might look like next season.  I’m already considering what we may be losing over the next offseason and what pieces may be left to build around. With that in mind, I’m looking over the Scarecrows roster class by class.

THE CLASS OF 59

Quality wingers Top Cheddar and Lebron Brady would be stars on a higher quality team. Brady is off to a slow start in S62, but was the leading scorer for the Scarecrows in S61 with 42 points. Cheddar seems to be finally emerging as a scorer as the second leading scorer for the Scarecrows so far this season. Both will be out of SMJHL eligibility in S63 and will be sorely missed. Center Zack Washington and goaltender Jesse Hellanude are mostly healthy scratches helping to provide some leadership. Their departure will simply represent bodies that need to be replaced in S63, when they will both likely move on to coach hockey at the Pee-Wee level.

THE CLASS OF 60

The Scarecrows S60 cohort contains much of the heart and soul of the current Scarecrows roster. They are led by team captain and Winnipeg Aurora top prospect, defenseman Marcel Beck, who is the third rated prospect of this entire SHL class. Not far behind Beck is the 15th rated overall prospect of the S60 class, Daniel Merica Jr. Merica is the son of a former SHL great, and knows what it takes to make it in the SHL. Beck and Merica have one more year of SMJHL eligibility, but are both SHL ready now with three quarters of this season yet to be played. I expect that they will be battling each other as members of the Aurora and the Stampede respectively come next season. Their 25th ranked classmate, Mars Stanton is the best defensive defenseman on the Scarecrows roster. He appears to be borderline ready for the SHL, but one more season in the juniors might benefit him. I’m hoping that the Toronto North Stars prospect spends another season with us. The remaining three S60 prospects on our roster have failed to reach 200 TPE and are just filler pieces. They will likely remain, however, since we are losing six players already.


THE CLASS OF S61

The S61 class is a bright spot for the Scarecrows.  This cohort boasts no superstar prospects, but as a whole they have been steady workers who are solid at the SMJHL level.  Right defensemen Spicy MacHaggis and Wendolene Ramsbottom are both established quality players in the SMJHL and help to solidify the position for the future. Both of them bring some offensive help to the team that is badly needed as well. Sam Stone and Steve Collins are solid options on the wing. Stone in particular is among our goal scoring leaders so far this season and can be part of the solution for a couple more seasons.


THE CLASS OF S62

One man stands tall in the Scarecrows Class of S62. Vincent Catalano is already a rock in goal for us and I’m happy that he will be behind me for many seasons to come. He’s been a victim of a bad team in front of him so far, but he has a respectable .900 save percentage. No one has faced more rubber than Catalano this season and he has suffered through it with grace.  The other two S62 prospects are centers who have failed to reach 200 TPE. These are stop gap players who can fill spots in the lineup until better options become available.


THE CLASS OF S63

The Scarecrows class of S63 is led by four players who have surpassed the 200 TPE mark by the end of the first quarter of the season. Chief among them in my opinion is right defenseman Rolf Kohonen, who I believe is the lowest risk S63 prospect among us for any SHL GMs peeking in.  Kohonen completes the right side of the defense already solidified by MacHaggis and Ramsbottom. Kohonen seems to be developing as a more defensive defenseman than the other two, which is good for the mix of skills at the position going forward. The next two S63 class members are centers Alix Nunez and Sisyphus Embros who could be a good one-two punch up the middle in the future. Nunez is projecting as a shoot first and ask questions later type of center who is leading the Scarecrows with 5 goals already in his rookie year. Embros is more of a project as a two-way jack of all trades and master of none. He’s going to be solid defensively and more of a playmaker than shooter offensively. The two have been used their complementary skills on the same line recently. Konstantin Strelka is an S63 right wing who recently made some self-effacing comments in the locker room saying “I shoot puck”. Yet, everyone who has been around the SHL for a while knows that player development is more of a marathon than a sprint. Strelka is a good skating, good shooting prospect who may have a successful future. There are two additional members of the S63 class on the Scarecrows who appear to have fallen right out of the gate, never going beyond 155 TPE.


CONCLUSIONS

The Scarecrows stand to lose at least 6 players in the offseason, with 4 of them being high quality players. I am hoping that Mars Stanton does not make that number 7. We will need that number of warm bodies at a minimum over the next offseason.  This team is being built from below the blueline up. We are in good shape at goaltender and defense, but will send out the following call to forwards at the draft, in free agency and maybe even via trade: