Around one-third of the way through the SMJHL regular season, it’s time to check in on the prospects in the Philadelphia Forge   system to see how their respective seasons are going. While the Forge remain an extremely competitive team - recently going on a 10-game win streak – it’s of monumental importance that the development pipeline remains strong in order to ensure sustained success at the SHL level for the franchise. With a number of selections from the S74 draft, there may be some names below with whom our readers aren’t as familiar with. Let’s take a look at those players and their performance thus far.
 
Ubba Lodbrok – C, Anchorage 
The 6’6 center currently plying his trade in Anchorage is the lone send down for the Forge from the S73 draft class. Lodbrok is currently centering the 3rd line for the Armada, along with second unit PP and fist unit PK duties. Thorough 23 games for Anchorage, Lodbrok ranks 7th on the team with 15 points, coming via 6 goals and 9 assists in a mostly defensive role. Lodbrok’s Advanced metrics are solid, with a 52% Corsi, although his Corsi Rel of -1.1% is a bit strange given the quality of teammates he shares the ice within his current role. Regardless of the numbers, Lodbrok stands alone as the most physically ready to take the next step to the SHL in the Forge prospect pool.

Fedot Fedorov – C, Anchorage 
Lodbrok’s teammate, Fedot Fedorov of the most recent S74 draft class, is currently first line center for the Armada, in what may be a matchup-focused deployment as he is only clocking in at 14:29 in average ice time to go along with limited special teams usage. Fedorov is 15th on the team in scoring with 5 goals, 4 assists and 9 points. Despite his deployment, his advanced stats are respectable with a Corst of 51% and a PDO of just 96.4, indicating the player has been a bit unlucky so far through the first third of the campaign. Look for an uptick in Fedorov’s numbers as the season progresses.

Gewmba Stolemamoney – C, Maine 
The S74 draftee out of Maine is the Timber’s 3rd line center at this point in the season, albeit with slightly more ice time than Fedorov is seeing. Stolemamoney is currently 7th on the Timber with 11 goals, 5 assists for 16 points – none of which have been accrued in special teams situations. This player had been an analytics darling to this point in the season, rocking a 60.1% Corsi and a 63.3% Fenwick. Notably, despite the entire Maine roster faring well in these metrics, there is still a noticeable dropoff when Stolemamoney is not on the ice. This prospect is one to watch for the rest of this season and beyond as his role continues to expand.

Marek Carda – LW/RW, Detroit 
19th overall pick in the S74 draft Carda is currently leading the resurgent Detroit Falcons with 28 points through 22 games, by way of 9 goals and 19 assists. The winger is currently playing a hybrid role of third line defensive winger and powerplay specialist, with over 1/3 of his points coming on the man advantage. With a  56% corsi, the team fares well with Carda on the ice – though this is about average for this strong roster of players. Additionally, Carda’s PDO of 105 suggests that we should not expect to find him atop the team in points by the end of the season as many bounces seem to be going his way early on. Regardless, it’s a promising start for both the Falcons and a player who the Forge have placed a big bet on.

Leonard Wood – RW, Colorado 
Wrecking ball winger Leonard Wood, taken 20th overall in the S74 draft, is currently second in the entire league in hits with 65 for the Colorado Raptors. Wood has also shown some real playmaking ability thus far, currently sitting 6th on the team with 19 points, a whopping 17 of those coming via assist. Wood is currently seeing the highest ice time of all prospects, with second line duties and ample special teams deployment helping him log just under 17 minutes per night. Wood is also above water in the advanced stats side of things for the 14-8-2 Raptors, with a Corsi for of 55% and a Fenwick of 56% to go along with favorable relative numbers. So far this season, Wood looks every bit the first round pick the Forge made him last spring and has been developing nicely.

Cob O’Corn – RW, Carolina 
First line right winger for the Carolina Kraken Cob O’Corn clocks in as the second highest scoring prospect in the system to this point with 24 total points on the back of 13 goals and 11 assists. In addition to riding shogun on line 1, O’Corn has seen heavy usage on the man advantage, where he has contributed exactly 1/3 of his points. O’Corn has played a lot of in-your-face hockey, racking up 40 hits thus far. Like Carda, however, O’Corn currently has a high PDO of 106, so we could see a downturn in production as he regresses toward the mean. Also of concern at the moment are his Corsi and Fenwick, which are both below 50% at the moment – although he has this in common with the entire Kraken roster, despite their winning record. O’Corn is developing nicely for the Forge and the remainder of his season could go in any different direction.

There is reason to be optimistic about the future for Forge fans, as this prospect pool is quite deep and active. Should development stay on track, they each seem like they will be ready to contribute by the time they are needed at the SHL level, or could represent good asset capital for consideration in trades depending on the state of the roster and the salary cap situation. We’ll try to check in with these kids again later in the season to provide another update on how things are going for our subscribers.

-Ned Glasgow, Philadelphia Standard Gazette Times


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