The pre-season consensus about the Eastern Conference is that the Mississauga Steelheads will be pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good. The presence of New Jersey Devils first-rounder Mike McLeod and 2017 NHL Draft hopefuls Owen Tippett and Nicolas Hague are the makings of an on-paper favourite.
The Niagara IceDogs, with a coaching change, a vacant general manager’s chair and a mass exodus of frontline players from an OHL finalist, will struggle. In between No. 1 and No. 10, everyone else is a wild card. The East Division, much like its namesake in the CFL, is a first-one-to-.500 contest that could also come down to Hamilton and Ottawa.
1. Mississauga Steelheads
What is there to doubt with the Trout, at least within the junior varsity division that is the Eastern Conference? Five 2016 NHL Draft choices, including McLeod and Nathan Bastian (also New Jersey), are percolating within the Hershey Centre. General manager James Boyd also fortified the blueline by restocking his imports, trading with Flint for Vili Saarijarvi (Detroit) and drafting Jacob Morevare (Los Angeles).
With 3-of-4 Central Division counterparts retooling, Mississauga could be a 100-point team. That also hinges on the progress of Hague, Tippett and centre Ryan McLeod.
How defenceman Sean Day (NY Rangers) adapts in his post-draft year will be interesting to watch. Strangely enough, New York acquired Day with the No. 81 pick, nearly the exact same point that it took Anthony Duclair—who also dealt with the weight of early attention and off-ice stress—in 2013. That isn’t a portent of what Day will do, but talk about foreshadowing.
2. Hamilton Bulldogs
Now that he isn’t expected to have the owner’s son on the first power play, new coach John Gruden has an excellent opportunity to succeed. Gruden is working with a lineup that includes two super-sized sophomores, centre Matthew Strome and right wing MacKenzie Entwistle, who each played for Canada’s summer under-18 team. Another X-factor up front is 18-year-old centre Brandon Saigeon, the 2014 No. 4-overall choice who was heating up last winter when he broke his forearm.
The Bulldogs were close to .500 after the trade deadline last season after acclimating to their new surroundings. The back end with Cole Candella (Vancouver) has experience and size, and that tends to pay off once the calendar turns.
3. Ottawa 67’s
With 17-year-olds Sasha Chmelevski and Austen Keating coming of age, the 67’s are young and talented, with a chance to take advantage of a diluted division. Coach-GM Jeff Brown also has a familiarity with most of the core players who have arrived since 2014, such as left winger Travis Barron (Colorado), centre Ben Fanjoy and overage D-man Jacob Middleton. A dearth of older defencemen is the biggest concern for Ottawa, which has a strong goalie platoon with Leo Lazarev and understudy Olivier Lafrenière.
Ottawa’s prognosis presumes they will adding in January after deadline sell-offs for four seasons in a row. The Bulldogs and 67’s are essentially in the same situation and, well, someone is getting the No. 2 seed.
4. North Bay Battalion
Overage goalie Brent Moran, whom the Chicago Blackhawks have looked at in a prospect camp, should be highly motivated to have a big season and earn a pro shot. Coach Stan Butler might also have the conference’s deepest blueline through draft-year Swede Adam Thilander, playmaking Cam Dineen (Arizona) and big bodies Riley Bruce (Calgary) and Mark Shoemaker (San Jose). With 50-goal scorer Mike Amadio adios-ing, North Bay will revert to scoring by committee. Centre Brett McKenzie (Vancouver) doubled his goal total from 11 to 26 last season.
5. Kingston Frontenacs
Last year’s top Eastern finisher has a ‘tweener roster. At one end of the experience spectrum, left wing Lawson Crouse (Arizona) is at his second NHL camp while blueliner Stephen Desrocher (Toronto), centre Warren Foegele (Carolina) and right winger Spencer Watson (Los Angeles) could all return as drafted overagers. (Watson will be out for at two months will wrist surgery.) First-round centre Nathan Dunkley, right wing Linus Nyman, left winger Jason Robertson and defenceman Jacob Paquette represent a nucleus for 2018-19.
Goalie Jeremy Helvig (Carolina) is one of the league’s best.
6. Peterborough Petes
What could be different for a team whose 73-point campaign represented the high-water point of the past decade? Fleet Finn Jonne Tammela (Tampa Bay) could step in as a 19-year-old scorer, presuming he is not placed in the AHL. The Petes possess breakout skill players such as Jonathan Ang (Florida), Matyas Svoboda, Pavel Gogolev and Semyon Der-Arguchintsev.
Third-season goalie Dylan Wells (Edmonton) could recover his rookie-year form now that he is past the attendant pressures of a NHL Draft year. The back end, with 19-year-old Matt Spencer (Tampa Bay), is seasoned, if not spectacular.
7. Sudbury Wolves
New owner Dario Zulich has had a locomotive horn installed in Sudbury Community Arena that will sound every time the Wolves score. The Wolves will be scoring more frequently now that ’15 first-overall pick David Levin and 18-year-old attackers Michael Pezzetta (Montreal), Dmitry Sokolov (Minnesota) and Alan Lyszczarczyk are more mature. Defenceman Owen Lalonde, the second-overall choice in the OHL priority selection, is also a keeper. Saying Sudbury is a year away from contention isn’t the setup to a punch line, finally.
8. Barrie Colts
Barrie signalled through the blockbuster trade with the Steelheads for 16-year-old right wing Kirill Nizhnikov that it is starting a youth movement. The Colts are also excited about the yearlings on the back end, 16-year-old Tyler Tucker and Tom Hedberg, a 17-year-old Swede who is a Karlsson-esque at 5-foot-11 and 161 lb. Under Dale Hawerchuk, Barrie has rarely underachieved. One can imagine a scenario where the Colts defy low expectations and sneak into the No. 7 or 8 seed.
9. Oshawa Generals
Mitchell Vande Sompel (NY Islanders) is the lone Gen who has scored 60 points in an OHL season, although captain Anthony Cirelli (Tampa Bay) is a dogged two-way player. Oshawa has promising players within the 1998- and ’99-birthdate cohorts, such as centre Domenic Commisso, rearguards Sean Allen and Riley Stillman (Florida) and centre Jack Studnicka. With the franchise bidding for the 2018 Memorial Cup, it might opt to focus its attention on next season. Overage golaie Jeremy Brodeur will steal some wins.
10. Niagara IceDogs
Dave Bell have been installed as coach, and about half of the lineup will be brand new. It is in Niagara’s interest to bottom out and peddle the remnants of 2016 glory—left wing Graham Knott (Chicago) and overage blueliner Aaron Haydon and Ryan Mantha—for picks. Newcomer Pavel Demin and sophomore Ben Jones bear watching.