It's been a looong time since I last played but with following OHL's London Knights a bit through their championship run recently made me start a new save again. Let's see if we can match those IRL results on EHM.
We couldn't :/
Regular season:
- Not much roster movement as we were pretty much set. I did acquire the rights to winger Michael Brandsegg-Nygård from Barrie, he's a projected first round pick and is on an expiring contract with his Swedish club, so I might have a good chance at signing him for next season.
- I traded for C Ethan Hay from Saginaw, a good defensive player and Tampa Bay draftpick, to strengthen our bottom six. He's also eligible to return next season.
- Finished the regular season with best overall record at 109 points, followed closely by Kitchener at 105. All other teams were at a large distance. The Eastern Conference was way closer with only 10 points separating #1 seed Brantford and #6 Peterborough. Oshawa (who reached the OHL finals IRL) finished last.
- Kasper Halttunen had a crazy season and put up ridiculous numbers. He played all 68 games, and had 70 goals and 62 assists to run away with the scoring title. (he didn't get called up for the World Juniors which was kinda weird)
- Denver Barkey and Easton Cowan each had 108 points and finished 2nd and 3rd in OHL scoring. Sam O'Reilly had a brilliant rookie season, scoring 38 goals and 39 assists. James Hagens had 60 pts in 66 games, I'm expecting a breakout season from him next year when he'll probably be the top line center. Sam Dickinson finished 3rd in scoring amongst defencemen with 61 pts in 60 games.
Postseason:
- First round of the playoffs saw us put up 27 goals in just 4 games as we swept Guelph.
- Second round saw us face off against Saginaw, who upset #2 Sault St Marie in round one, but with another 21 goals in 4 games we delivered another sweep. Terrible news in game 4 though as top defenceman Oliver Bonk went down injured and misses the rest of the season.
- Conference final against the 8-0 Kitchener Rangers in what really should have been the OHL final, we took the first game on home ice 3-1 in dominant fashion. Game 2 was really close and we had to come from behind twice in the third period. Czech forward Eduard Sale scored the GWG in OT to even the series. Both games in Kitchener were just a disaster for us, as we dearly missed Bonk. In game 3, we conceded 5(!) goals in the second period and eventually lost 6-4. More of the same in game 4 as Kitchener scored four 2nd period goals and won 4-2. Back home in game 5 on the brink of elimination and before we even knew what happened we were down 5-0 halfway through the second. We almost made an amazing comeback in the third, but lost the game 5-4, and the series 4-1. Hugely dissapointing.
- Kitchener went on to meet the East #2 seed Sudbury Wolves. I expected them to run all over Sudbury, however Sudbury swept them in four straight one-goal games. Forward David Goyette had 32 pts in 21 games and won playoff MVP.
Other leagues and Memorial Cup:
- the WHL actually had the exact same final four as they did IRL, as well as the same final between Moose Jaw and Portland. MJ won 4-2
- in the QMJHL, the top two teams from the regular season, Chicoutimi and Halifax, also made the playoff final. Halifax won 4-2
- Moose Jaw dominated in the Memorial Cup, first going 3-0 in the round robin and then defeating Sudbury 3-1 in the final.
- in the NHL, Colorado went on an almost perfect postseason run. They swept Dallas and Winnipeg, then beat Edmonton 4-1 in the Conference Final. They finished off the Rangers in the SCF with another sweep.
End of season notes:
Thanks to our dominant regular season, several players won OHL awards.
- Kasper Halttunen won the OHL scoring title, Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Best Leader
- Michael Simpson won Goalie of the Year
- Sam Dickinson won Defenceman of the Year
- Sam O'Reilly won Scholastic Player of the Year
- Sam Popowich won Overage Player of the Year and Most Sportsmanlike Player
- Dale Hunter won Coach of the Year
- Sam Popowich was signed by the AHL's Texas Stars
- overage forward Kaleb Lawrence was signed by the LA Kings, he had 37 pts in all 68 games, was a great leader and one of the best penalty killers in the league
- Next season we'll have another shot with this core. We're losing overagers Michael Simpson (G) and both Kaleb Lawrence and Sam Popowich as mentioned. Next season we'll have about 7 or 8 overagers which we will have to cut down to 3. But Bonk, Dickinson, Cowan, Barkey, Halttunen, O'Reilly, Hagens etc are all returning most probably. We could lose 3 defencemen so the bottom pair might need some tweaking. I was hoping to sign import pick Daniil Ustinkov, at 17 years old he would immediatly be our 3rd best Dman probably, but he elected to re-sign with his Swiss club.
- I'm not expecting much from the OHL draft as these junior drafts are always pretty weak in the first season. I made 10 selections, 3 out of the first 4 were goalies who are all very promising so I might use those as trade bait. My first round pick was a defenceman who looks like he could be a solid top 4 player down the road. The rest of my drafted players are just a crapshoot at this point.
On to season 2!