There's definitely a lot in the air right now but this team certainly has potential to be a good team next season, here's what my goals would be, obviously I don't have any inside info so I don't know how feasible some of my goals are.
1. Draft Brandt Clarke at #3 overall - He seems like another stud defenseman, we've seen how good Drysdale is, I would prefer to take him. Erie has Flint's 2nd which will probably be pick #22, take a forward there.
2. Sign Swankler or Alexander - I don't know how these guys are feeling but I think Erie really needs to land at least one of these guys for next season. I feel like Swankler is more likely, being from PA.
3. Address goaltending - Either by signing Aidan Campbell (who looks pretty promising), or taking a goalie in the import draft (or both honestly, Oberoi/Battaglia were busts, not sure about Murphy being anything more than a back up)
4. Address coaching - I'm unsure about Hartsburg. We've heard that the players don't really like him as he's pretty negative but he does seem to have the team playing hard and fighting all season. At the minimum they need to make changes with the assistants, the special teams were bad this season, especially the PK. Possibly a complete coaching staff overhaul.
My early projected roster:
Swankler-Cajka-Fowler
Sproule-Yetman-Golod
MacDougall-Gritz/Mack-Hoffmann
Sellan-D'Amato-Singer
Sedore/Cohen/2019 2nd
I think either Mack or Gritz is the odd man out here. Both will be 19 next season and both are probably 3Cs moving forward, shouldn't keep both of them. Singer possibly pushed out as well with the acquisition of MacDougall. Could also see an import forward brought in as well.
Henry-Drysdale
Duff-Clarke
Martin-Beamish
Gillard/Kischnick/2018 draft pick
I would absolutely not bring Golden back. While he's been useful for them post trade deadline in attempting a playoff push, the team will have the depth on defense next season, especially if they take Clarke like I want, it's not worth the 3rd round pick. Beamish/Gillard/Martin/Kischnick should all have to fight for their jobs with each other and any 2018 picks making a push, nothing set in stone outside that top 4 imo.
Murphy/Campbell/Import
Goaltending is a big question mark. Is Murphy a capable starter? Can they sign Campbell? Will they target an import goalie? No idea where to go here.
My issue with taking a defender at 3rd/4th overall and then forward at 22,
It means our top forward at 22 overall is potentially Sproule 2.0 or Lodnia 2.0
Not to say those are bad players. But you can argue all you want about the defense, I won’t necessarily disagree, but what about our lack of PP success and our bad faceoff ability?
We don’t have a true #1 center. Maybe Cajka/Fowler are the answer next year but Cajka is likely to be gone by 2020 and Fowler is not a true center
Where are our centers? Where are the elite shooters?
Golod, Sproule, Fowler are more playmakers than shooters. We need a pure scorer. Conveniently McTavish fits exactly that. A true center with a great shot. He’s also 6’1 200lbs and is 16 years old. Another area of potential weakness is our size. He would add future size to the team as well.
Clarke is a good one too and I guess we can’t go wrong either way as we would add a top end player. I just personally think that you can have all the defense you want but the OHL is still a star power, offensive league. And that’s an issue for us right now. I think you can win in this league with veterans and 1 stud on defense. Don’t necessarily need all the huge names. I don’t think you can win in this league without those top end scorers.
All that being said..
IF (biggest IF) Erie feels they can sway 1 of Alexander/Swankler and then add a stud import forward that they will get for 2 years (not just 1 year).. then I would 100% say draft Clarke. Problem is that I have little faith that we actually get those signings done, leaving an offense with a lot of 2-3rd liners but not many future top tier players
LOTS of questions
That said, I feel we have the necessary assets to fill/fix the questions
What I mean by that is -
A) We have a lot of youth returning. Add to it that Fowler missed 40 games this year and Sproule/Hoffman/Golod finished strong. Everyone should be back but Poddubyni. This means that guys will be improving, meaning we fix some holes from within
B) we still have 2018 picks and potential college players that we can sign
C) the team will likely pick 3rd/4th overall in the OHL draft and then again at 22 overall
D) they are likely to have the 7-10th overall pick in the import
There are many chances to add more great young players to this team which will create competition and force the weaker players out or allow us to sell some guys for more assets. If we make the big splashes in import and with 2018 picks/college guys, then we can definitely be a top 4/5 team in the conference. Talent is there. Develop and sign guys and things will happen