Kitchener Rangers 2024-25 Season Thread, Part II

[EvenSteven]

With the rumoured barrie and north bay trade I think it’s fair to assume we can cross Barrie off the list without Vaughan.


Oshawa has the assets if they want to counteract with both smith and griffin at their potential disposal. I’m sure they wouldn’t complain about Ritchie and Luchanko right up the middle.


London if they want to try something different and screw their future could go and trade Hawery, he reunites with McLean and they get a potential 2 year player (likely 1 year) and then for them- Cowan and Luchanko up the middle.

Rumoured Barrie / North Bay trade?

 

[frontsfan67]

Rumoured Barrie / North Bay trade?

Possibly Romani and OVS to the colts for Vaughan, Wigle and picks and they reunite with Wakely forming a top 3 line in the OHL

Just speculation right now but based off what OHL4Life has said on Twitter that is exactly how I interpreted it.

 

[GangGreen]

Don't disagree, but I think for most highly thought of prospects, that their NHL team will prevail where the player will play. The NCAA is an older league with physically stronger players. Would the NHL think one yr of NCAA be a better transition for the player than playing against 16 to 20 yr old players.

Agree.
If things stay the way they are, I could see more US players coming to the CHL at 16-17 rather than the NTDP. With more players, both Canadian and US playing NCAA as 19-20 year olds. Net result is CHL becoming a younger league all around.
Guys like Misa, Dickinson, Martone probably better served playing against older players.

 

[Fastpace]

I don't quite agree with the conclusion but this is really well argued.

I guess the way I see it is that the Rangers are still behind where they should be based on the mismanagement of the 22-23 season. (I didn't hate the moves last year, even though they didn't turn out.) I hate the idea of disarming and I agree it doesn't send the best message to the players. But the current pick cupboard isn't going to cut it, even with prices coming down a bit with the influx of USHL and BCHL talent, and even with the Rangers a bit better positioned than most teams to take advantage of that with the number of "flyers" they've taken in past drafts.

The 07-08 Spitfires traded away talent, flamed out in the playoffs, then came back and won back-to-back Memorial Cups. Do I think this team is the 07-08 Spitfires? They don't have a Taylor Hall or a Ryan Ellis but they have a deep roster of young talent and they're in a similar position: inexperienced and behind a powerhouse in the standings, but ahead of where they were expected to be and very well coached. That's the model I say we try to follow.

I would take the Allen return for Ando with a couple conditionals to protect the OA year. (IIRC Hunter doesn't really do conditionals, smartly, presumably because he doesn't want to tie up his picks for a year.) I'd take a couple seconds each for Swick and Misaljevic as well.

Parsons I'm coming around on keeping, I think ES and others are probably right that he's worth more to this team than he'd fetch in trade. Perhaps someone more familiar with the east can speak to whether any of those contenders need a goalie. Brantford and Brampton are obviously set with Leenders and Ivankovic.

London fans, how competitive do you expect your team to be next year?

London each year have players developing at the junior B level. Considering their recent success, Mailloux, Bunk, Cowan and O’Reilly all played one year of Bs, then played their drafting year with the Knights, all four were NHL first round draftees. Then they have Nicholl, Julien, Woolley, all played Bs and were later rounds NHL draftees. This year they have future draftee Medvedev and would have had Noah Jenken (now with Guelph), both also played B last year. Does anyone believe London will not be competitive next season, maybe not first place team, but playoffs bound for sure.

They develop their prospects so well, calling them up for some games, and they have them practicing with the big team on the regular basis, by the time these B players shows up the following year the team hardly ever loses a step. Does this answer your question? I also think other teams around this Western Conference are catching on, and are making the whole conference a lot stronger in the process. IMHO

 

[Fastpace]

Nurmi won't be back. Think Montgomery will stick with US university commitment. And there has been rumours that Dickinson could sign with Michigan if he doesn't stick with San Jose. Probably no reason to play OHL after this year, although I imagine he'll be in the NHL.
Thing is, with the change in the NCAA rules, there could be a lot of talent coming North that wouldn't have before. Probably will benefit London, Kitchener and Windsor the most.
Knights are looking at a 5-8 spot in the conference I imagine.

At the rate Montgomery is playing, he may be signed by Ottawa, they could determine where he will play next year

 

[tjziel]

Don't disagree, but I think for most highly thought of prospects, that their NHL team will prevail where the player will play. The NCAA is an older league with physically stronger players. Would the NHL think one yr of NCAA be a better transition for the player than playing against 16 to 20 yr old players?

I looked into this a a bit further and Sam Dickinson already signed his NHL ELC this summer so I don’t think he’s eligible to go the NCAA route anyways.

Blake Montgomery on the other hand hasn’t signed his ELC, and if Ottawa decides they want to sign him, he doesn’t have to sign either. As BMO said, it’s his dream to play at Wisconsin so I don’t think he will put pen to paper until he’s played a year at Wisconsin.