I don’t think they’ll bring back both OA D next season also could be proven wrong over the summer but I don’t think Hotles is good enough for the O and id think about D with the 1st
Niagara Icedogs 2024-25 Season, Part II
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frontsfan67
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should be a lock unless he gets ncaa offers but as of now it’s only been OA’s taking those offers so we will see. I can see a bunch of teams getting in on him. He won’t be cheap that’s for sure but Niagara would be a really good fit with him.
Also whoever the icedogs draft will be a huge chip for them come next trade deadline so I definitely think they take the best player available whether it’s a F or D as they’ll be getting traded anyways.
Still a half season, playoffs, off-season, then training camp before determining OAs. It looks like Scott is developing well enough to stick around until the next trade deadline before upgrading if in serious contention.
Hotles an ‘08-RW and 6’2” already, can toil in the bottom six for a couple of seasons after this I think.
Here is what previous OHL championship rosters looked like (and current rosters chasing a championship) look like. If Niagara is serious about being contenders next year, they will need to replicate these roster construct to some degree:
24 -25 Pre-OHL Trade Deadline – update this in a few weeks
NHL DRAFTED PLAYERS
-LONDON: 13 (plus... )
-BARRIE: 8 (plus... )
-BRANTFORD: 7 (plus... )
-KINGSTON: 7 (plus... )
-BRAMPTON: 7 (plus... )
-OSHAWA: 5 (plus... )
23 – 24 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions: London 11 NHL Drafted Players (plus S.O’Rielly, S.Dickinson, O.Bonk, M.McCue, W.Nicholls, J.Woolley )
Mem-Cup Champions: Saginaw 9 NHL Drafted Players (plus Z.Parekh)
22-23 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions Peterborough Petes: 8 NHL drafted players (plus K.Smith; S.McCue)
21-22 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions Hamilton Bulldogs: 9 NHL drafted players (plus Gavin White, N.Staios, J.Donovan; P.Thomas, C.Brown)
18-19 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions Guelph Storm 9 NHL drafted players (plus S.Durzi, F.Gordeev)
17-18 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions Hamilton Bulldogs: 10 NHL drafted players (plus B.Saigeon, A. Kaliyev, M. Entwistle, B. Gleason)
16-17 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions Erie Otters: 7 NHL drafted players (plus I.Lodnia, E.Cernak)
15- 16 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions London Knights: 7 NHL drafted players (plus M.Tkachuk, R.Thomas, M.Jones, V.Mete, O. Juolevi, N.Mattinen, T.Parsons, …)
14 - 15 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions Oshawa Generals: 8 NHL drafted players (plus A.Cirelli, S.Desrocher, D.Mermis, M Vande Sompel, K. Appleby)
24 -25 Pre-OHL Trade Deadline – update this in a few weeks
NHL DRAFTED PLAYERS
-LONDON: 13 (plus... )
-BARRIE: 8 (plus... )
-BRANTFORD: 7 (plus... )
-KINGSTON: 7 (plus... )
-BRAMPTON: 7 (plus... )
-OSHAWA: 5 (plus... )
23 – 24 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions: London 11 NHL Drafted Players (plus S.O’Rielly, S.Dickinson, O.Bonk, M.McCue, W.Nicholls, J.Woolley )
Mem-Cup Champions: Saginaw 9 NHL Drafted Players (plus Z.Parekh)
22-23 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions Peterborough Petes: 8 NHL drafted players (plus K.Smith; S.McCue)
21-22 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions Hamilton Bulldogs: 9 NHL drafted players (plus Gavin White, N.Staios, J.Donovan; P.Thomas, C.Brown)
18-19 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions Guelph Storm 9 NHL drafted players (plus S.Durzi, F.Gordeev)
17-18 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions Hamilton Bulldogs: 10 NHL drafted players (plus B.Saigeon, A. Kaliyev, M. Entwistle, B. Gleason)
16-17 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions Erie Otters: 7 NHL drafted players (plus I.Lodnia, E.Cernak)
15- 16 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions London Knights: 7 NHL drafted players (plus M.Tkachuk, R.Thomas, M.Jones, V.Mete, O. Juolevi, N.Mattinen, T.Parsons, …)
14 - 15 OHL SEASON
OHL Champions Oshawa Generals: 8 NHL drafted players (plus A.Cirelli, S.Desrocher, D.Mermis, M Vande Sompel, K. Appleby)
Mcnotloilersfan
I'm here, I'm bored
To start they will have He and Czata as NHL draftees (Arrowsmith is a possible 6th/7th rounder if a team sees the potential).
Roobroeck and Wassilyn won't be drafted yet, but they are both top 10 candidates for the 2026 draft. The import draft, OA moves, and the big deadline deal can go a long way to shoring this up.
It’s pretty much what I outlined the previous post (844) to this one. They have their work cut out for them to shore up this roster.
They have two major obstacles to overcome money and draft capital
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Dogs Enthusiast
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The games just after Xmas usually sell ok because people buy tickets as an Xmas gift.
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With how many goals against they have this year they cannot just essentially replace NVV with Frasca. Promoting all of those guys internally will not be good enough. That team would be worse than this year lol and this year on paper Niagara is still only a 4-6 seed. Need a pair of top D men. There will also be many better OA’s with some teams going to be under the gun with how many 05’s they have. Trading for an 05 in the summer when other teams have to go down to 3 will cost much less than doing anything now.
He’s so good but going for it this year will set them back years.
Scott is developing well and Wycisk is a solid offensive right shot defenceman. But if you are on a contending team your OA positions have to be absolutely maximized. Can’t be used on a combined 2 average 2nd pair players and a 3rd line C (I don’t see Niagara moving Assadourian over Czata to 1C next year and imagine they will be better of building 3 really good lines).
You should do another one of these but highlight the 3 OA’s on championship teams. I bet there are a lot of top players in there.
It would not be replacing NVV as the team’s most reliable defensive defenseman with Frasca. It would be returning 6 of 7 D while current top contender Barrie graduates 2-3 of its’ top 4.
It would be cheaper acquiring ‘05s as OAs the prior to the start of next season. But it should first be seen how the current ‘05s develop over the rest of the season, playoffs, and pre-season; and which OAs might be available for trade at that time. The OAs that might be wanted, might not be available until the trade deadline.
That is a great idea! It will allow IceDog fans and those who are casual fan (on and off this site) to see in detail what is actually required to be a championship calibre team. I’ll wait until after the trade deadline to update that entire list.
frontsfan67
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Brauti has a lot of OHL potential(not going to be in the NHL but can see him putting up 40+ pts this year and let’s say 55-70 next year on an even better offensive team, when he is 19)
Virgilio is around half a ppg right now at 19. Should see that increase a little bit too to maybe 0.65?? 44pts over 68 games so that’s a good top 4 d
along with an upgrade on wysick(another top 2-4 d)
and an import that can play top 4 that’s 4 pretty solid d
with cheynowski and frasca as the third pair(frascas fairly young still may have a breakout year in his draft season)
Add an import and an upgrade over wysick and how does it look then? Not phenomenal by any means but should be a top 4-7 defence next year on top of potentially the best offence in the east. Again though. Really need to hit with the import d and the import G especially. Without a good goalie they’re going nowhere even if they had the best forward and defence group in the league
Most likely looking for an upgrade at the deadline if in contention. That is the potential D start of season, unless an import to keep Frasca the 7th D or the ideal OA at a reasonable cost to replace Scott; maybe both.
An OHL team that is serious about winning a championship plan for assembling a D cores that resembles these…that’s the goal, that's what is needed.
Not this…
dirty12 said:
Brauti-Virgilio
Scott-Wycisk
Cheynowski-Frasca
frontsfan67
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In all fairness London is completely stacked with 3 guys that could be in the ahl at least this year. Dickinson, Allen and bonk. They are absolutely STACKED. Not only will they likely win the OHL but probably the favourite for the mem cup right now(and still rumours of adding Luchanko, a team Canada forward and very capable of playing on any top line in the whole CHL)
That is not who they should be compared to.
I think the 5th or 7th best defensive team as a well rounded defence is much more realistic not 1st or 2nd. They won’t have the star power of Barrie or London on the back end
Those are examples of the two favourites that are pretty much all-in.
The IceDogs should have a chance to be in contention. Though they could choose to trade their ‘09-1st, Wassilyn, Crete, Frasca, and all of their picks to be truly all-in, I think they should not follow the Brampton example of making all-in moves pre-maturely.
Exactly! That is the bar, that is the goal. And there are other current OHL teams that are similar or about to make moves to be similar. I think we agree here on what it takes to have a D core good enough to win it all.
Compare them to Barrie, even, Brantford, Brampton, Kingston, Oshawa then. They all have high NHL draft D and yet they still may not be good enough to win the East let alone the OHL.
The IceDogs without significant upgrades to the D (two 1st pairing NHL Draft calibre D) will be nowhere near good enough defensively. This current D core is a glaring weakness.
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...and yet they traded away significant assets to acquire Cam Allen. Mark Hunter understand the talent level required on the backend to win a championship. If he didn't think he needed Allen, he wouldn't have traded for him.
frontsfan67
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Yes I agree they need atleast 2 top 4 d men. I would look at Brauti and Virgilio to get better points wise and then frasca has potential still he is an 08. Wouldn’t be a horrible top 5 but obviously nowhere near as good as London and Barrie this year. I think them being as good as those 2 teams defensively is not realistic for next year. They could have as good of an offence though. They really need to draft a good goalie- otherwise they’re a third round at best team next year
Yeah I just think, to Sam’s point if Niagara goes in with virtually the same D as this year for it’s all in year, comparing to what London and Barrie has this year they both arguably have 4 D men better than Niagara’s best.
Those two teams have exceptional defense corps actually, quite a bit better than Oshawa or NB a season ago and way better than the Petes the year before. The Petes won with a great top 9, solid goaltending, and a fourth best in conference at best defence.
Kingston and Oshawa this year could get into that conversation if acquiring Gibson. Though the suggested price might make seeking an alternative to improving the team a better idea.
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