Oshawa Generals 2024-25 Season Thread, Part 1

[ScoutLife4]

Yeah those are good points, I tend to agree but I also see the benefit from him spending a year in junior as opposed to riding the pine and essentially losing a year of development, skill wise. I know he’s huge and will mix it up physically, but I also think there’s a lot more skill and potential offence there with him that would benefit from another year as a go to guy, playing all situations and coming into next year with more confidence. He’ll never be a Rempe or a Will Cuylle imo, despite his huge frame. He really has only had 1 year in the OHL as a top player too, and I think one more year refining his skill set would be beneficial. See someone like Konnor Smith or Jacob Julien. Unless they truly don’t view him as being anything more than a bottom 6 AHL guy for life and he’s where they expect to him to be in 2-3 years, I think one more year in junior helps more than what he’s getting now. But I do see what you’re saying.

There always still a chance but my Rangers source told me the plan was for him to play AHL.
Obviously things can still change though.

Yeah I think both of you raise good points and I see the argument for keeping him up. But don’t you think the strides he took last year could be stunted playing a very limited role in the AHL and likely never playing in prime situations? At that age I feel it’s important to be a go to player on a team rather than a mere depth option.

Not at all!
He is learning to be a pro now.
Getting the feel for a completely different style of hockey.
He will have to earn his minutes and they won’t force them on him.

 

[hockeyisbest]

Yeah I think both of you raise good points and I see the argument for keeping him up. But don’t you think the strides he took last year could be stunted playing a very limited role in the AHL and likely never playing in prime situations? At that age I feel it’s important to be a go to player on a team rather than a mere depth option.on ice training in the AHL is quite a few notches above what’s been given in the OHL. Time for Rangers to develop from work

There always still a chance but my Rangers source told me the plan was for him to play AHL.
Obviously things can still change though.
Not at all!
He is learning to be a pro now.
Getting the feel for a completely different style of hockey.
He will have to earn his minutes and they won’t force them on him.

Rangers need to develop Roebrooek, AHL on ice training is several notches above OHL training.

 

[Generalsupdates]

Brantford getting Hamara and apparently Jiricek is already skating with the team so he will be reassigned soon too. I know I said they are a “next year” team but I did not expect two freebie D-Men returned to them. All of a sudden, I think we need to take them more seriously.

You're saying this to the person who's been telling you from day 1 that they won't let Lardis walk without going for a run with him lol

 

[Generalsupdates]

There's not much benefit to returning him to Oshawa for the Rangers organization.
He has the size already now he needs to adapt to playing with Men that are his size instead of dominating 160lb teenagers.
From a business stand point paying him to play for Oshawa makes zero sense.
Aside from playing more ice time development wise I don't see much upside either as he's gaining nothing but Minutes playing in Oshawa. If anything he will likely not be able to kick some bad habits that he gets away with playing against kids.
It's not like playing in the OHL against kids this season will turn him into a top 6 AHL Forward. It will just slow down his ability to adapt to pro hockey.

You guys are looking at it from the Oshawa perspective of wanting to win this season but not exactly what's best for the player imo.
If this was a player that was not big enough and strong enough this is a different story.
You do not through a 20 year old into the AHL and play him 20 mins a game he needs to adapt by being on the ice in a limited role seeing the difference in speed and size of the players there.
It's completely different hockey.

its not as simple as "he's big, he's ready to play pro". As other people have said, stapling him to the 4th line and completely wasting the year does him no good. In the OHL he can play 19+ minutes game, get PP and PK work and continue to work on his overall game, which is hard to do when you never play/never have the puck.

Will NYR send him back? Maybe not. But nobody can act like there's no reasons as to why they could see it being a benefit. Same reasons as to why Hamara/Jiricek aren't playing pro this year.

Another key part of this is Hunt was told by NYR pre-season that if Roobroeck looked out of place, they'd be comfortable sending him back to Oshawa. Has he looked out of place? I have no idea, I've only seen the boxscores, but NYR is open to the idea if they feel that's the case. Some teams would say no he's staying no matter what, but NYR isn't in that boat

 

[OMG67]

You're saying this to the person who's been telling you from day 1 that they won't let Lardis walk without going for a run with him lol

LOL…YES! I am. I am being courteous and giving you a nod out of respect. I didn’t think they would get Hamara and Jiricek….for free. That is 2/3 of their defence issue solved without a piece going out the door.

I still think they will favour two year players over pure rentals but if all they need for this year is one more D-Man and a scoring forward, one of those pieces could be an ‘06 and the other? Meh. Who cares?

This is the reason why I still feel Mews is a potential candidate for them. A two-year PPG D-Man fits a need.

its not as simple as "he's big, he's ready to play pro". As other people have said, stapling him to the 4th line and completely wasting the year does him no good. In the OHL he can play 19+ minutes game, get PP and PK work and continue to work on his overall game, which is hard to do when you never play/never have the puck.

Will NYR send him back? Maybe not. But nobody can act like there's no reasons as to why they could see it being a benefit. Same reasons as to why Hamara/Jiricek aren't playing pro this year.

Another key part of this is Hunt was told by NYR pre-season that if Roobroeck looked out of place, they'd be comfortable sending him back to Oshawa. Has he looked out of place? I have no idea, I've only seen the boxscores, but NYR is open to the idea if they feel that's the case. Some teams would say no he's staying no matter what, but NYR isn't in that boat

Personally, I hope he comes back. I really want to see the Gens roll it back this year.

 

[Leviathan899]

its not as simple as "he's big, he's ready to play pro". As other people have said, stapling him to the 4th line and completely wasting the year does him no good. In the OHL he can play 19+ minutes game, get PP and PK work and continue to work on his overall game, which is hard to do when you never play/never have the puck.

Will NYR send him back? Maybe not. But nobody can act like there's no reasons as to why they could see it being a benefit. Same reasons as to why Hamara/Jiricek aren't playing pro this year.

Another key part of this is Hunt was told by NYR pre-season that if Roobroeck looked out of place, they'd be comfortable sending him back to Oshawa. Has he looked out of place? I have no idea, I've only seen the boxscores, but NYR is open to the idea if they feel that's the case. Some teams would say no he's staying no matter what, but NYR isn't in that boat

Yeah that’s my view as well. Like I look at Owen Allard as an example, he’s a better pro prospect than Roobroeck, and you could make the argument Julien in London is as well. Both are back in junior as there is a lot of benefit in playing in all situations, being a go to guy and leader, handling the puck a lot, which is a huge part of todays game. Was listening to Gary Roberts talk recently and he said above all else in todays modern game, puck touches are the number 1 area players need to focus on to get better and succeed at the next level, which isn’t going to happen on the 4th line. You could argue practicing vs AHL guys is beneficial and I agree there’s some benefit there, but it doesn’t replicate game situations IMO. I guess it truly comes down to what NY envisions his upside to be. If it’s merely a bottom 6 plugger then ya sure keep him up, but I’d reckon they feel there’s more to his game than that, and if so, junior is the best bet imo. If he’s a 4th line guy all year, he’s likely going to be regressing to a point next year he’ll be battling for the same spot. Time will tell I guess.