Ottawa 67s 2024-25 Season Thread, Part I

[ScoutLife4]

I don’t think that’s true. Peterborough is still…well….Peterborough. If NB sells Romani as expected, they are what they are now without him. I still feel Ottawa makes the playoffs. Additionally, if they do let MacK go, that opens the door to playing both Gerrior and Stonehouse. Although neither are a Pinelli replacement, it does help lessen the blow having both in the lineup. Gerrior is the likely candidate to go if they keep MacK. He has 9 goals to date. Stonehouse is probably good for 25 prorated over a full season. I think the Pinelli loss would be impactful no doubt but you could say that about Musty, Barlow, Romani etc…

Additionally, depending on the type of deal for Pinelli, there may be an asset that comes back that can help as well.

The team is relatively ok for the most part. Moving Pinelli won’t be as big a factor as you suggest. At the end of the day, it is just one player. With him or without him they will struggle against the top half of the league regardless. Even if I am wrong and they drop out of the playoffs, that just shows exactly how far off they are from being a decent team.

The 67’s have spent assets each of the last two seasons. Doing it again would be near impossible to come back from. They have some really good young players that are showing a lot of promise. IF they can add some assets with both Pinelli this year and Mews next year, it woudl go a long way towards surrounding those young players with support.

Keeping Pinelli and running out the string status quo doesn’t do anything positive.

Do you think you would be better without Pinelli's 17 goals?
Trying to understand the logic here.

 

[OMG67]

Do you think you would be better without Pinelli's 17 goals?
Trying to understand the logic here.

I’m trying to understand your logic to be honest. Are you suggesting teams should not sell players when they are clearly not in contention and are a middling team at best? Or, are you trying to suggest that Ottawa would be uncompetitive if they trade Pinelli? If it is the latter, please define competitive.

Ottawa will remain competitive because they have a strong system and they skate well. They will gain points and will remain entertaining. They will likely make the playoffs ahead of Peterborough and North Bay. Keeping Foster, Mayich etc will keep them from bottoming out.

So unless your definition of competitive is competing for home ice advantage which requires a .625+ win%, I don’t understand what you mean by uncompetitive.

 

[OMG67]

I find that an odd comment considering the resistance I received for saying MacKenzie and Oster were as good as a handful of good OA goalies. Elliot gave up 7 goals on 26 shots against one of those bottom four teams, yet still sports a perfect 9-0-0-0 record, 2.29 GAA and the same 0.907 SV% as ‘elite’ OA Oster.
There are a few teams in the OHL alone that could and probably should have an OA goalie, particularly those with 17 yr old goalies. There is no real harm in rostering 4 OAs until Jan. 9.

Each teams circumstance is different. It still does not discount the fact that he lost his starting role to a 17 year old in the playoffs and was unable to find a landing spot after doing so.

Playing on London, he only needs to make the first save. That takes a lot of pressure off. Neither Ottawa nor Oshawa do their goalies have the save lessened challenge. When London gets deeper in the playoffs and the goalies need to make that second save, will he make it? He has proven incapable on two highly competitive teams the last two years of doing that. We have actual leading indicators on this goalie. Past performance. We can either choose to ignore that and lean towards 9 regular season games vs first round fodder teams or we can look at his last two playoffs.

I know which of the two I would look at.

Mackenzie played the 2nd half of last season with half a ground and Oster took his team to the Finals. I don’t think there’s a comparison there. Oster performed and won hardware. Mack was incapable because of injury. It happens. There was nothing physically wrong with Elliott.

 

[ScoutLife4]

I’m trying to understand your logic to be honest. Are you suggesting teams should not sell players when they are clearly not in contention and are a middling team at best? Or, are you trying to suggest that Ottawa would be uncompetitive if they trade Pinelli? If it is the latter, please define competitive.

Ottawa will remain competitive because they have a strong system and they skate well. They will gain points and will remain entertaining. They will likely make the playoffs ahead of Peterborough and North Bay. Keeping Foster, Mayich etc will keep them from bottoming out.

So unless your definition of competitive is competing for home ice advantage which requires a .625+ win%, I don’t understand what you mean by uncompetitive.

I'm flat out saying Ottawa would be as bad as Peterborough if they trade Pinelli for picks.
When you look at the fact he scores about 30% of their goals it would be devastating to lose that for picks.
Not to mention as soon as you do that Mews will need to be moved too.
You have Granderson here who supposedly has ties to their locker room saying they are going to be a buyer so it doesn't sound like Pinelli is being moved does it?

 

[sirius67fan]

Ottawa has the OHL's top PP. Talent isn't really the problem. 67's have a lot of problems but talent isn't one of them. 67's are loaded with talent. The problem is that the Coach so far hasn't been willing to really play the talented kids and put Pinelli in a position to succeed. Foster centering Pinelli is a poor idea, so is adding Stonehouse to that topline.

I wouldn't say we're loaded with talent especially up front. We've got Pinelli, Ekberg and maybe Whitehead/Amidovsky( too early to tell). Otherwise we have some solid guys but not overwhelming natural talent which is why we lack finish...lots of shots but not many goals. As for the pp having Pinelli, Mews and Ekberg is enough to drive it. Good thing #1 in pp, #20 in pk, don't remember that happening.

 

[OMG67]

I'm flat out saying Ottawa would be as bad as Peterborough if they trade Pinelli for picks.
When you look at the fact he scores about 30% of their goals it would be devastating to lose that for picks.
Not to mention as soon as you do that Mews will need to be moved too.
You have Granderson here who supposedly has ties to their locker room saying they are going to be a buyer so it doesn't sound like Pinelli is being moved does it?

I will chew off my left arm live on the Internet if Ottawa ends up a true buyer. It would be quite rich if Boyd made a real push at the deadline considering he won’t trade players and if he chooses to trade young players this year (of all years), that’s a nail in his and DC’s OHL coffin.

For Ottawa to be a true buyer, they would have to move Amodovski, all their 2nds and 3rds and at least two of Whitehead, Yanni, Dietsch, and Houben.

I can’t see it happening.

 

[sirius67fan]

But for some reason the London Knights, the best franchise in the OHL has deemed him worthy of an Overage spot and the starting role.

And the Hunters are not often wrong in their assessments. I'd lean towards their judgement on this!

 

[Larionov]

The one thing we keep forgetting (or at least I do) is that the schedule will start working in our favour now. It is remarkable that we are a third of the way through the season and haven't played Peterborough once, whereas a lot of the teams around us have fattened up on wins over the Petes. We need to take care of business in those games, of course, but banking those wins will go a long way towards making this season look better in the win column...

 

[sirius67fan]

I think the 67’s sample size is adequate. They are a good enough team to stay in games. They won’t be a good enough team next year though. So, we have two choices.

1> Sell now because we have a valuable piece in Pinelli. Make this year and next year light sells to maintain a reasonable level of competitiveness. Pinelli this year and Mews next year. Relatively painless with two very solid returns to help kick start the next run a few years down the road.

OR

2> Make a run. We have a reasonable amount of picks but not an amount that makes a difference. We’d be behind at least four or five other contenders with respect to picks. We don’t have the luxury of upgrading OA spots this year on the cheap. We would need to pay full freight for 19 year olds. That means you gotta move good young players. That we have a lot of. I can see players like Amidovski, Eshkawkogan, Whitehead, Yanni, and Dietsch being pretty good packaged players in deals.

If we look at the Barlow deal, we’d be looking at Dietsch and Whitehead as the two players plus the additional draft picks. That gets us a good forward. But, we need a D-Man as well. Probably two now that we traded Dietsch. So, we’d likely be looking at Amidovski plus picks going somewhere for a D-Man. Some picks going somewhere else for a bottom pairing d-Man for trade #3.

Make no mistake. Anyone suggesting we should invest in this team should understand the costs to do it. That is what it is going to take. There will be no cheap way around it. The defence isn’t nearly good enough or experienced enough and one forward likely won’t make the difference up front either. But, that is where it starts. Like last year, we need at least four players. At least. Three wasn't nearly enough last year and last year we were a better team. This year we are up against stronger teams. Do the math.

I vote for #1. Sell Pinelli and only Pinelli. Stay somewhat competitive. Sell Mews next year and stay somewhat competitive. Don’t bottom out. But, #2 is an option.

Of course, there is a #3 and that is status quo. Just do nothing. I’m not a fan of #3.

#1please, pretty please Mr Boyd. James I beg you

I will chew off my left arm live on the Internet if Ottawa ends up a true buyer. It would be quite rich if Boyd made a real push at the deadline considering he won’t trade players and if he chooses to trade young players this year (of all years), that’s a nail in his and DC’s OHL coffin.

For Ottawa to be a true buyer, they would have to move Amodovski, all their 2nds and 3rds and at least two of Whitehead, Yanni, Dietsch, and Houben.

I can’t see it happening.

Hey OMG do you still actually have a left arm? You made this promise often over the years....just wondering?

 

[ScoutLife4]

I will chew off my left arm live on the Internet if Ottawa ends up a true buyer. It would be quite rich if Boyd made a real push at the deadline considering he won’t trade players and if he chooses to trade young players this year (of all years), that’s a nail in his and DC’s OHL coffin.

For Ottawa to be a true buyer, they would have to move Amodovski, all their 2nds and 3rds and at least two of Whitehead, Yanni, Dietsch, and Houben.

I can’t see it happening.

I'm very interested to see how this plays out with Ottawa. -I mentioned prior to season start i had this as a 8-9 place team.
They should have a decent December with strength of schedule.
It would be kind of funny if they get all excited with some wins over Peterborough this month and think they can compete with the top of the conference and become a buyer.

 

[OMG67]

I'm very interested to see how this plays out with Ottawa. -I mentioned prior to season start i had this as a 8-9 place team.
They should have a decent December with strength of schedule.
It would be kind of funny if they get all excited with some wins over Peterborough this month and think they can compete with the top of the conference and become a buyer.

Meh. They have a nine game road stretch over the WJHC losing their rink. I don’t think it will be successful.

Ottawa needs a 1st line centre, 2nd pairing D-man, at least one scoring winger, a backup goalie, and probably a 3rd pairing D-Man if they want to even poke their nose into being part of a group of 4 teams. Plus they may need replacements for all the bodies they need to trade to get those players. That ain’t happening so if Boyd is dumb enough to dump draft picks to acquire one or two decent forwards and lose in round one, he “should” be looking for work elsewhere as soon as April. Boyd may be many things but dumb isn’t one of them.

I could see him stay status quo but that would be a mistake. The only reason he had so much to trade when he took over was because the guy before him made seller moves and stocked his cupboard. He now has to pay that forward. He cannot just rely on the never ending stream of players that don’t want to be here to stock his draft picks.

#1please, pretty please Mr Boyd. James I beg you


Hey OMG do you still actually have a left arm? You made this promise often over the years....just wondering?

I don’t offer my arm up unless I am pretty f’n certain!

 

[Hinterland]

And the Hunters are not often wrong in their assessments. I'd lean towards their judgement on this!

You think the Hunters know better than the entire WHL who played against this guy for years? If they're smart they prioritize developing Medvedev who's very young and green but an incredibly talented kid and most certainly better than Elliott already. Allows them to dress an important extra overage skater as well.

 

[sirius67fan]

Meh. They have a nine game road stretch over the WJHC losing their rink. I don’t think it will be successful.

Ottawa needs a 1st line centre, 2nd pairing D-man, at least one scoring winger, a backup goalie, and probably a 3rd pairing D-Man if they want to even poke their nose into being part of a group of 4 teams. Plus they may need replacements for all the bodies they need to trade to get those players. That ain’t happening so if Boyd is dumb enough to dump draft picks to acquire one or two decent forwards and lose in round one, he “should” be looking for work elsewhere as soon as April. Boyd may be many things but dumb isn’t one of them.

I could see him stay status quo but that would be a mistake. The only reason he had so much to trade when he took over was because the guy before him made seller moves and stocked his cupboard. He now has to pay that forward. He cannot just rely on the never ending stream of players that don’t want to be here to stock his draft picks.



I don’t offer my arm up unless I am pretty f’n certain!

a prosthesis doesn't count btw.

 

[sirius67fan]

You think the Hunters know better than the entire WHL who played against this guy for years? If they're smart they prioritize developing Medvedev who's very young and green but an incredibly talented kid and most certainly better than Elliott already. Allows them to dress an important extra overage skater as well.

Their record isn't perfect but it's pretty stellar. Time will tell if they know better than the whole Dub! I would find it odd if they brought in an OA goalie from another league just to flip him for another OA at the deadline.

 

[beastintheeast]

If boyd is a buyer then he should be fired. Adding a player or 2 is not going to make this team a contender this year or next. As to the schedule might I remind people where Erie and oshawa were this time last year.

You cannot be a rebuilding team and a buyer

This a team that needs players for next year.

If boyd buys then we can start calling him Larry because it will mean that like his hero he just wants 2 games inpost season and forgot about the future

 

[OMG67]

If boyd is a buyer then he should be fired. Adding a player or 2 is not going to make this team a contender this year or next. As to the schedule might I remind people where Erie and oshawa were this time last year.

You cannot be a rebuilding team and a buyer

This a team that needs players for next year.

If boyd buys then we can start calling him Larry because it will mean that like his hero he just wants 2 games inpost season and forgot about the future

Boyd did learn under Larry!

 

[OMG67]

You think the Hunters know better than the entire WHL who played against this guy for years? If they're smart they prioritize developing Medvedev who's very young and green but an incredibly talented kid and most certainly better than Elliott already. Allows them to dress an important extra overage skater as well.

Elliott played well yesterday but I don’t think he had to make one “2nd” save. He blocked shots and let the defence clear the puck. The end. He’s not a hero. He is proving to be a reasonable option OA goalie for the Knights. He has shit the bed twice in the WHL playoffs for back to back 100+ point teams. The ‘06 backup took his job last year in the playoffs. He went 3-0 to start the year in front of another good team but they released him not wanting to waste an OA spot on a backup goalie. he was waived through he league and landed in London. He will play well enough in the regular season like he did the two previous seasons. We shall see what he does in the payoffs if he makes it past the deadline. Hopefullyy for the London Knights, third times a charm….