Ottawa 67s 2024-25 Season Thread, Part III

[sirius67fan]

Suspended pending review on ohl website

I stand corrected just double checked ohl media notes and his name no longer there. It was around 9:30 this am. Guess they reviewed it already? So I'm guessing he'll play.

 

[OMG67]

I stand corrected just double checked ohl media notes and his name no longer there. It was around 9:30 this am. Guess they reviewed it already? So I'm guessing he'll play.

Looks like it. That was probably a 2 minute holding penalty but the boarding call was just crazy talk.

 

[Vector Calculus]

Dever returns, Horner is back, and with more confirmation Gerrior is playing. I agree with the discussion; that was a penalty (holding or interference), and I get the 5 with the injury, but they got it right with no suspension.

Ekberg back to the 4th line as basically an extra forward. Maybe he is hurt…I don’t get it at all otherwise. Yanni has not exactly lit the world on fire, Horner has one goal (even though I think I find him more useful than many people do on here), but to put either ahead of Ekberg is insanity.

 

[mianjo]

16 skaters , 5 defence, 11 forwards.

 

[OMG67]

View attachment 975128


Dever returns, Horner is back, and with more confirmation Gerrior is playing. I agree with the discussion; that was a penalty (holding or interference), and I get the 5 with the injury, but they got it right with no suspension.

Ekberg back to the 4th line as basically an extra forward. Maybe he is hurt…I don’t get it at all otherwise. Yanni has not exactly lit the world on fire, Horner has one goal (even though I think I find him more useful than many people do on here), but to put either ahead of Ekberg is insanity.

No issues with Horner as a 19 year old. The issue is whether he is worthy of an OA slot next year.

 

[ecraigs]

Looks like it. That was probably a 2 minute holding penalty but the boarding call was just crazy talk.

The player left the game, so the refs have to decide if he's injured and, therefore, the minor for holding becomes a GM. If it would be a one game suspension, the fact that Gerrior was thrown out before the midpoint of the second, could mean the D&A ruled his punishment was time served. The OHL web site notes that as a possibility.

The refs did their tablet thing and upheld their own call, so there was a call to make.

 

[OMG67]

The player left the game, so the refs have to decide if he's injured and, therefore, the minor for holding becomes a GM. If it would be a one game suspension, the fact that Gerrior was thrown out before the midpoint of the second, could mean the D&A ruled his punishment was time served. The OHL web site notes that as a possibility.

The refs did their tablet thing and upheld their own call, so there was a call to make.

The issue is they should be able to make a call and review it to upgrade it. But, they don’t have that option. They need to change thie minds and upgrade it to a major to review it. Then, if there is no conclusive evidence it is not a Major, then the call stands. From my perspective, that is the wrong way to do it which makes it a really bad process. It relies too heavily on the video providing reasonable evidence.

The calls are artificially being elevated specifically to allow them to go to the tablet. I really don’t think that is a good process.

There was a clear holding penalty that they elevated to a Major for Boarding. They couldn’t’ tell if the hold was a push or not so it stays as the Major. Meanwhile, had they been able to review it as a Minor Penalty to see if it was worthy of a Major, it would not have been been elevated. The evidence is clear because there was no suspension. Game Misconducts are supposed to be 2 game minimum provided the video backs up the call.

 

[OMG67]

Ekberg back to the 4th line as basically an extra forward. Maybe he is hurt…I don’t get it at all otherwise. Yanni has not exactly lit the world on fire, Horner has one goal (even though I think I find him more useful than many people do on here), but to put either ahead of Ekberg is insanity.

Clearly DC doesn’t’ really think all that much of Ekberg. He only has 9 even strength points this year. That isn’t nearly strong enough. He has not been given an extended period to play on a top line. He hasn’t been given an opportunity to play centre, even with so many guys out of the lineup. Houben has played more at centre. I think that tells you a lot as to where Ekberg sits in the depth chart.

If Cameron returns next year or if that is the plan, I think the best course of action is for them to trade him in the June trade window. Then release Korbler. Use both the 1st and 2nd Import pick. There is zero sense keeping Ekberg if he isn’t getting an extended opportunity even with all the injuries/suspensions we’ve experienced.

I think with a different coach, it would be a different strategy but clearly when Korbler has one assist on the season and gets 10x the opportunity of Ekberg, there is no sense continuing to keep Ekberg on the roster. May as well see if we can land someone DC likes in the Import Draft.

 

[sirius67fan]

Clearly DC doesn’t’ really think all that much of Ekberg. He only has 9 even strength points this year. That isn’t nearly strong enough. He has not been given an extended period to play on a top line. He hasn’t been given an opportunity to play centre, even with so many guys out of the lineup. Houben has played more at centre. I think that tells you a lot as to where Ekberg sits in the depth chart.

If Cameron returns next year or if that is the plan, I think the best course of action is for them to trade him in the June trade window. Then release Korbler. Use both the 1st and 2nd Import pick. There is zero sense keeping Ekberg if he isn’t getting an extended opportunity even with all the injuries/suspensions we’ve experienced.

I think with a different coach, it would be a different strategy but clearly when Korbler has one assist on the season and gets 10x the opportunity of Ekberg, there is no sense continuing to keep Ekberg on the roster. May as well see if we can land someone DC likes in the Import Draft.

I get what you're saying but you can't build a team based on the coaches preference ( I know you know this and were just making a point), you get the best players you can period. Then its the coach's fr....job to make it work. This year imo DC has failed miserably, his decisions often make no sense and he has not developed players. I just do not understand what's going on with him. Before this year I considered him a competent coach but now he's just totally lost my confidence.

Hey OMG Korbler just scored. I think he's a keeper for next year

 

[RCN83]

Rightly or wrongly, I think OSEG and their proxy JB are following the same template that Killer, Earl, and Howard followed: Build a competitive team that is at or near the top every year, Qualify for the playoffs, and go as deep as you can. We must consider that Killer got an M Cup and had a few teams that went further than people expected.

The same can be said for Boyd and Andre. They were able to build teams tht were good and competed at the top. Andre was able to take the drafted players and players who really should not have been in the league and develop them to the top of their potential.

The problem is that JB is not sure what he wants to do and how to do it. Consider that he has never had a real mentor who knew what he was doing as a GM. Then add in the coach. Let's face it: you really can not say that DC has developed any players to the best of their potential. Again, this is to use the argument of lack of ice time for rookies For taking the top-scoring DEFENCEMAN IN THE LEAGUE and, after trading for him, trying to develop him into the DC system and using him the way he was best used.

I understand that there is a consensus here that thinks that to go for it you need to trade the farm and be a crap team. We could have done that last year, and still, I think we would have ended up where we were only with nothing on the ice this year.

Two years ago, we saw this team's future, and it did not look good. That was the last year that we could go for it. I think Boyd's challenge was that he did not know about Andre getting an NHL offer and taking his assistant with him. Drafting the right players, trading the right packages, and developing the on-ice product have all been suspect on this team. consider that last year, we did not have dependable goaltending due to injuries and indecision. Up front, we did not have a lot of offence. Whitehead would not have been a highly sought-after pick, as he did not get any ice time to show what he had. We did not have a lot of draft picks as Boyud traded them for Morrison and Minty.

Hence, we are where we are. with a coach who I think may have lost the bench and dressing room.

As I stated, changes have to be made between now and the draft. The question is will OSEG make them.

Minty was the top SCORER (period) in the league that year playing in Saginaw prior to the deadline - further amplifies your point

 

[OMG67]

I get what you're saying but you can't build a team based on the coaches preference ( I know you know this and were just making a point), you get the best players you can period. Then its the coach's fr....job to make it work. This year imo DC has failed miserably, his decisions often make no sense and he has not developed players. I just do not understand what's going on with him. Before this year I considered him a competent coach but now he's just totally lost my confidence.

Hey OMG Korbler just scored. I think he's a keeper for next year

He’s a keeper! Captain material!

Minty was the top SCORER (period) in the league that year playing in Saginaw prior to the deadline - further amplifies your point

Saginaw play pond hockey so it isn’t a great benchmark. I may not have liked how Mintyukov was used but I can tell you he t least learned how to play defence for half a season. Parekh will find out the hard way whenever he makes his next stop.

 

[gadder]

Well a typical dispirited 67s game overall, par for the course this year. We were in it for a period then it kinda frittered away on goals, chances, shots. I didn't see any bright lights or hopeful signs for the future - but Korbler did get a goal!! It was a bobbled backhand, kinda bounced around a bit, but they all count. Of course he missed a breakaway before that but who's counting eh? No one got hurt, no one expended too much effort so all are ready to enjoy a Superbowl evening. I wonder what does it mean for a player to go into a game and know you have basically no chance? How do you play the game? And how does the coach motivate his players to put in an effort? Maybe we won't win another game this year...

 

[RCN83]

He’s a keeper! Captain material!



Saginaw play pond hockey so it isn’t a great benchmark. I may not have liked how Mintyukov was used but I can tell you he t least learned how to play defence for half a season. Parekh will find out the hard way whenever he makes his next stop.

Wasn’t the train of thought I was contributing to.

Respectfully, which is it then ?

Cameron ruins players by not leveraging their best attributes to succeed now or he sees the job as correcting deficiencies to ensure they are better pros after they leave the 67s ?

 

[Fawlty]

I think that makes 3 wins in their last 20 games.

 

[KennyPowers2223920]

I thought Brad Horner had an excellent game tonight. Was on the forecheck and didn’t quit even though they were down big. He’s an excellent leader and deserving of the captaincy next year.
Also… great to see Kimi Körbler get his first of the season!!! Long overdue. Has been battling all year long and has been snake bitten.
Also… great to see Jack Dever back in and healthy. He’s an exceptional player and should be getting some NHL looks.

 

[beastintheeast]

Ekberg will not be back next year. Even if he is drafted, the NHL team will probably let him stay in Europe, where he can get ice time and develop. Anopther player that DV ruined.

@OMG67 It is possible to compare the Ear and Howard teams with OSEG if that is how they are running the team. If all they are playing for is to be competitive each year, then the comparison is valid. It is also valid to compare Killer in the last few years to DC both needed to retire a couple of years before they did. Killer could have stayed as GM if he could have found a coach. In the case of DC, he just needs to go away.

I have a feeling Boyd could be doing a lot of trading this summer and before or during training camp due to players not wanting to come back

 

[dirty12]

I get what you're saying but you can't build a team based on the coaches preference ( I know you know this and were just making a point), you get the best players you can period. Then its the coach's fr....job to make it work. This year imo DC has failed miserably, his decisions often make no sense and he has not developed players. I just do not understand what's going on with him. Before this year I considered him a competent coach but now he's just totally lost my confidence.

Hey OMG Korbler just scored. I think he's a keeper for next year

I think a team cannot really be good if most of the players do not suit the coach’s system. If only selecting BPA; or in Jan’s case analytic based, you could end up with nine smallish LWs.

 

[sirius67fan]

I think a team cannot really be good if most of the players do not suit the coach’s system. If only selecting BPA; or in Jan’s case analytic based, you could end up with nine smallish LWs.

Disagree a good coach will maximize the strenghts of his players.

 

[OMG67]

Wasn’t the train of thought I was contributing to.

Respectfully, which is it then ?

Cameron ruins players by not leveraging their best attributes to succeed now or he sees the job as correcting deficiencies to ensure they are better pros after they leave the 67s ?

That’s fair. The point I was making is you have two opposite poles on the spectrum. You cannot use either as a benchmark. Mintyukov going from a pond hockey team to a defensive structured team will lead to less offence. Same the other way around.

As I mentioned, I was not happy with the level of restrictions placed on Mintyukov; however, we couldn’t simply plop him into the system and let him do his own thing like he did in Saginaw. The rest of the team would be out of sync, so Mintyukov had to be more disciplined. His time in Ottawa would have better prepared him for the AHL/NHL where they need to play more controlled and measured.

I don’t like the lack of allowance for creativity Cameron deploys but I also don’t like the recklessness which which Saginaw plays either. LEt’s jsut say that if Mintyukov had have been playing for London, he wouldn’t have led the league in scoring. Hunter wouldn’t’ have allowed him to play as the 4th forward either, but he would have allowed him to jump in when it made sense and made sure there was someone covering for him. And, when he did jump in, he was contributing to the system, not free rolling it.

No one should have expected Mintyukov to remain at the top of the league in scoring even though he went to a team that scored at a high rate. The opportunities would have been lessened in Ottawa for the D-Man. AND, from a personal perspective, I think Mintyukov benefitted from exposure to a defence first system. It helped him prepare for the next level. He wouldn’t have benefitted had he been in Ottawa for three years though….if that makes any sense.

 

[OMG67]

Ekberg will not be back next year. Even if he is drafted, the NHL team will probably let him stay in Europe, where he can get ice time and develop. Anopther player that DV ruined.

@OMG67 It is possible to compare the Ear and Howard teams with OSEG if that is how they are running the team. If all they are playing for is to be competitive each year, then the comparison is valid. It is also valid to compare Killer in the last few years to DC both needed to retire a couple of years before they did. Killer could have stayed as GM if he could have found a coach. In the case of DC, he just needs to go away.

I have a feeling Boyd could be doing a lot of trading this summer and before or during training camp due to players not wanting to come back

The entire dynamic of the league has changed. Put it this way, had Boyd been the GM in 1997 and traded the amount of picks he did for Mintyukov and Morrison, he’d have been considered an outcast! Shit like that never happened, ever. You might have seen one dynamic player acquired if the situation was right but that was about it. Multiple elite players acquired? Never. By no one. Trades were typically made because if disciplinary issues or players requesting trades for their own reasons. Teams held on to their draft picks and the trade deadlines were relatively light and consisted mostly of teams tinkering a bit. Kilrea never traded anyone that didn’t ask for a trade. Then in 2005, Hunter changed the face of the league when he went on a buying spree. Now, like I said, Boyd makes what would have been an outrageous series of trades and is criticized for not doing enough. I don’t know how you can compare at all.

IIRC Kilrea stayed as the GM until Jeff Brown took over the GM duties in 2015. He refused to take part in the sell off and buy big Shenanigans. That contributed to quite a few very poor seasons where even though they’d finish around 8th place, he didn’t make any significant seller moves. It wasn’t until Konecny was traded by Jeff Brown in 2016 did the 67’s take part in their first true seller move. We can trace our lacklustre results from 2006 through 2017 or so and point at Kilrea for playing it safe.

Teams that play it safe never end up safe. Flint is a great example of a team that just won’t make a big move either way. They hang around but never have any real success. They had a couple bad years with the sanctions against them but other than that, they’ve been just average.

 

[OMG67]

I think a team cannot really be good if most of the players do not suit the coach’s system. If only selecting BPA; or in Jan’s case analytic based, you could end up with nine smallish LWs.

I see what you did there!

Well played. It is a good thing Ottawa only has eight! Nine would be embarrassing!

@sirius67fan I know what you are saying but you can’t have a guy like Stan Butler as your head coach and give him small skilled guys. Coaches have a philosophy on how to play the game. You pick the coach to match the philosophy of the team and GM because the GM is in charge of the scouts and hockey ops.

Babcock and Dubas in Toronto was a horrible fit. Dubas used puck possession analytics to select players but Babcok didn’t implement a puck possession style of play.

The GM and coach need to be aligned. The GM and scouting staff cannot draft so many LWs without drafting capable centres just tbecause they went with BPA. You end up with the situations hey are in now with Pinelli playing centre with Foster out who shouldn’t be playing centre either. Even look at Barrie. Gardiner doesn’t play centre there but here he’d be the #1 centre because, well, we don’t have any centres.

I understand your underlying point. A good coach will implement a system that suits the profile for the players. I get it. But, that isn’t really a thing. There are a small handful of capable coaches that swing with the roster but mostly that isn’t the case.

I think Cameron is fine with his philosophy on how to execute the strategy. He does deploy a relatively balanced defensive/offensive system overall. HE leans toward defence for sure. I think he is stubborn and doesn’t have the capacity to deviate in game when necessary. He also leans too heavily on the veteran players which lessens the opportunities for the younger players. Of course, if the younger player excels to the level of the veteran players, then that player will play. IF the player isn’t’ quite ready, he doesn’t try to find spots to play the young guys enough to properly test them, at least not at the expense of a potential loss.

 

[Larionov]

Ekberg will not be back next year. Even if he is drafted, the NHL team will probably let him stay in Europe, where he can get ice time and develop.

I can't remember the last time I ever heard of an NHL team actively wanting a player to go to Europe. In every circumstance, they prefer that they here, playing a North American style of game and being where management can watch their development. I can remember Lassi Thomson going back to Europe against the wishes of Sens management - it set his career back significantly...

 

[beastintheeast]

I can't remember the last time I ever heard of an NHL team actively wanting a player to go to Europe. In every circumstance, they prefer that they here, playing a North American style of game and being where management can watch their development. I can remember Lassi Thomson going back to Europe against the wishes of Sens management - it set his career back significantly...

The challenge is that normally yes a team will want them in the CHL or NCAA BUT if the player does not want to report to the OHL team and the OH team is not going to trade him to where he can play then they have a couple of options. AHL ECHL or let them go home.

In the case of Ekberg it could be up to Boyd to make a trade or let nim go. Right now he is not getting any devleopment being set on the 4th line going back to europe he might not get CHL ice but he will definitley get more ice time to develop.

As I keep saying this is a team that ownership and the office staff need to re evaluate and mke changes or solidify things.

The changes have to be made or announced before at least a couple of weeks before the draft so that players and agents can make decisions.

 

[OMG67]

I can't remember the last time I ever heard of an NHL team actively wanting a player to go to Europe. In every circumstance, they prefer that they here, playing a North American style of game and being where management can watch their development. I can remember Lassi Thomson going back to Europe against the wishes of Sens management - it set his career back significantly...

I cannot see Ekberg getting drafted. I know we have zeroed in on Cameron but Ekberg hasn’t been good enough during his limited opportunities 5 on 5 on the top line. I’m pretty confident that if he were to get an extended period on a top line with a capable experienced centre, he’d be fine and probably would be drafted as a result of serious production. He doesn’t’ have a centre to work with.

Funny thing is he is listed as a centre but never plays centre…..

 

[OMG67]

The challenge is that normally yes a team will want them in the CHL or NCAA BUT if the player does not want to report to the OHL team and the OH team is not going to trade him to where he can play then they have a couple of options. AHL ECHL or let them go home.

In the case of Ekberg it could be up to Boyd to make a trade or let nim go. Right now he is not getting any devleopment being set on the 4th line going back to europe he might not get CHL ice but he will definitley get more ice time to develop.

As I keep saying this is a team that ownership and the office staff need to re evaluate and mke changes or solidify things.

The changes have to be made or announced before at least a couple of weeks before the draft so that players and agents can make decisions.

We really need to let everything play out and see what happens int he offseason. So many changes could happen that alter the landscape of the 67’s. Although, if Cameron is back, I am not sure Ekberg is a fit on this team. Like Uronen, he would get traded if there isn’t’ a spot for him or he decides to make a trade request. Boyd will trade guys if they aren’t happy. Going back to Europe would likely be a Plan “B” in the unlikely scenario where he requests a trade after Cameron officially returns.