Owen Sound Attack 2024-25 Season, Part I

[AttackBeacher]

Some random observations from the year

-Its unfortunate that that the attendance seems to be down a bit, the team plays hard and while not as many name guys as previous years, so much more enjoyable
-Mbuyi will be a hell of a player as early as nextr year. He produces but he plays hard and has a bit of an edge for a smaller guy
-Arnett has been outstanding for a 3rd round OHL draft pick. Not flashy but so efficient.
-Kaprowski should get better as he gets more work, he shows alot.
-The entire D has been good, Smith has grown into his game, Bleicher has been very good of late. Shame for the Leonard injury as he was the teams best D the last few games
-Biggest issue is youth and lack of finishing, which you can accept when the team is working as hard as it is. You can at least see the beginning's of the core of a team that may be able to make some noise next year and push the following year as the 07s get more experience.

 

[ohloutsider]

Its funny you say that. JC generally is the host and is excellent at it. I don't hate him as the play by play guy, but its not his niche, Mark is the best in the business, hes been gone too much this year unfortunately.

For me, I cannot listen to Adrien. Unfortunately he just does not have strong hockey IQ and he talks more then the play by play guy sometimes. He also seems to 'force' French Canadian last names on everyone some how, less of that this year. A friends kid plays in the league with a somewhat French spelt last name, they don't consider themselves French. Every time they play Owen Sound they tell me that Adrian makes their name French for some reason. Weird.

Yes Mark is my favorite PBP guy and I do like JC as a host. He is ok doing the PBP but needs to learn to dial it down on every single shot in the game but hey he is mostly a volunteer so I'm glad he is willing to do it. Much better than I could do it, that's for sure. Be safe.

 

[HuntersAreOverrated]

Well gentlemen… if Degray can pull off some recruitment wizardry and get Jet Kwajah to join this group then I would be ecstatic to say the least.

 

[OSMike]

Any update on Leonard's injury. It appeared he possibly broken a wrist/hand/thumb ?

 

[Millpond]

Any update on Leonard's injury. It appeared he possibly broken a wrist/hand/thumb ?

Radio silence

 

[Stellar29]

There's talk of as many as 30 kids NCAA bound that could show up in the CHL in the coming days or weeks. Jet Kwajah is certainly top of mind for the Attack but I wonder about Lucas Prud'homme? His commitment to NCAA is for the 26-27 season meaning he would have to play somewhere next year before heading to school the following year on his current timeframes. Why not play in Owen Sound? We'll have to wait and see what shakes out but certainly will be interesting to watch everything unfold.

 

[PensFan101]

Any update on Leonard's injury. It appeared he possibly broken a wrist/hand/thumb ?

I wouldn't expect him back for a while, and, depending on whether he needs surgery or not, and what the team does at the deadline, there's a chance that was curtains for him in the OHL. Hoping I'm wrong.

There's talk of as many as 30 kids NCAA bound that could show up in the CHL in the coming days or weeks. Jet Kwajah is certainly top of mind for the Attack but I wonder about Lucas Prud'homme? His commitment to NCAA is for the 26-27 season meaning he would have to play somewhere next year before heading to school the following year on his current timeframes. Why not play in Owen Sound? We'll have to wait and see what shakes out but certainly will be interesting to watch everything unfold.

After the initial buzz of this I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't change too much initially. The kids playing USHL also have deals there, and there are very few players that are so good that they'll walk in and bump established OHLers out of their lineups. So unless Kwajah thought moving mid-season into a D needy lineup made total sense, maybe it's next season for him.

Prud'homme might be a better candidate given he's not even playing major junior, but these private college kids... I'm sure there is a lot more going on in the background including things like tuition considerations. Doubt he suddenly wants to leave a private high school and come hang out at OSDSS or St. Mary's.

Prud'homme is also not exactly lighting up a very low level either, I'm far from convinced he'd be an upgrade on what we've currently got.

 

[Millpond]

I

There's talk of as many as 30 kids NCAA bound that could show up in the CHL in the coming days or weeks. Jet Kwajah is certainly top of mind for the Attack but I wonder about Lucas Prud'homme? His commitment to NCAA is for the 26-27 season meaning he would have to play somewhere next year before heading to school the following year on his current timeframes. Why not play in Owen Sound? We'll have to wait and see what shakes out but certainly will be interesting to watch everything unfold.

Agreed, those two at least should be expecting calls from Digger .

I wonder about the Roy kid now as well .

 

[Stellar29]

I wouldn't expect him back for a while, and, depending on whether he needs surgery or not, and what the team does at the deadline, there's a chance that was curtains for him in the OHL. Hoping I'm wrong.


After the initial buzz of this I wouldn't be surprised if it doesn't change too much initially. The kids playing USHL also have deals there, and there are very few players that are so good that they'll walk in and bump established OHLers out of their lineups. So unless Kwajah thought moving mid-season into a D needy lineup made total sense, maybe it's next season for him.

Prud'homme might be a better candidate given he's not even playing major junior, but these private college kids... I'm sure there is a lot more going on in the background including things like tuition considerations. Doubt he suddenly wants to leave a private high school and come hang out at OSDSS or St. Mary's.

Prud'homme is also not exactly lighting up a very low level either, I'm far from convinced he'd be an upgrade on what we've currently got.

Take my opinion with a grain of salt because I'm certainly no expert in the subject matter but I suspect Prud'homme's game/playstyle isn't a fit in high school hockey. I think his game would better translate in the OHL where his power game could be better utilized. He's 17 and 6'3" and 207lbs according to elite prospects. DeGray was high on him when the Attack drafted him. I think if he'd come they'd make room for him. Certainly not a glowing stat line with St Andrews which does lend some reason for concern but I still think it's worth whatever risk is involved if it doesn't pay off.

 

[HuntersAreOverrated]

I know for a fact that Roy is good friends with multiple guys on the team already and that he seriously considered committing to Owen Sound in the summer. Not to mention his commitment to Providence College isn’t until 27’-28’. Kwajah moving from the USHL to the OHL is less likely in my opinion (at least for this season) because the competition is fairly similar while Roy playing in the OJHL may want to try and take his game to the next level by playing major jr. in Canada now that he has the option to do so while maintaining his NCAA eligibility. One crazy scenario would be getting Dean Létourneau to join this group. An Attack draft pick from a couple years ago, 1st round pick by the Bruins in June, only played Canadian Prep High School last year at SAC and by all accounts has struggled making the transition to men’s college hockey. I know the chances are EXTREMELY low BUT he hasn’t had ANY major jr. experience outside of 2/3 games last year in the USHL as a call up. I would think if you’re Degray then you’d have to at the very least be monitoring the situation.

 

[HuntersAreOverrated]

Another follow up, after speaking with someone I trust it has come to my attention that Burlington Jr. A (Mason Roy’s team) played last night and Roy was (by all accounts HEALTHY) SCRATCHED … wonder if that’s anything to look into. He did dress for 19 of 23 games so far this year … ? Not to mention Ethan Kindree tagged Roy in his latest Instagram post which was him dawning Attack colours for the first time. Everyone else tagged in the photos is a current Owen Sound player. Maybe im drawing too many conclusions because I know they both played on the same AAA team In Halton last year as well so obviously they were friends prior to getting drafted but yea

 

[Stellar29]

I know for a fact that Roy is good friends with multiple guys on the team already and that he seriously considered committing to Owen Sound in the summer. Not to mention his commitment to Providence College isn’t until 27’-28’. Kwajah moving from the USHL to the OHL is less likely in my opinion (at least for this season) because the competition is fairly similar while Roy playing in the OJHL may want to try and take his game to the next level by playing major jr. in Canada now that he has the option to do so while maintaining his NCAA eligibility. One crazy scenario would be getting Dean Létourneau to join this group. An Attack draft pick from a couple years ago, 1st round pick by the Bruins in June, only played Canadian Prep High School last year at SAC and by all accounts has struggled making the transition to men’s college hockey. I know the chances are EXTREMELY low BUT he hasn’t had ANY major jr. experience outside of 2/3 games last year in the USHL as a call up. I would think if you’re Degray then you’d have to at the very least be monitoring the situation.

I'm pretty certain the Letourneau train has left station never to return. I wouldn't read too much into a slow start in the NCAA. He has four years. He was drafted as a known project so the Bruins will be patient. I don't think someone with his size would be better served playing in the OHL but should be playing against men like he is now.

I would think we'd likely only see one of Roy or Kwajah this year if we are able to bring one of them in. Unless the blueline gets beaten up worse than it is now, there's only so much playing time to go around. Roy may be the easier transaction as I believe Kwajah would involve a money transaction to his USHL club to release his rights. Kwajah not playing with Madison could make it a mutually attractive destination for him to land in Owen Sound. Just my opinion but I think Kwajah is thought of as the better player. He also shoots right and has offensive upside that would certainly be attractive to the future of Owen Sound's blueline.

DeGray made comments about Prud'homme implying he wanted him pretty bad when they picked him and he's historically been a fan of those types of players. It was basically implied that he would have been signed last year and stayed with Owen Sound but him not reporting is what gave Nansi the opportunity. I'm sure with the decision yesterday, that's a player he'd be reaching out on.

 

[AttackSound]

Will see where this new agreement between the CHL and NCAA turns out next season.

Especially from a prospect standpoint in the organization. There are certainly some kids in the past couple of drafts that this organization were of interest at the time to the management in there OHL draft years, some of them mentioned already above in other posts.

This may give GMs a bit more traction in furthering those conversations to convincing kids to come the OHL route then NCAA afterwards but this door will likely swing both ways also where we may see kids who come the OHL path and then may decide that the NCAA route is a more of a route that suits them.

It will be decisions moving forward that GMs like DD will have to take calculated decisions on prospects and hope that he will be able to convince kids to report and talks about getting them to sign but I don't think this will be at all a guarantee that every on the fence kid will be reporting to camp if we pick them in the Draft.