With respect to the “who missies the playoffs comment”…..
You have to think the top three teams going into next season are Brantford, Brampton, and Oshawa. They are top teams that return much of their existing roster.
The next tier would consist of Kingston, Sudbury and Barrie who return solid rosters and would be in a position to add players and potentially compete with those other three.
North Bay and Ottawa would be in that group with the three teams above but I don’t think they are in position to add players so I place them in the 7/8 spots. They may sell and if they do, they may drop out of that pre-season 7/8 place position.
That leaves Niagara and Peterborough. Niagara will likely fight for a playoff position while the Petes continue to build. The Petes are likely to be competitive on the ice but maybe not on the scoreboard. Niagara has a couple really nice pieces that are maturing (Roobroeck and He). I’m not sure they will get a playoff spot BUT if Ottawa and/or North Bay are aggressive sellers, they would likely turn into next year’s version of the Petes this season, solid in the first half and dead the second half.
That said, the Petes have some really solid building blocks that simply need time to gain the requisite experience. There is a strong organization in place and as
@ScoutLife4 said, any draftee would be stupid to avoid Peterborough. I agree. But, the Petes seem destined for a 10th place finish next season in their first true rebuild year. If you play the cycle to the extreme like the Petes did, you need to be prepared for that outcome. The positive part of it is they will have a solid crop of ‘07’s supported by a stellar top ‘08 prospect. When the ‘07s are 19 and that ‘08 is 18, that should be another GO-GO year for the Petes.