We've been saying it. Sarnia is slowly but surely becoming a good place to play for these kids. Border city which helps with Americans. Arena has improved dramatically. Attendance the same. Dressing room drastically upgraded.
Long time NHL player as owner. NHL players as both assistant coaches. Letang multiple time team Canada coach/assistant. If your a player who's goal is to play in the NHL that's awfully nice to have around you. Obviously it doesn't mean they are great owners/coaches just because of those things (I think we all aren't thrilled w/Haley & some aren't fans of Letang haha) but u can't discount that level of experience/knowledge & connections.
Mix in how highly our recent stars/gone pro players (Kyrou x2, Del Mastro, Pastujov, Voit, Rymsha, Rees, Perreault, Dineen, Ritchie, Burke etc) talk about the team/staff & that also helps.
Fischer goes 2nd round. We hope Kostuch, Karimov will be picked. Be great if Barr, Hurt could as they showed great promise. Following yr Di Iorio, Brown (late Bday), Edwards we hope will be picked. And players/agents definitely take note of that stuff. It means you are developing guys properly.
Is this regime perfect? No, but nobody is even the hunters have there whiffs/mistakes (just far less than everyone else lol), but I've loved Seca as GM & Legwand as owner. Letang has his issues, but I've liked how a lot of kids have developed under him.
I went from utter doom & gloom a summer ago to feeling more optimistic than I did about the 2023 team lmao. Obviously we are a ways away from really finding out if they've picked the right players & if they develop right, but I'm tremendously excited for the upside of this team over the course of the next 3 years.