Windsor Spitfires 2017-18 Season Thread (Part 1)

[OHLTG]

Interesting stat:

Out of the 156 OHL players at NHL rookie camps, Windsor has 12. Only two teams - London (17) and SSM (15) - have more.

 

[hockeylegend11]

Aaron Luchuk, returning to Windsor was released 30 minutes ago by Vancouver.

 

[hockeylegend11]

Expecting goalie Michael Dipietro to return any day,as he is not listed on Vancouver's 43 player training camp roster.They have 3 goalies on the list

 

[windsor7]

Aaron Luchuk, returning to Windsor was released 30 minutes ago by Vancouver.

keep him for month or two and then trade him away.

 

[hockeylegend11]

Spits

keep him for month or two and then trade him away.

Doubt it happens till near the deadline.

 

[OHLTG]

Trading him depends on the value you get back. He doesn't have the star power of a Brown, Sergachev, Vilardi, or DiPietro, but he's going to put in 25-30 for us this season. Does the return we'd get outweigh the production he'll give us? I'm not sure. Given we're already losing a ton of offence, I think Luchuk is one of the guys you keep unless blown away.

 

[hockeylegend11]

Spits

Trading him depends on the value you get back. He doesn't have the star power of a Brown, Sergachev, Vilardi, or DiPietro, but he's going to put in 25-30 for us this season. Does the return we'd get outweigh the production he'll give us? I'm not sure. Given we're already losing a ton of offence, I think Luchuk is one of the guys you keep unless blown away.

I would agree,if Brown and or Day are dealt may not see Luchuk dealt, unless it's fair offer I wouldn't move him.

 

[windsor7]

Trading him depends on the value you get back. He doesn't have the star power of a Brown, Sergachev, Vilardi, or DiPietro, but he's going to put in 25-30 for us this season. Does the return we'd get outweigh the production he'll give us? I'm not sure. Given we're already losing a ton of offence, I think Luchuk is one of the guys you keep unless blown away.

Id put Luchuk ahead of Brown.
Just him being a leader and actually trying every time he is on the ice puts him ahead of Brown.
Brown is a lazy player who wants everything spoon fed to him.
Id trade Brown right away when he comes back if there is a deal from the East.

 

[OHLTG]

If you're a GM, though, Brown is valuable - large C who, when healthy, can dominate a game offensively. He's a rarity. Get him healthy and focused and he's pushing a 100-point pace.

 

[windsor7]

If you're a GM, though, Brown is valuable - large C who, when healthy, can dominate a game offensively. He's a rarity. Get him healthy and focused and he's pushing a 100-point pace.

He may be tall but he is horrible in the corners.
Much smaller players were knocking the puck off of him without much trouble.
He doesn't always skate back on defense.
And is lazy often.

 

[randomhero4life]

I really doubt Luchuk gets traded. Give him the "C" and let him lead the team!! As For Brown I agree when he returns move him asap!!

 

[hockeylegend11]

Spits

I really doubt Luchuk gets traded. Give him the "C" and let him lead the team!! As For Brown I agree when he returns move him asap!!

Pretty much agree with your comments,may not be easy moving Brown, unless Ottawa gets to him,teams will shy away from acquiring him, assuming he returns,and he should,his skating is not NHL speed regardless of his hands, amongst other shortfalls.

 

[Crease Master]

Luchuk has overage season written all over him, I doubt he goes anywhere because of that.

 

[ohloutsider]

Luchuk has overage season written all over him, I doubt he goes anywhere because of that.

He is an OA so if there is a deal at the deadline make it - you only lose him for the last 30 games and he may get to a better team for another run. We need picks.
Brown should be moved this year but need to wait until you get your best value. He can also veto a deal so he may want to see who is contending at the deadline before he agrees.

 

[hockeylegend11]

Last season Spits started the year with 4 rookies, Corcoran, Angle, Playfair and Purboo,went most of the season with 3 as Playfair was sent to Jr B,for seasoning,though Angle also was seen down for 3 weeks too.
This season at least 9 rookies may start the season with the big club,with signed players Jordan Frasca and Lucas Patton, the team's 3rd tender signed as a free agent waiting in the wings,making a possible 11.Nice to see of the 9 players, 8 have been drafted,goalie Brock Baier,dmen, Nathan Staios,Louka Henault,Thomas Stevenson and Levi Starikov, followed by forwards Kirill Kozhevnikov, Daniel D'amico, William Sirman,and 1 acquired forward 17 year old winger Mathew MacDougall.
Hopefully Windsor fans will be patient moving forward, knowing that some won't be, things are just beginning,will be interesting to see how things shake out as the season moves along.

 

[punch1943]

Last season Spits started the year with 4 rookies, Corcoran, Angle, Playfair and Purboo,went most of the season with 3 as Playfair was sent to Jr B,for seasoning,though Angle also was seen down for 3 weeks too.
This season at least 9 rookies may start the season with the big club,with signed players Jordan Frasca and Lucas Patton, the team's 3rd tender signed as a free agent waiting in the wings,making a possible 11.Nice to see of the 9 players, 8 have been drafted,goalie Brock Baier,dmen, Nathan Staios,Louka Henault,Thomas Stevenson and Levi Starikov, followed by forwards Kirill Kozhevnikov, Daniel D'amico, William Sirman,and 1 acquired forward 17 year old winger Mathew MacDougall.
Hopefully Windsor fans will be patient moving forward, knowing that some won't be, things are just beginning,will be interesting to see how things shake out as the season moves along.

Solid post. If the fans can accept that we will be in the fight of our lives to gain a playoff position then all will be well. I certainly wish all the guys success in their attempts to crack the pro ranks but the more that are returned, the better off it is for the Spits.
The key guy who will be coming back, is off course, DiPietro. He will see more rubber than Goodyear this season. He will steal a few games for sure but the key for the Spits is he will keep us in a good number of others. He will do this with a defence led by last years 5th and 6th D-men.
The unfortunate thing facing this team is that even though we will finish in position to draft highly thought of players we don't have the picks. Therefore for us, the premium when we trade has to be 2018-2019 draft picks. Not that we don't need picks in other years as well but the team that can trade us 18-19 picks should get the player.
IMHO Luchuk if not dealt tooty de suite should be named captain. However if someone offers up a 2nd and 3rd in the next few days he should be dealt. When it comes down to it the guy with the longest shelf life has to be DiPietro.

 

[Duke Guy]

Daniel Robertson is cashing in his education package to attend St. Francis X U.

 

[windsor7]

Solid post. If the fans can accept that we will be in the fight of our lives to gain a playoff position then all will be well. I certainly wish all the guys success in their attempts to crack the pro ranks but the more that are returned, the better off it is for the Spits.
The key guy who will be coming back, is off course, DiPietro. He will see more rubber than Goodyear this season. He will steal a few games for sure but the key for the Spits is he will keep us in a good number of others. He will do this with a defence led by last years 5th and 6th D-men.
The unfortunate thing facing this team is that even though we will finish in position to draft highly thought of players we don't have the picks. Therefore for us, the premium when we trade has to be 2018-2019 draft picks. Not that we don't need picks in other years as well but the team that can trade us 18-19 picks should get the player.
IMHO Luchuk if not dealt tooty de suite should be named captain. However if someone offers up a 2nd and 3rd in the next few days he should be dealt. When it comes down to it the guy with the longest shelf life has to be DiPietro.

Id say Dipietro and Vilardi will be the last two to be traded away if traded away at all.

 

[hockeylegend11]

Spits

Id say Dipietro and Vilardi will be the last two to be traded away if traded away at all.

In all likelihood both Dipietro and Vilardi won't be dealt to next year,with both having 2 years left tough to quantify what the worth is for either.

 

[hockeylegend11]

Punch

Excellent post,well thought out, one thing I am happy Windsor didn't do was trade Dipietro last season,I understand they were offered McNiven from Owen Sound plus 2 2nd round picks.
When u think that a team offered Owen Sound 5-2nds for McNiven last year, it was prudent not to deal Dipietro.

 

[RayzorIsDull]

Solid post. If the fans can accept that we will be in the fight of our lives to gain a playoff position then all will be well. I certainly wish all the guys success in their attempts to crack the pro ranks but the more that are returned, the better off it is for the Spits.
The key guy who will be coming back, is off course, DiPietro. He will see more rubber than Goodyear this season. He will steal a few games for sure but the key for the Spits is he will keep us in a good number of others. He will do this with a defence led by last years 5th and 6th D-men.
The unfortunate thing facing this team is that even though we will finish in position to draft highly thought of players we don't have the picks. Therefore for us, the premium when we trade has to be 2018-2019 draft picks. Not that we don't need picks in other years as well but the team that can trade us 18-19 picks should get the player.
IMHO Luchuk if not dealt tooty de suite should be named captain. However if someone offers up a 2nd and 3rd in the next few days he should be dealt. When it comes down to it the guy with the longest shelf life has to be DiPietro.

Look at teams and their compliment of 18/19 high picks and see if they are going to contend. Oshawa/Mississauga have some 2nd rounders, London has a full compliment of 2nd rounders if they can find a way to contend, Owen Sound has a good package of 2nd rounders as well. You would need to hope guys would want to go to those places as well.

Best hope is you can get a real good 17 year old or 16 year old when the window opens up in January. Have to hope Brown performs well and either stabilizes his trade value or can increase it a bit. I don't think teams would be rushing to trade for Brown after the past year he had. His best year was when he had pro caliber players around him to make him better. With Brown it's still about what he could be and not what he is.

 

[OHL4Life]

Last season Spits started the year with 4 rookies, Corcoran, Angle, Playfair and Purboo,went most of the season with 3 as Playfair was sent to Jr B,for seasoning,though Angle also was seen down for 3 weeks too.
This season at least 9 rookies may start the season with the big club,with signed players Jordan Frasca and Lucas Patton, the team's 3rd tender signed as a free agent waiting in the wings,making a possible 11.Nice to see of the 9 players, 8 have been drafted,goalie Brock Baier,dmen, Nathan Staios,Louka Henault,Thomas Stevenson and Levi Starikov, followed by forwards Kirill Kozhevnikov, Daniel D'amico, William Sirman,and 1 acquired forward 17 year old winger Mathew MacDougall.
Hopefully Windsor fans will be patient moving forward, knowing that some won't be, things are just beginning,will be interesting to see how things shake out as the season moves along.

playoffs shouldnt really be the goal this year should it? we have no picks between rounds 2 and 5 for the next few years. not picking high and keeping guys like luchuk only helps this year, it doesnt help us long term. id rather get a 2 and 3 for luchuk and miss the playoffs than keep him and dont get picks, especially if you are not moving dipietro this year. brown will get alot, but hes the only one other than luchuk worth picks. the worst thing we did was try to keep winning and rebuilding at the same time, its what lead to the graham/cortellessa/czinder/mccann yearrs. lets do it right, not go half way, the team only got good after bottoming out and drafting vilardi. the leafs tried to do both and failed forever, they only got good when they bottomed out, windsor tried to rebuild on the fly last time and failed. it works best when you tear it down.

 

[OHL4Life]

Look at teams and their compliment of 18/19 high picks and see if they are going to contend. Oshawa/Mississauga have some 2nd rounders, London has a full compliment of 2nd rounders if they can find a way to contend, Owen Sound has a good package of 2nd rounders as well. You would need to hope guys would want to go to those places as well.

Best hope is you can get a real good 17 year old or 16 year old when the window opens up in January. Have to hope Brown performs well and either stabilizes his trade value or can increase it a bit. I don't think teams would be rushing to trade for Brown after the past year he had. His best year was when he had pro caliber players around him to make him better. With Brown it's still about what he could be and not what he is.

teams will always give up picks for players who have numbers. it happens ever year. some average players have been traded for 3/4 high picks in the past, they wont have an issue

 

[RayzorIsDull]

playoffs shouldnt really be the goal this year should it? we have no picks between rounds 2 and 5 for the next few years. not picking high and keeping guys like luchuk only helps this year, it doesnt help us long term. id rather get a 2 and 3 for luchuk and miss the playoffs than keep him and dont get picks, especially if you are not moving dipietro this year. brown will get alot, but hes the only one other than luchuk worth picks. the worst thing we did was try to keep winning and rebuilding at the same time, its what lead to the graham/cortellessa/czinder/mccann yearrs. lets do it right, not go half way, the team only got good after bottoming out and drafting vilardi.

It depends on how you view it. 80% of the league makes the playoffs is there really an excuse or reason for why you missed the playoffs? Teams rebuild consistently but there are still rebuilding teams that make the playoffs.

2017
Eastern conference 2 points separated 8th-9th
Western conference 6 points separated 8th-9th

2016
Eastern conference 4 points separated 8th-9th
Western conference 10 points separated 8th-9th

2015
Eastern conference 5 points separated 8th-9th
Western conference 8 points separated 8th-9th

2014
Eastern conference 1 point separated 8th-9th
Western conference 14 points separated 8th-9th

2013
Eastern conference 1 point separated 8th-9th
Western conference 10 points separated 8th-9th

Average in the east is 2.6 points of separation
Average in the west in 9.6 points

The separation is quite large but when you look at the average winning % of that 8th seed in the west over the past 5 seasons it's been .470% for a total of 64 points.

Pretty much from Oct-Feb you need to average 11 points a month and with Sept/March find a way to get another 9-10 points and you make the playoffs. The average has gone down over the past 5 years of what it takes to get into the playoffs as well.

Is there really a reason to trade Luchuk now? Trading him doesn't preclude you from making the playoffs. They may have to move DiPietro out of necessity if they don't get what they want for Brown because most likely Luchuk alone won't get the compensation you want.

Doing it the right way is important but to do it the right way you need to draft well. I don't think they have struggled because they were trying to win and rebuild at the same time. Guys like McCann/Cortellessa/Graham/Czinder weren't good enough in the 1st place. If you want to do well don't draft Webermin/Maletta in back to back years in round 1 and move assets to get Bateman in that same Maletta draft. Like I said the guys you mentioned above weren't good but those guys weren't the reason the Spits struggled, that's low hanging fruit imo.

 

[OHL4Life]

Doing it the right way is important but to do it the right way you need to draft well. I don't think they have struggled because they were trying to win and rebuild at the same time. Guys like McCann/Cortellessa/Graham/Czinder weren't good enough in the 1st place. If you want to do well don't draft Webermin/Maletta in back to back years in round 1 and move assets to get Bateman in that same Maletta draft. Like I said the guys you mentioned above weren't good but those guys weren't the reason the Spits struggled, that's low hanging fruit imo.

thats fine, perhaps the scouting will get better, but the reason that the team is struggling to have young players and needing to get guys like mizzi is because they havent had any pics the last 2-3 years, everyone is a late pick. windosr has had the least amount of pics the last 3 years, their fault, but we need to fix that. every year london/kit/owen sound have 5-7 picks in the top 5 rounds, we have 1, there is zero room for error. those teams can miss on a few, we cant. if they have 5-7 picks in the top 5 rounds this year, they have way more room to make mistakes. its what the leafs did as soon as dubas got there, turn sell players at their peek who in years you wont win to get as many picks as possible. the more picks, the more lottery tickets. its way smarter to go into a draft with 17 pics then 8. every team will have a miss or two, kit had mike davies, london had herbst, it happens, what the difference was they had more then a few pics, so they had more options. if trading luchuk gets us 2 top 3 round picks and more amo so to speak, then do it. this year doesnt matter, they have guys like mizzi and larionov in the lineup, they are not winning in the playoffs. most of the guys on the roster exepct for 5-6 will be gone in 2 years, so bomb out. what the benefit to trying to win again?