–Nichols writes a two-part piece and the second half reminds us just how good a prospect Patrick Wiercioch was (and is).

It’s easy to forget that Wiercioch‘s freshman year at 18 is among the most impressive by an NCAA defenseman in recent memory – 35pts in 36gp earned a WCHA Second All-Star Team selection. A season in which his shot rate was an impressive 2.94 per game, third best on the team, just for comparison sake this past year Karlsson shot 3.22 per game.

Wiercioch‘s sophomore season was also strong, although injury slowed him down and made him unable to play for Canada at the WJC.  He produced at a higher pace in his sophomore season with Binghamton, but injury makes his progress hard to judge.  Needless to say, as someone who still hasn’t filled out their frame there’s still reason to hope Wiercioch will achieve his potential.

-Here’s my profile of Kyle Turris.

-Bob McKenzie has posted his pre-season top-ten 2013 draft picks:
1. Nathan MacKinnon (QMJHL)
2. Seth Jones (WHL)
3. Sean Monahan (OHL)
4. Elias Lindholm (SEL)
5. Rasmus Ristolainen (SM-Liiga)
6. Aleksander Barkov (SM-Liiga)
7. Andre Burakovsky (Allsvenskan)
8. Jacob de la Rose (Allsvenskan)
9. Curtis Lazar (WHL)
10. Kerby Rychel (OHL)

–Central Scouting has also released a list of top players, but not in an easily digestible list format.

–Jimmy Devellano was fined for comments he made about the lockout and I want to examine a couple of them:

It’s very complicated and way too much for the average Joe to understand, but having said that, I will tell you this: The owners can basically be viewed as the Ranch, and the players, and me included, are the cattle. The owners own the Ranch and allow the players to eat there. That’s the way its always been and that the way it will be forever. And the owners simply aren’t going to let a union push them around. It’s not going to happen.

Yes, they are billionaires. Good on them, they deserve it, but they also make their employees millionaires. Not a bad trade off for a guy like Lucic getting what, 6 million dollars a year? I mean good on him too, but he should be grateful. Understand though that these players want for nothing…its first class this, first class that, meal allowances, travel money on the road, the whole shebang.

The situation is not very complicated–it’s about getting a larger slice of the NHL-pie.  I think Devellano’s attitude towards his employees (the players) is very common in our culture.  The idea that professional hockey can only exist with the benefit of current ownership is laughable–the public appetite for hockey is not beholden to the NHL, rather, the NHL (through historical circumstance) has been the beneficiary of that appetite.  If the NHL disappeared tomorrow another professional league would rise to take its place.  There’s nothing special about the league, what’s special is the sport.

Devellano also makes some interesting comments about the public perception of Gary Bettman.  In his rambling way he admits that Bettman’s condescending attitude and inability to make his case to the average fan is a big part of the problem.  I don’t think public perception makes any difference in his position however, so it’s largely irrelevant.

–Jared Ramsden breaks down the WHL’s eastern conference.

–Radoslav Vavrina writes comprehensively about the upcoming Czech Extraliga season.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

September 22, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-The Binghamton Senators released their training camp roster (camp beginning September 27th).  Along with all the expected players there are some unsigned invitees: Scott Greenham (G), Daniel New (D), Jack Downing (C/RW), and Brad Peltz (LW).  New and Downing are both listed incorrectly in the release (the former as a forward, the latter as a defenseman).  Brad Peltz (7-190/09) seems to have left Yale (NCAA) early to try and turn pro.  New attended the Sens development camp in 2010, while Greenham attended it in 2011; Downing played more than half this past season with Binghamton (47-9-8-17).  Stats: New (NCAA 36-2-12-14), Peltz (NCAA 9-1-0-1), and Greenham (NCAA 2.47 .905).  Greenham already has an ECHL contract in place (with Bakersfield), so is presumably attending in the hopes of a call-up to Binghamton should the occasion arise.  Both Peltz and New are looking for spots in Elmira.

–Corey Pronman has listed his top-100 prospects and a few Sens made the list:
15. Mika Zibanejad
43. Cody Ceci
51. Jakob Silfverberg
70. Mark Stone
87. Shane Prince

Take it with a grain of salt, but all his Sens picks are conventional (including the trendy choice of Prince).  You take something like this and throw it into the hopper of other lists to get a sense of general opinions about Ottawa’s prospects.

-Here are my profiles of Milan Michalek and Kaspars Daugavins.

-I applaud the OHL’s attempt to cut down on one-dimensional enforcers, although I don’t foresee the NHL adopting their policy in the near future.

–Kevin Forbes writes a useful QMJHL season preview for those who want to keep an eye on the Q.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

September 20, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

–Milan Michalek is having minor surgery to repair an abdominal injury suffered during training last month.

-I’m not the only one bemused by how eagerly GM’s were signing players under the old CBA, as Lyle Richardson notes the frenzy just prior to the lockout.

-In Elmira (ECHL) news the team has re-signed Artem Demkov (67-20-37-57).  If the lockout eats into the start of the season expect four or five players to be loaned from Binghamton to the Jackals (who now have 11 players signed).

-I have some early thoughts on EA Sports NHL 2013.  As a long time player of the game I spend most of my time playing in GM mode–I like the idea of building a team through the draft and the way EA has allowed for that has been tweaked over the years.  My thoughts thus far:
-the current version solves the problem of AI GM’s dumping of NHL all-stars in the minors due to cap restrictions (it was amusing to see Sidney Crosby play half his career in the AHL)
-the draft makes more sense in terms of how players are assessed, although the draft lottery is poorly stilted (so far 80% of the time the 30th place team has not had the first overall pick) and it’s exceedingly difficult to get broad, useful feedback from scouting; it’s also (thus far) been heavily slanted towards weak drafts (I’m at seven years in a row)
-free agency makes more sense; in previous versions the best players were almost always available as free agents due to unrealistic salary demands
-EA seems to have solved an issue they’ve had for a decade where the best way to score was always a cross-ice pass for a one-timer (if my memory serves this was virtually the only way to score in 2003)
-the declining level of goals scored is carried on faithfully in the game (realistic, but depressing)
-one glitch that continues from previous years is that prospects will disappear in the off-season (never a top prospect, but depth players will sometimes vanish)
-player development for prospects has been slowed considerably
-trading has been simplified in that what other teams’ want are highlighted and they actually follow those indications when trades are proposed (I was always amused when I tried to make a trade with the type of player a team wanted only to be turned down because they wanted that exact kind of player)
That’s all that springs to mind at the moment.  I’m definitely enjoying it.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

September 17, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment

-The lockout is here, but how long it lasts remains to be seen.  I still don’t envision the league missing many games, but that sadly hasn’t prevented it from having an impact on workers tied to the arena.

–Kevin Forbes believes the lockout provides a great opportunity for development leagues like the CHL.  It will make the quality of the hockey of junior, minor, and some European professional leagues step up for an abbreviated time, but it also means players who don’t belong in those leagues are taking minutes away from others who really need them.

-One of the most amusing aspects of the CBA negotiations is that while the NHL pumped out rhetoric about their financial woes and the need of a new deal, general managers were desperately trying to sign any and every player they could under the old CBA.  Unlike the missed 2004-05 season, where ownership cut back on the number of players signed (Boston had to sign an entire team post-lockout), there’s no sense of the status quo effecting GM’s or organisations.

–Nichols writes a critique of an ESPN article, but I’m less interested in that than the stats behind the article he’s critiquing.  Matthew Coller used the VUKOTA system of projection in the NHL (the VUKOTA Projection System uses statistical data to project what an  NHL player would do in their next season by comparing them to similar,  post-1967 NHL players (1967 being the year that the NHL first officially  recorded statistics to calculate GVT [goals-versus-threshold] data).   This kind of projection can’t hope to succeed because it uses data over different eras (it’s also exceedingly vague).  I caution hockey fans to be very careful when using projection metrics until they look into them–context is everything.

–Bruce Dowbiggin offers the interesting theory that the NHL must come to terms with the NHLPA no later than November 22nd in order to meet their commitments to HBO’s Winter Classic (which also ties in with the league’s deal with NBC).  I’m not sure how much stock to put into the theory, but I encourage you to check out the full article.

-If the lockout extends into the NHL season I will still be posting regularly about Binghamton and Sens prospects in Elmira, the CHL, and Europe.  There will be much food for thought no matter what happens.

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

September 16, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 3 Comments

-The quiet that is the NHL right now can mercifully be interrupted by latest EA Sports NHL offering.

–Peter Raaymakers wonders who will lead the Binghamton Senators in scoring this year, suggesting it could be any one of Stephane Da Costa, Mike Hoffman, Andre Petersson, Shane Prince, Jakob Silfverberg, Mark Stone, or Mika Zibanejad.  Every one of those suggestions is sensible except for Prince, who will likely be back with the Ottawa 67s.  Dave Young wrote the follow-up piece on the defense and suggested Mark Borowiecki, Patrick Wiercioch, and Andre Benoit as the leaders (his list includes the assumption that Jared Cowen will lead them); the idea here does not seem to be about numbers (as Raaymakers is).  Benoit will lead the Binghamton blueline in points if he stays healthy.  My own projections are forthcoming.

–John Henkelman gives us his updated top-20 Sens prospects (with some comments of my own included):
1. Mika Zibanejad – the blurb suggests he needs to work on his faceoffs, which is an odd task for a winger
2. Jakob Silfverberg – assumes he will play in the top-six in the NHL this season, which is a reasonable assumption, but must be taken with a grain of salt
3. Robin Lehner
4. Stefan Noesen
5. Cody Ceci
6. Mark Stone – I agree with Henkelman that he likely tops out as a top-nine forward who can play on the powerplay
7. Mark Borowiecki
8. Andre Petersson
9. Patrick Wiercioch
10. Matt Puempel
11. Jim O’Brien – I’m not fond of the HF formula that includes a player like this as a “prospect”
12. Shane Prince – sensibly suggests that he’ll likely be returned to the junior ranks
13. Mike Hoffman
14. Stephane Da Costa – points out that the expectations were too high for him
15. Derek Grant
16. Eric Gryba
17. Jean-Gabriel Pageau
18. Fredrik Claesson
19. Ben Blood
20. Chris Driedger
Prospects of interest that didn’t make the cut: David Dziurzynski, Cole Schneider, Jarrod Maidens, and Michael Sdao.
When I first discovered Hockey’s Future years ago it was like mana from heaven–complete lists of prospects with analysis and grades for all of them.  These days, when I read actual scouting reports and paying attention to organisational comments, the shine isn’t quite the same, but it continues to be a useful resource.

–Chris Phillips is suing his former agent (the same being sued by Dany Heatley)

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

September 13, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: 1 Comment

-There has been a dearth of Sens news of late–even the blogosphere is quiet.  What’s on everyone’s mind is the CBA and Bob McKenzie has weighed in with his thoughts in a brilliant (albeit long) column.  I can only add what I said months ago–the doom and gloom rhetoric existed in the NBA and NFL stalemates and their seasons happened anyway (a condensed one in the NBA’s case); I don’t see the NHL losing significant time over the negotiations.

-In CBA news, Swedish courts appear to be opening the door to NHL players playing in Sweden (in contrast to what the leagues themselves declared not long ago).

-Here are my profiles of Daniel Alfredsson, Craig Anderson, and the organisation’s fifth goaltender Marc Cheverie.

-Elmira has signed two more players: former Calgary Flames pick Kevin Harvey (LW, 9-270/03), who split his team between Toledo and Elmira last season (34-3-8-11), putting up 139 PIMs; and undrafted CIS grad Jean Bourbeau (RW) who spent last season with Elmira (49-10-16-26).

This article is written by Peter Levi (@eyeonthesens)

September 11, 2012
Categories: Binghamton Senators, Ottawa Senators . . Author: Eye on the Sens . Comments: Leave a comment