CHL Coast to Coast: Otters back on top
Wednesday October 14, 2015
By Josh Sweetland/CHL
After back-to-back trips to the Western Conference Finals, the Erie Otters are hungry for more this season with the hope that the third time will be the charm in the quest for their first OHL title since 2002.
Despite the loss of 2015 CHL Player of the Year and NHL first overall pick Connor McDavid, the Otters are off to a 6-0 start and enter the weekend as the CHL’s top ranked team on the fourth edition of the BMO CHL Top-10 Rankings.
With 12 holdovers from their Western Conference Championship squad last spring, reasons for the club’s hot start are numerous.
Sophomore winger Alex DeBrincat has emerged from the shadow of McDavid as the OHL’s early season scoring leader with 10 goals, three assists and 13 points through his first five games. The draft eligible 18 year-old has twice recorded five point outings, including a combined total of nine goals and an assist in a pair of wins against the Niagara IceDogs.
The Otters have also received a shot in the arm with the return of Arizona Coyotes third overall pick Dylan Strome who was named the team’s captain just prior to suiting up in his first game back. He helped Erie to a pair of weekend victories with six assists.
“He was a huge part of our team last year,” DeBrincat told Victor Fernandes of the Erie Times-News. “We’re playing well right now. To add him, it’s going to be amazing.”
Despite an unforgettable experience at his first NHL training camp, Strome is showing no shortage of excitement himself.
“I’m ready to be here. I’m ready to go,” he said of his return to Erie. “To win the championship, I think there’s no other option. There’s no reason why we can’t do what we did last year, and then finish it off the way we wanted to. No doubt in my mind that we can do that.”
While veterans in Remi Elie, Nick Baptiste and Kurtis MacDermid have graduated to the American Hockey League, the Otters have received a real boost from draft eligible sophomores Kyle Maksimovich and Taylor Raddysh. Overaged veteran Devin Williams returns to the crease behind a young defence corps that is led by Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Travis Dermott and 19 year-old veteran Darren Raddysh.
While the Otters are the hottest club in the country, a few other OHL teams have turned heads as well with the Windsor Spitfires reversing a miserable end to the 2014-15 season with a 5-1-1-0 record out of the gate this year.
Though they suffered a narrow 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Otters on Saturday, the Spits have rebounded well after the unexpected loss of overaged powerplay quarterback Trevor Murphy who signed with the Nashville Predators out of training camp.
Sixth overall 2015 CHL Import Draft selection Mikhail Sergachev has filled in admirably on the back end, catching the attention of scouts ahead of the 2016 NHL Draft while fellow draft eligible Spitfire Logan Brown leads the team in scoring with nine points (1-8–9) in six games. Arizona Coyotes prospect Christian Fischer has been a valuable addition to the Windsor attack while 2015 second overall OHL Priority Selection pick Gabriel Vilardi has four goals through his first seven contests.
Longtime rivals in the London Knights and Sarnia Sting are also intriguing teams early on this season. The 4-1-1-1 Knights feature a wealth of young offensive weapons in Toronto Maple Leafs first rounder Mitch Marner, Arizona Coyotes prospect Christian Dvorak, Columbus Blue Jackets signee Kole Sherwood and draft eligible standouts Max Jones, Matthew Tkachuk and defenceman Olli Juolevi.
The 5-2-1-0 Sting will benefit from the return of New Jersey Devils first rounder Pavel Zacha who rejoined the club last week. He, along with top draft prospect Jakob Chychrun and talented winger Nikita Korostelev make the Sting a darkhorse in the minds of many out of the gate this season.
The Kingston Frontenacs are off to a solid start in the East Division, playing to a 4-1-1-1 record behind solid performances from 2015 OHL Goaltender of the Year Lucas Peressini, Carolina Hurricanes prospect Roland McKeown and veteran forwards Spencer Watson and Juho Lammikko. Florida Panthers first round selection Lawson Crouse has returned to the team and looks to build off a 29-goal output from last season.
Elsewhere in the East Division, the Ottawa 67’s have won four straight thanks to production from Dante Salituro and captain Travis Konecny, the Peterborough Petes took four of a possible six points on their Western Conference weekend road trip behind the strong performance of Pioneer Energy OHL Player of the Week Hunter Garlent and the Oshawa Generals have been stingy defensively, with goaltender Jeremy Brodeur recording four shutouts in seven starts this season.
The Central Division is wide open with the highly touted Niagara IceDogs and Barrie Colts seeing mixed results early on. An emerging Mississauga Steelheads team has shown flashes of brilliance with some highlight reel goals off the stick of Swedish rookie Alexander Nylander and the always steady North Bay Battalion have recovered from an 0-3 start to win their last three straight.
At the top of the heap though are the Erie Otters, the Canadian Hockey League’s last remaining undefeated team. The Otters will have their work cut out for them this week with a three-in-three set beginning on the road in Peterborough and Oshawa on Thursday and Friday before returning home to face Guelph on Saturday.
Connor McDavid scored his first career NHL goal with the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night, but it seems the excitement back in Erie has only just begun.