A Wolves Season for the Books
This Wolves season was one for the books. And, as Team Historian, I don’t say that lightly.
I’ve been helping share the club’s history for the past six years, and while that’s just a sliver of the more than five decades the Wolves have been in the Ontario Hockey League, I can’t recall a season like this.
It’s been decades since Sudbury has had such an offensively lethal team. The Wolves finished the regular-season with 328 goals, the most in the league. The last time the club racked up 300 or more goals in a campaign was in 1994-95. Nine years ago, when the lowly Wolves managed just 12 victories, they only found the back of the net 149 times.
To put that into perspective, this past season, Sudbury’s top line of Dalibor Dvorský, Quentin Musty, and David Goyette, arguably the best unit in the CHL, combined for 128 goals. Add in Kocha Delic’s 30 goals, and those four players would’ve outscored the 2014-15 squad by nine tallies.
Speaking of Dvorský, Musty, and Goyette, where do you even begin? Maybe with Goyette, the OHL’s leading scorer. The Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy has been hard to come by in Sudbury; Goyette is just the third Wolf to take home the award.
But it’s something that many saw coming. Since Goyette joined the Wolves in 2021, he has continued to elevate his game and he certainly brought it this year. The captain’s 117 points was the most by a Sudbury player in three decades and puts him ninth in franchise history for the most points in a single season.
The only Wolves who have outscored Goyette in a campaign are Mike Foligno, Rod Schutt, Ron Duguay, Dave MacQueen, Morris Titanic, Jamie Rivers, Norm Milley, and Paul DiPietro. That’s some pretty legendary company. Wolves broadcaster Thomas Mercier believes that Goyette is the greatest Wolf this century. It’s hard to argue with that.
But, then again, Musty has also made a pretty good case for himself. In 53 games this year, the Hamburg, New York native racked up 43 goals and 102 points in just 53 games, making him and Goyette the first pair of Wolves players to join the century club in more than two decades. You could actually count the number of games Musty was held off the scoresheet without needing to take off your socks. Nine. He almost had more games with three or more points, including a few six-point performances, than bagels.
His 1.92 points per game was the most in the OHL by a wide margin. And if Musty hadn’t missed time with suspension and injuries he was on pace for 130 points over a full 68-game campaign. This breakout season was expected from someone as determined and talented as Musty, but he credits the arrival of Dalibor Dvorský as inspiration for pushing his game further.
Drafted 10th overall by the St. Louis Blues this past year, Dvorský joined the Wolves as an import selection. For me, it’s hard not to draw comparisons to another recent import player, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. They are exact opposites, Dvorský is a sniper and Luukkonen tends the twine, but there’s a case to be made that they have been the most talented players in their respective positions that the Wolves have seen in a long time and perhaps forever.
Dvorský led the Wolves in goal scoring with 45 goals in just 52 games. In an alternate timeline in which he joined the Wolves for the start of the season and not represented Slovakia at the World Juniors, he could have pushed for 60 goals, something that hasn’t been done by a Wolves player in 45 years. If you missed any of them, you catch them all here in this thread I made throughout the season. Hopefully Dvorský will have me busily adding to it in the playoffs.
But it wasn’t Dvorský’s output that was most impressive, although it was pretty darn impressive, it was his seemingly innate ability to find the back of the net from angles that should have defied the laws of physics. Besides those impossible shots, Dvorský played each game with such confidence and poise that, even when he wasn’t lighting the lamp, it was clear he was peerless on the ice.
The dynamic trio’s ability to take over games is part of what has made this season so fun to watch, but the offensive contributions throughout the lineup was nearly unparalleled. The Wolves finished with seven 20-goal scorers, the most in more than three decades. If you include Zacharie Giroux, who joined the club from Flint before the trade deadline and reached the 20-goal milestone down the stretch with Sudbury, then they actually had eight on the roster. That’s just second time that’s happened for the Wolves.
And let’s not forget history was made on the blue line was well. Andre Anania finished the season plus-49, the most by a Wolves player in the Internet era. Beyond having a plus-minus that would’ve made Larry Robinson proud, Anania was reliable on both sides of the puck, blocking shots and contributing offensively.
There has been no shortage of milestones this year, but the players will be the first to tell you that these mean nothing if they come up short in the playoffs. Goyette would gladly hand over the Eddie Powers with a smile on his face if it meant he and his teammates would hoist the J. Ross Robertson Cup. While Sudbury has come close to winning it in the past, it has twice eluded their grasp. But if any team has the offensive firepower to pull it off and finally bring it home, it’s this one.
The Wolves open the playoffs tonight on the road against Mississauga. Sudbury’s first home game is on Easter Monday, April 1. There’s nothing like the playoff atmosphere at the barn on Elgin, so secure your tickets now.