Making Grandpa Proud

The other day when I was chatting with Chris Doyle he mentioned how his grandfather Alfred Arsenault was a regular reader of Prospect Park and how he would call Chris and read what we write about him. Well Grandpa we got a good reason for you to wake that grandson of yours up in the AM.

First Star Chris Doyle

Right now he is the hottest New York Ranger prospect out there and Chris Doyle (2008 5th) is on a mission to show that he is a legit Ranger's prospect. Entering Friday's play, Doyle was on a 6 game scoring streak as his Victoriaville Tigre fight for the top seed in the QMJHL playoffs.

Make it 7 games as Doyle with his 20th goal of the season and his 38th assist as the new prospect scoring leader led his Tigre to a 5-1 over the Montreal Junior. It gives Doyle a 2-11-13 in his last 7 games but a very nice 5-20-25, +3 in 21 games since being traded to the Tigre.

For Doyle this has to be feeling good as last year at this time Doyle was suffering from a back injury that left him ineffective as Doyle who at one point was blowing away all of the Ranger prospects only to see Evgeny Grachev catch him and beat him for the prospect scoring title.

Doyle says that will not happen this season as he wants to lead the Ranger prospects in scoring and is backing up his works with his play. Against the normally excellent defensive minded Junior; Doyle had little problems finding scoring chances as Doyle's goal came at 3:10 of the 2nd period for a 3-0 Tigre lead.

Doyle then as part of the DKD line added another power play point as he got the secondary assist on Tomas Kubalik's 28th goal of the season in the 3rd period. Doyle is used by the Tigre as the power play quarterback which has to be a shock to Doyle's critics back on Prince Edward Island who said Doyle never passes the puck.

Well Grandpa guess Chris is having the laugh now huh? 20-38-58 for the prospect scoring leader Chris Doyle.

Second Star Daniel Maggio

It has been a very long time since we got to see something out of Daniel Maggio (2009 6th) as the young defenseman has struggled just as his Sudbury Wolves have this season. At one point Maggio was one of the top scorers among OHL defenseman but has fallen off in his scoring over the 2nd half.

Maggio has gone 16 games without a goal but has 8 assists during that time period. None of those assists might have been as important as the one Maggio had against the Niagara Ice Dogs.

Maggio set up Kristoff Konto's goal at 14:20 of the second period as it gave the Wolves a 2-0 lead as they held on to win 2-1. The win helped the Wolves jump into 7th place in the OHL's Eastern Conference over the same Ice Dogs with 2 games in hand for the Wolves.

It was a big time play for a player just learning to make big time plays. The question that Maggio needs to answer is what kind of defenseman wants to be?

Does he want to be a 2 way defender? An offensive one (Maggio is tied with Mitch Gaulton for most points by a defender) or a stay at home defender who will drop the gloves (Maggio leads with 4 fighting majors).

With Jeff Beukeboom as his mentor, Maggio is going to have the right person to teach him but we need to see Maggio's name here more often.

The Rest of the Ranger Prospect Report

It seems the injury report is more important that how the players did as Ryan Bourque (2009 3rd) joined the injured list as the result of a neck injury he suffered on Wednesday night. That make 3 key injuries that Bourque has suffered this season and sadly now it is going to be a huge concern regarding Bourque's future.

Bourque is expected to be out for the next 2 weeks recovering which could mean Bourque misses the rest of the QMJHL regular season.

Ethan Werek (twisted knee) and Mitch Gaulton (right elbow) remain out for their respective teams.

Scott Stajcer (2009 5th) goes from big game win to bad loss in 24 hours as Stajcer gave up 5 goals on 32 shots in an embarrassing 5-0 loss to the lowly Sarnia Sting. There is no excuses for this loss and to be brutally honest when the regular season comes to an end for the Owen Sound Attack and they find themselves on the outside; this will be one of the reasons why.

The Sting are the worst team in the OHL, they were 24 points behind the Attack in the standings and this was one there was not a single excuse why the Attack lost.

Moving west to the WHL, we think it was a misprint but Roman Horak (2009 5th) was listed as the Captain of the Chilliwack Bruins in their game against the Swift Current Broncos. If it is true then that is a huge feather in the cap for the rookie from Ceske Budejovice in the Czech Republic.

Horak did not score but his Bruins went on the road and shut out the Swift Current Broncos 3-0. The Broncos are currently the 8th seed in the WHL's Western Conference but they have not in the last 7 days defeated the top seed in the conference and now has 2 straight shutout wins.

That sounds like the rebuilding Bruins have plans than just being someone's whipping boy in the playoffs.

Sam Klassen (2009 UFA) and his Saskatoon Blades lost 5-2 to the Vancouver Giants at home as they fell to 3rd place in the WHL's Eastern Conference. Klassen was scoreless and a -2 on the evening.

In the college ranks, there were plenty of goals but not one win for the Ranger prospects.

Chris Kreider (2009 1st) scored his 9th but his Boston College Eagles lost 3-2 to Northeastern. If you have ESPNU then you can see Kreider's Eagles in action on Sunday at 3PM before the USA/Canada game.

Derek Stepan (2008 2nd) scored his first goal in 8 games but it was all the offense that his 3rd ranked Wisconsin Badgers could muster against the 4th ranked St. Cloud State. It was Stepan's 7th goal of the season.

Ryan McDonagh (2009 Trade) was held scoreless as well.

Carl Hagelin (2007 6th) scored his 14th goal of the season but it was the only goal that his Michigan Wolverines scored as they lost 3-1 to Northern Michigan coached by former Ranger assistant coach Walt Kyle. For Hagelin the goal extended his scoring streak to a career high 8 games (2-7-9) but his season is falling apart as barring a miracle Michigan will not be heading to the NCAAs for the first time in 20 years.

Max Campbell (2007 5th) and his Western Michigan Broncos are now just playing out the string as this week saw the word that current coach Jim Culhane will be let go after this season. For Campbell that will mean his senior season is as much in air especially given how poor his number have been.

Campbell scored just his 5th goal of the season which came too little, too late for WMU as they lost 3-1 to Ohio State. Campbell who led WMU in goals last season with 16 has had a horrible season and may have fallen off the prospect radar for the Rangers.

Danny Hobbs (2007 7th) and his UMass Minutemen continued their late season slump losing to the Merrimack Warriors 4-1. UMass at one time was a shoe in for the NCAAs is barely holding on to the last spot in the Pairwise rankings (which is a good indicator of who will get an NCAA bid).

Hobbs was scoreless as the Minutemen lost for the 6th time in their last 7 games.

(Doyle: Benoit Dery, Maggio: OHL Images/Terry Wilson)






Maggio has not scored a goal since December 31st which is now a streak of 16 games. For his offensively challenged