Sleeping In On Sunday

The good old fall back part of daylight savings time gave us an extra hour of sleep (or in our case to watch prospect video) but from the efforts seen on Sunday by New York Ranger and New York Islander prospects we could have stayed in bed.

It was a quiet day for the 4 prospects who saw action but for some they were playing early games after seeing action the night before. Sometimes the folks who set up the game schedules forget that the players are teenagers not machines.

Dylan McIlrath (NYR 2010 1st) is not going to grow up fast enough for Ranger fans to rescue them from what passes as the current Ranger blueline corp. After a very slow start to his season, McIlrath has turned his game around and that can be directly linked to how his Moose Jaw Warriors have turned their season around.

If you have any doubt about the go look at McIlrath's season record, McIlrath recorded his first point of the season on October 13th and since then the Warriors have gone 8-1-0-1 including 6 straight wins after the Warriors defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 2-1 in the shoot out.

McIlrath did not score but his defensive play was such that he was named 3rd Star of the game after the 2 goalies in this excellent defensive game. The Warriors after a 2-7 start are now 10-8-0-1 good for 2nd place in the WHL's East Division.

David Toews (NYI 2008 3rd) and his Brandon Wheat Kings like McIlrath's Warriors have been struggling to turn things around this season. The difference in the 2 team is that the Wheat Kings have been ravaged by injuries.

Toews himself missed 11 games with a high ankle sprain and his return on Friday night helped the Wheat Kings to stop a 2 game losing streak. Toews had a struggle of his own on Sunday as the Wheat Kings playing their 3rd game in 3 days saw their 2 game winning streak stopped by the Regina Pats 4-1.

We will always be critical of the 3 CHL leagues when they pull these 3 games in 3 days (more like 2.5 days since Sunday games are late afternoon affairs) so we will not be harsh on the Wheat Kings for playing so we will leave it at they lost.

Daniel Maggio (NYR 2009 6th) earned his 4th assist of the season as a secondary assist on a Guelph Storm shorthanded goal as the Storm defeated the Ottawa 67's 6-4. In just his 2nd game back for the Storm, Maggio has added some badly needed veteran stability to the Storm roster.

Maggio's return is not the only reason why the Storm have a 2 game winning streak but Maggio as he gets back into game shape is going to give the Storm a defender who plays a 2 way game while not being afraid to drop the gloves.

Casey Cizikas (2008 4th) and his Mississauga St. Micheal's Majors we hope learned the harsh lesson as the team with the best record in the OHL lost to one of the worst teams as the Erie Otters came away with a 2-1 shootout win. Cizikas was scoreless and missed on his shootout attempt.

No excuses here as no way should the Majors lose to a team that played the night before then had to travel to play in this game. Have a feeling that I would not want to be attending the Major's practice on Monday if I was a member of the Majors.

(Images: Maggio/Guelph Storm, Toews/Brandon Wheat Kings)

It Is A Saturday Night And Nobody Wants to Party

Remember the days when you went out to parties on a Saturday night, there were plenty of people but nothing really happened? Well welcome to the Saturday night of the New York Rangers and New York Islanders prospects.

If you go by just stats then you will find reasons to think people played well but quite honestly nobody stood out enough to earn a star. Maybe we are getting picky having so many different players to watch but not one person said any prospect stood out and we are not going to give out a star just because.

For the Ranger prospects, Ethan Werek had a shootout goal and Max Campbell continued his climb back from the prospect graveyard. The Rangers had 10 prospects in uniform but like we said nobody stood out.

The Ranger report is right here

For the Islanders the more we get to watch Anders Lee of Notre Dame the more we really like this prospects. Nothing is better than a 6th round prospect making themselves into legit NHL prospects like we are watching Lee do.

Brock Nelson the "other" 2010 1st round pick of the Islanders scored his first goal of the season while Nino Niederreiter may not be scoring a ton but unlike the Islanders he is playing on a team that is winning.

Actually since we felt the decision to send Nino back to Portland was the wrong one then we do not feel bad in pointing out that the Islanders are 0-5 since demoting Nino. Nino and his Winterhawks are 4-0 since he returned.

The Islander report is right here

(Images: Werek/Aaron Bell/OHL Images, Lee/ New York Islanders)

Going Every Which Way But That Way

With about 20 different games going on involving New York Ranger and New York Islander prospects, Friday night was one of those nights where picking where to be was a problem. From the debut of Kirill Kabanov (NYI 2010 3rd) in Lewiston to Carl Hagelin (NYR 2007 6th) and his Michigan Wolverines on their annual trip to Alaska, we really wish we could show you a day in the life of a scout whether they are NHL or not.

Thankfully we have plenty of friends who made sure we got all the information on what was an extremely busy night of hockey.  The best thing about hockey though is you never know who is going to wind up your heroes or your goats.

For the New York Islanders, the hero is David Toews (2008 3rd) who after being out for a month with a high ankle sprain made sure everyone knew he was back when he scored at 2:29 of overtime to give his Brandon Wheat Kings a 3-2 win over the Spokane Chiefs.

We are happy for Toews as he was showing all the signs of breaking out offensively for the Wheat Kings before he got hurt. The rest of the night was mostly up with some down but here the Islander prospect report is right here.

On the Ranger side, it was a very mixed night as there was good news, bad news, so-so news and the unexpected return of Dan Maggio (2009 6th) for the Guelph Storm.

We had several choices for the Ranger prospect first star but in the end, Max Campbell (2005 5th) of the Western Michigan Broncos sneaked in and took the honors with a goal and an assist as the Broncos came from behind and defeated in-state rivals Michigan State 4-3.

Still as we also enjoyed seeing that Brandon Dubinsky scored 2 goals to reach double figures in the Ranger's win adding more fuel to our argument that the Ranger's best draft picks have been their 2nd round ones; the rest of the Ranger report can be found here.

(Images: Kabanov/Moncton Wildcats, Toews/Brandon Wheat Kings, Campbell/Western Michigan)

2 is Not a Lonely Number

It was really interesting to watch on twitter the discussion between 3 of the better Ranger tweeters today as Dave Shapiro (Blue Seat Blogs), Mike Gleich (Bleeding All Blue) and George Ays (AKA @RangerSmurf) were all talking about the Glen Sather Era. The 3 of them went back and forth all making valid points from trades to free agents to draft picks.

Of course talking about the draft picks is always going to catch our attention in a hurry as while they were talking about how first round drafting has gotten better in recent years. Like it or not in the Sather Era, the Rangers have been pretty good with their 2nd round picks.


2001- Fedor Tyutin
2004- Brandon Dubinsky
2005- Michael Sauer
2006- Artem Anisimov
2008- Derek Stepan
2009- Ethan Werek
2010- Christian Thomas

We include Ethan Werek and Christian Thomas in this list because when one is top line center, the other is one of the most gifted snipers we have seen in years. Tonight is about Ethan Werek who for reasons that escape us does not come up as one of the Ranger's better prospects.

What does Werek have to do in order to receiver his proper due? He has size 6'2 190, he has been a consistent goal scorer (30 and 32), his assists are consistent (32 and 33) and right now he is one of the leading goal scorers in the OHL (5th with 11) and his 3 game winning goals has him tied 5th.

And we have not even mentioned how Werek is 2 for 3 on the shootout.

Tonight Werek got that 11th goal of the season when he scored his 3rd power play goal of the season at 6:12 of the first period as Werek's Kingston Frontenacs defeated the Peterborough Petes 3-2. The Frontenacs with the win jumped past the Oshawa Generals and Ottawa 67's for first place in the OHL's East Division.

When everyone both inside and outside the Rangers asks the question "Who will be the Ranger's first line center of the future?" Maybe the answer is staring everyone in the face and his name is Ethan Werek.

The New York Islanders have themselves a pretty good prospect playing for the Mississauga St. Micheal's Majors in Casey Cizikas (2009 4th). Cizikas is the captain of the Majors who after they shut out Jason Wilson (NYR 2010 5th) and his Niagara IceDogs 3-0 have the best record in the OHL. 

Cizikas scored his 3rd game winning goal of the season when he scored at 19:15 of the first period for the only goal that the Majors would really need. The goal scoring was not the only part of Cizika's game as his defensive play helped Cizikas to being named the 2nd star of the game.

Jason Wilson and his IceDogs did not play a bad game but the Majors are that good and right now as hosts of the 2011 Memorial Cup are looking very good.

(Images: Werek and Cizikas/Aaron Bell/OHL Images)

The Little Guys Won

It is interesting that if we were egomaniacs then we would take credit for the way the only 2 games turned out for the prospects on Wednesday night. Just Scott Stajcer and Ryan Bourque were in action but the duo had opposite results.

Stajcer (NYR 2009 5th) got his first win in over 2 weeks as his Owen Sound Attack blasted 52 shots at the Barrie Colts in a 3-1 win. The Attack really have been living up to their name as they have been hitting the 50 shot mark in their games quite often as of late.

Stajcer on the other hand had it easy compared to his counterpart having to only face 18 shots including just 2 in the 3rd period. This is not a knock on Stajcer but his teammates are doing everything they can to make his life easier so now it is up to him to do his share.

Stajcer improved his OHL season totals to 9-1 (1st), 2.52 (4th), and 0.915 save percentage (T-3rd) as the Attack improved to 11-3-0-1 which is first in the OHL's Mid-West division and 3rd best overall in the OHL.

The other day when we were ranking teams with prospects we said this about the Lewiston MAINEaics:


the darkhorse who nobody knows what will happen with Kabanov. The MAINEaics are a decent team as is but if they can turn Kabanov into the player everyone thinks he can be then this team just might change up the entire QMJHL.

We knew the MAINEaics were a good team without New York Islander prospect Kirill Kabanov (2010 3rd) and without Kabanov they hosted Ryan Bourque's (NYR 2009 3rd) top ranked Quebec Remparts Wednesday night. The MAINEaics broke a 3rd period 3-3 tie to defeat the Remparts 4-3 in front of just 1747 fans.

It was just the 2nd regulation loss of the season for the Remparts who remain at the top of the CHL Mastercard Top 10.

Ryan Bourque had one of his better overall games as he scored his 6th goal of the season on 5 shots with a +1 and credited for 1 good hit. Bourque since returning to the Rempart lineup has been on a hot streak going 4-5-9 in his last 6 games.

As for the latest word on the Kirill Kabanov is that he was at the game last night but given how little he has played it will be a shock if the MAINEaics just rush him into the lineup. The way they are playing it might be better if they just take their time and ease him in.

(Images: Stajcer/Aaron Bell, Bourque/Quebec Remparts)

Elect This

What a really strange day for prospect hockey from a fight filled "School Day" to the return of the New York Ranger's top offensive prospect Chris Kreider. The New York Islander prospects faced off against each other so they won and lost but none of them got out of line.

The one game out west was more an explosion from 2 players who the Rangers need to be offering contracts to. So strange that on a team that Glen Sather owns a piece of that 2 of the best prospects the Rangers have are not under a contract for next season.

The big news if you are a Ranger fan is that Chris Kreider (2009 1st) finally broke though and scored his first goals of the 2010-11 season. Kreider scored 2 goals as 4th ranked Boston College struggled before finally putting UMass-Lowell 5-2. 

It is really hard not to say that Boston College is not suffering from post-championship hangover as UMass-Lowell came into this game with just 1 win all season. Kreider got Boston College going when he scored his first of the season at 10:08 of the first period.

Kreider did not play a bad game but he did get fooled into taking a penalty by a deke in the 3rd period. Kreider got his 2nd of the season when he scored an unassisted empty net goal to seal the win for Boston College at 19:06 of the 3rd.

We still believe what ails Kreider's game is his not shooting as while he scored 2 goals but he only had 2 shots on goal. Kreider is a scorer and he needs to be more selfish with the puck as few have his size and strength to stop him.

Some of the teams in the OHL are starting a new tradition called "School Day" where the teams play during the day and the kids get a day off from school to attend a hockey game. The game between the Mississauga St. Micheal's Majors and Oshawa Generals was not a textbook example of how to show good sportsmanship.

10 fighting majors, 90 minutes of penalties and some bad attitudes later it was the Majors with a 4-1 easy win. Casey Cizikas (NYI 2009 4th) was scoreless for the Majors and compared to others had a quiet night.

 For the Generals, Calvin De Haan (NYI 2009 1st) earned the 3rd star of the game as he teamed up with Christian Thomas (NYR 2010 2nd) to set up the only goal of the game for the Generals. De Haan was a -1 as was Thomas.

Thomas improved his season numbers to 11-9-20 good for 2nd among Ranger prospect scoring after missing 1 game due to a mandatory suspension. The 3rd member of the Generals Tony DeHart (NYI 2010 5th) was a -2 on the game.

Out west, the team we said was a very dangerous one, the Chilliwack Bruins showed their firepower against the Kootenay Ice who had come into this game winners of 7 straight and just whipped them 6-2. Forget the score as the 2 goals the Ice scored were meaningless as the Bruins just took them apart in the 2nd period.

This was a "Get Away" game for the Bruins as they were ending a 4 game road trip to the WHL's Eastern Conference. Most times teams was tired and tend to lose the last game of a long road trip.

Chilliwack blew this game wide open in the 2nd period in the first 5 minutes as the Bruins scored 3 goals on 3 shots. Roman Horak (2009 5th) wound up with the game winning goal of the game thanks to his goal of the season at 4:21 of the 2nd period.

It was Horak's Ranger prospect leading 21st point of the season and this is coming from a prospect who even we think of as the future defensive center of the Rangers. Horak has far exceeded anyone's expectations and if he has not proven worthy of a Ranger contract then we do not know what a prospect has to do.

And since we are handing out Ranger contracts then we want one for Brandon Manning (TC 2010) as no Ranger defensive prospect in the 7 years we have done this has done everything that Manning has done. From Michael Del Zotto to Michael Sauer, Ranger defensive prospects have been basically one way defenders.

Manning does it at both ends of the ice and every time we see him, Manning does something else to impress us. Tonight it was a missile of a shot from the point that went in for the backbreaking goal of the night with just 6 seconds remaining in the 2nd period and a 5-0 Bruin lead.

For a team that has never shown a problem giving out free agent contracts to players who do not deserve them, why Manning was not offered an NHL contract still boggles the mind.

(Images: Kreider/New York Rangers, Cizikas and De Haan/Aaron Bell/OHL Images, Horak/Chilliwack)

A Polling We Will Go

With just one game on the schedule for the New York Ranger and New York Islander prospects we thought we would throw our 0.02 about where the prospect teams are in the CHL at the moment.

These are just the teams who have Ranger and Islander prospects on them so yes we know that other teams are not here. But after the month of October this is how we see the prospect teams in the CHL.

1-Quebec Remparts QMJHL (Ryan Bourque NYR 2009 3rd) - when you are 15-1-0-1 no matter what league you are doing really good. But when you have only given up 36 goals in those 17 games then you are outstanding.

2- Mississauga St. Micheal's Majors OHL (Casey Cizikas NYI 2009 4th)- The Majors are not content just hosting the 2011 Memorial Cup, they look like they want to enter it as OHL champs. Strong at both ends of the ice but with a balanced attack.

3- Niagara IceDogs OHL (Jason Wilson NYR 2010 5th)- The surprise team for many in the OHL, the IceDogs have a strong attack but Marty Williamson behind the bench means you work hard or you watch the game from the stands.

4-Portland Winterhawks WHL (Nino Niederreiter NYI 2010 1st) - the Winterhawks were good before Nino, now they are dangerous despite remaining young. Get them one veteran center and this is your Memorial Cup favorite no check that your Memorial Cup winner.

5- Oshawa Generals OHL (Christian Thomas NYR 2010 2nd, Calvin De Haan  NYI 2009 1st, Tony DeHart NYI 2010 5th)- This is a team that has struggled over the last couple of seasons but we have a feeling they are about to go on a run. De Haan and Thomas key an offense that makes this team a threat to win every night.

6- Chilliwack Bruins WHL (Roman Horak NYR 2009 5th Brandon Manning TC 2010)- People are going to think this is too high but this is a very dangerous team that is just now learning how to win under coach Marc Habscheid who has won everywhere he has been. They need more another scoring line to become serious contenders.

7- Vancouver Giants WHL (Randy McNaught NYR 2010 7th)- This is a franchise that is used to winning and everytime people think they are going to decline they just reload and keep winning. Coach Don Hay takes projects and turns them into hockey players. Come playoff time they will be there.

8- Kingston Fronteancs OHL (Ethan Werek 2009 2nd)- The Fronts are a good offensive team but they need to become a better defensive team. They get themselves into too many offensive shootouts and if they could tighten up on defense would move up the ladder.

9- Owen Sound Attack OHL (Scott Stajcer 2009 5th)- Yes they have a better record than 3 of the teams ranked right in front of them but when your starting goalie is in a slump so does your team. If Stajcer can regain the form that he had at the start of this season then the Attack will jump right back up this ranking but if he does not then they will sink really fast.

10- Moose Jaw Warriors WHL (Dylan McIlrath 2010 1st)- As October was ending so was the early season slump that had them at the bottom of the WHL standings. Since October 13th, the Warriors are 6-1 which is why despite having a 7-8-0-1 record they are here in the rankings as this is the Moose Jaw team we were expecting to see.

The Rest


Brandon Wheat Kings WHL (David Toews NYI 2008 3rd) - the injury bug has just ravaged this team in October but they should start getting people back as early as this week.

Guelph Storm OHL (Daniel Maggio NYR 2009 6th) - like the Wheat Kings they have been badly hurt by the injury bug but unlike the Wheat Kings help is still a couple of weeks away.

Erie Otters OHL (Andrew Yogan NYR 2010 4th)- everything you could imagine going wrong has for this franchise as even the clock has started on when Robbie Ftorek will get fired. Yogan is out at least until January if not longer.

Lewiston MAINEaics QMJHL (Kirill Kabanov NYI 2010 3rd)- the darkhorse who nobody know what will happen with Kabanov. The MAINEaics are a decent team as is but if they can turn Kabanov into the player everyone thinks he can be then this team just might change up the entire QMJHL. If Kabanov stays as the "kid with the bad rep" then they will just be another contender.

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Ethan Werek and his Kingston Frontenacs were the only ones in action on Monday as they won one on the road as they defeated the Ottawa 67's 4-2. Werek scored his 10th goal of the season in the first period off a feed from Nathan Moon to tie the game at 1-1. 

Werek ties Christian Thomas for 2nd among the Ranger Prospect scorers at 10-9-19 but what we like is that Werek is on a pace to score 45-50 this season. Can we call him a Top 6 forward prospect now?

(Images: Bourque/Quebec Remparts, Casey Cizikas/Aaron Bell/OHL Images, Jason Wilson/JoeSmithphotography.ca, Randy McNaught/New York Rangers, Calvin De Haan/ Aaron Bell/OHL Images)