Traverse City Prospects Tournament Preview/Forwards Preview

My last post was a prediction of who I thought would be playing for the Jackets in the Traverse City Prospect Tournament. Now with the team announcing it's roster, let's see how I did. Overall 20 out of the 22 I named will be in camp while also giving myself a half point of extra credit for guessing correctly the team wouldn't add any defensemen. The two players that won't be on the team that I guessed were center Tyler Murovich and goaltender Gustaf Wesslau.

Now I did a history lesson about the tournament last time so this time I'll explain how the tournament works. The tournament will take place September 10th through the 15th. The eight teams will be split into two divisions each named after a NHL Legend. The Blue Jackets will compete in the Gretzky division which also includes the Minnesota Wild, New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes. While the Howe Division will feature the Detroit Red Wings, Tampa Bay Lightning, St. Louis Blues and the Dallas Stars. Each day at the tournament includes a morning practice and then a game in the afternoon/night except Monday which is only a practice day. Saturday through Tuesday each team will play the other three teams in its division. Then on Wednesday the teams will play each other based on standings, 4th place vs 4th place, 3rd vs 3rd etc. The two first place teams will play at 6pm for the championship.

TEAM OVERVIEW
Now in my last piece I said it looked like the Jackets were sending a BIG team and boy was I right. The teams average height is 6'2", that number is the same with or without the team's two ogre goaltenders but more on them later. The team is made up of 16 of the team's draft picks, 12 invitees and a prospect the team traded for. 23 of the 29 players played last year in the Canadian Hockey League while four played college hockey. Defenseman Anton Blomqvist is the only player coming over from a european league to play for the Jackets.(still wearing Adam Foote's number though, poor guy) Now I can't say for sure but I believe the minor league coaching staff normally serve as the coaches for the tournament. Now to the position breakdowns, now I'll admit I've written a lot about some of these guys but I'll try not to repeat myself and hopefully include some new stuff.

FORWARDS
The Blue Jackets will take 17 forwards to Traverse City and of the 17 only three are under 6'0" one of those three is 5'11" Matt Calvert. This will be Calvert's third Traverse City camp including tying for the lead in goals and points in last years tournament. Calvert led the entire Columbus organization in goals last season picking up 47 while serving as a co-captain for his hometown Brandon Wheat Kings. Calvert is a threat on special teams with 19 of his goals being on either a power play or short-handed goal. In fact during last year's WHL playoffs Calvert scored a natural short-handed hat trick in a 6:47 span. The biggest forward in camp will be Nick Czinder. The 6'6" Czinder is a Michigan native that played for the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL last season and has signed on with the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League. Justin Feser is the smallest guy on the team at 5 foot 9 181 pounds.

Feser just completed his second season with the Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League and what a season it was. Feser's production went up 45 points up from 28 to 73 including a 24 goal increase. The last player under 6'0" is 5'9" Chris Francis. Francis is a teammate of Columbus first round pick Ryan Johansen with the Portland Winterhawks. Francis is a playmaker picking up 102 assists over the last 2 seasons. Francis has been signed by the Springfield Falcons, a bit off topic but here's an article about Francis from early last season from The Oregonian. Oliver Gabriel is another Winterhawk the Blue Jackets are taking to Traverse City, Gabriel has put up 35 points in 91 WHL games.

Marek Hrivik finished 4th in rookie scoring in the QMJHL putting up 26 goals and 29 assists as a teammate of Blue Jackets defensive prospect David Savard with the Moncton Wildcats. Ryan Johansen was the Blue Jackets 1st round pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft going 4th overall. Johansen will be the highest draft pick in the tournament along with St. Louis's Alex Pietrangelo (4th overall in 08). 10 of Johansen 25 goals were on special teams with 9 being on the power play and 1 being short handed. You have to like the names Johansen is being compared to Joe Thornton was the name thrown around by most people at the draft and The Hockey News has Ryan as the Jackets 2nd best prospect while saying he plays a Eric Staal type game. Michael Kantor is one of the many heavy hitters on this Columbus roster he picked up 108 penalty minutes in 24 NAHL games then signing with the Saginaw Spirit picking up 71 in 29 games while also scoring 12 points with the Spirit.

As I said earlier I've written about some of these a lot and Tomas Kubalik is no exception. So here's hockeysfuture.com's take on the big Czech "Kubalik is a chippy forward, always in the middle of scrums. He plays with a bit of an edge, but also brings skill. He is not afraid to go to the net and score dirty goals. Kubalik must continue to work on his skating. He owns a good shot. He needs to continue to develop his physical game, and must increase his strength to compete with bigger stronger players." Kubalik played in last year's tournament picking up a goal and an assist, while not lighting up the scoreboard his play did earn him some good reviews according to a post on Puck-Rakers. Jordan Messier has a last name that is famous throughout hockey and before you ask I'll tell you he is Mark Messier's....cousin's son(sorry I had to). Messier is another Tri-City player that had a major increase in point production including a 14 goal increase going from 9 to 23.

Now as I said this team has some big boys and some very tough customers and no one is probably tougher than Kyle Neuber. Neuber will never be known for lighting up the scoreboard other than where they put the penalty clock, Neuber put up 526 penalty minutes in four years in the OHL including 188 last year finishing 2nd in the OHL and lead the Blue Jackets organization in that category. Now I joked earlier about Jordan Messier's hockey heritage, but I can't do that with 2010 2nd round pick Dalton Smith. Dalton's dad is Derrick Smith and his uncles are the Primeau brothers, Keith and Wayne. Together those 3 have combined to play more than 2200 games and earned more than 2700 penalty minutes. It appears the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree as he picked up 129 penalty minutes in 62 games while scoring 44 points and being a +20. Dalton not only used his size to help him be a 21 goal scorer but he also uses it to create space for his highly skilled linemates who both scored more than 35 goals and nearly 80 points.

Ted Stephens was the first player eve from the Yukon to play in the QMJHL when he started playing for the Moncton Wildcats. Why that is a big deal needs a small explanation, the CHL is made up of three leagues (OHL, QMJHL, WHL) and each can only sign players from certain parts of Canada and the United States. Now somehow a player from an WHL area can sign with a QMJHL team but I don't know what has to happen to make this possible. Now the Yukon is deep in WHL territory how deep it share a border with Alaska while the Province Moncton is in shares a border with Maine. Stephens appears to be a consistent 40 point scorer picking up 39 points last year and 41 the year before.

Petr Straka won two out of the three rookie of the year awards a player can win in the QMJHL last year. Straka is the 3rd player the Jackets have drafted to win both the RDS Cup and Michel Bergeron Trophy as league and offensive rookie of the year in the same year(05-Brassard, 07-Voracek). Straka led all Q rookies in scoring putting up 64 points in 62 games. At 23 Nick Sucharski is the elder statesman of the Jackets forwards. Sucharski is one of only 5 players left from the 2006 NHL entry draft and the only never to even sign a contract. Sucharski was part of the 2007 National Championship team including scoring the game winning goal to put the Spartans in the Championship game. This is probably the last chance for Sucharski's last chance if he wants to make a living as a hockey player instead of what he went to school for, a lawyer.

Scott Tanski is the only free agent invitee back from last year's Traverse City team and he was also the only invitee to play in all four games last year. Tanski has scored 80 points over the last two seasons playing with the Brampton Battalion of the OHL. As a nine year old Tanski was a teammate of John Tavares on a GTHL championship team. Brampton was the lowest goal scoring team in the OHL and it shows with Tanski being third on the team with only 34 points. But the team made up for not scoring goals by having the 2nd fewest goals against in the league. Stephon Thorne is a teammate of Tanski's with the Battalion was 5th on the team in goal scoring with 13 in fact those were the only 5 players to score more than 10 goals. Now when i do these i scour the internet to find anything on these guys and found a whole lot of nothing. But with the help of the great and mighty youtube i found two videos and learned somthing about Thorne he's not afraid to take on anyone.



I give you exhibit B (Even though a seems a little too close to Brassard Vs Neal)


Well they're you have it folks these are the forwards who will play for the Jackets in Traverse City next week. I'm gonna admit I was gonna do this a one big post but I changed my mind and decided ill do the defense and goalies in my next post and will take a look at some of the other prospects at the camp.