There are two categories of players at a rookie tournament: those who are fighting for a contract, a spot in the American League or an invitation to training camp and those whose camp serves as a warm-up in preparation for training camp. ‘coaching.
Posted at 11:57 a.m.
In this second category are Juraj Slafkovsky, Emil Heineman, Justin Barron, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, Mattias Norlinder and Arber Xhekaj.
Judging the performance of these players in the Rookie Tournament would be a waste of time. Moreover, if the management had been so keen to evaluate them, the Slafkovskys, Guhles and company would not have obtained evenings off in this short competition of only three games.
Unlike them, players in the first category had to give everything to Buffalo because in the majority of cases, their place is not guaranteed in camp.
Xavier Simoneau scored two goals Sunday against the Senators and Slafkovsky none. Simoneau, 5 feet 7 inches of courage and aggressiveness, will nevertheless not start training camp on the left of Nick Suzuki. But this 21-year-old, drafted in the sixth round in 2021, hopes to have attracted enough attention from coach Jean-François Houle to earn a contract with the Laval Rocket.
Don’t be fooled by the 7-2 victory over the Senators’ prospects on Sunday. Ottawa had released its top three players, Shane Pinto, Jake Sanderson and goaltender Mads Sogaard.
His defense consisted of four players from the junior ranks, a second-round pick with extremely limited potential and two players drafted from the fifth round. There was also an 18-year-old Finn drafted in the third round, tossed between the junior ranks and the Liiga, a 21-year-old American League defenseman drafted in the seventh round and a 21-year-old defenseman invited from the junior ranks. Their goalie split his time between the ECHL and the American League last winter. It was hardly stronger on the attack.
That Slafkovsky scored four goals against this team wouldn’t have meant anything either. He had no interest in breaking his bones against players he will probably never face again in his career, although the effort was there and he looked a little too big, too strong. and too powerful against his opponents.
Defending colossus Arber Xhekaj, 21, 6-foot-4, 238 pounds of badness, tormented his young opponents on Sunday. His hard-hitting checks, borderline in the first case, and signaled by the referee in the second, took two rivals out of the game. When the colossus of the Senators wanted to make him pay for his wrongs, Xhekaj made him bend his knees with a solid right.
(Note to players: you look bad on the bench when you burst out laughing after a knockout. A little respect please.)
Excessive violence and vicious beatings are condemnable. But you don’t win series with 18 altar boys either. Xhekaj’s work will be assessed in the pre-season meetings, however, when he’s battling Brady Tkachuk and Tom Wilson in the corners, not puny, younger recruits like him. But he got noticed, by the management and the opponent…
The Canadian’s first choice in 2020 and first candidate for a position as a left-back among young people, Kaiden Guhle, played his first game on Sunday. He seems to have improved his mobility. As in the case of Slafkovsky, Barron, Harris and company, it will be judged not on this meeting, if the first simulated game between teammates, and probably not in the first preparatory meetings, but in the last exhibition games with formations of the National League.
Owen Beck, Filip Mesar, Riley Kidney, Jan Mysak, Simoneau, Miguël Tourigny and William Trudeau had the most to gain, or lose, from those games in Buffalo. They disputed them all.
The case of the Becks, the first pick of the second round in 2022, 33e in total, and the reveal of the tournament, was arguably the least complex with that of Kidney. They will return to the junior ranks due to their age. But Beck was fighting for an invitation to training camp. At only 18 years old, he has shown great maturity, confidence with and without the puck and a certain flair on offense.
He is not considered a potential attacking center, but a midfield player, better than a defensive center, not the stuff of a great attacking center. But any formation needs this type of player. Before comparing him to Philip Danault, let’s first mention Jake Evans, to moderate expectations…
Kidney, a 2021 second-round pick, has played two of his three first-line games with Juraj Slafkovsky. He didn’t offer anything very convincing at five against five. His 100 points from last year in the junior ranks can be misleading. He started the tournament in the center of the first line and finished it on the right of the fourth.
First-round pick, 26e in total, in 2022, Filip Mesar, left a beautiful business card. He’s not the heaviest at 5-foot-9 and 176 pounds, but has great speed, great individual skills, interesting vision and a great sense of anticipation.
On Simoneau’s second goal of the game, he repaired a turnover from his teammate in the neutral zone, before making an effective entry into the zone. Simoneau ended up scoring, Mesar didn’t get an assist, but he got the goal.
This tournament was important for Mesar, employed in the center as well as on the wing. His status as a European first-round pick would allow him to play with the Laval Rocket. And he wanted to prove to management that there was a place for him, and not to be ceded to Kitchener, in the Ontario Junior League. Jean-François Houle liked his versatility. Enough to give him a position in Laval?
Simoneau, 21, might have done enough to earn an American League contract with the Rocket, and fight for a job there.
Defenders William Trudeau and Miguël Tourigny both fall into the same category. They could play a final season in the junior ranks at 20 or earn a contract with the Laval Rocket (or a two-part NHL contract) to begin their professional career this fall. So they had a lot at stake in those three games.
Trudeau, a 2021 fourth-round pick, 6-foot, 197 pounds, has shown undeniable offensive flair. He still has work to do to improve his defensive game. All saved his goal against the Devils on Friday, but failed to save his lost puck behind the net on New Jersey’s tying goal late in the game. He can put an opposing defense on their heels when given time with the puck. He now needs to improve his game under pressure and his efficiency when fighting for the puck along the boards.
Tourigny, a right-handed offensive defenseman, is less beefy at 5-foot-8 and 179 pounds. He looked better in the last match against a less formidable opponent. He was passed over in his first two years of eligibility, before being drafted in the seventh round, at age 20, this summer. It’s up to him to make his detractors lie again.
Jan Mysak and Brett Stapley will play in the American League this winter. They showed their limits in these three games. Maybe Mysak will ever break into a supporting role? But avoid comparisons with Plekanec, a player with more than 600 points in the National League…
When are accounts at Hockey Canada?
Almost four months have passed since TSN reporter Rick Westhead uncovered the sex scandal at the 2018 World Junior Championship. , Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, intervened. Since… what? Hardly a leading head rolled. The players still seem protected, there is still no indictment. The CEO of Hockey Canada even took the liberty of presenting the gold medals… to the women after their victory at the World Championship. We must not stop talking about it. Philippe Cantin did it this morning. According to him, it is necessary to “refound” the organization, to rebuild it from scratch on solid, healthy and modern bases.
The culprits should also be accountable and we should not have this unpleasant feeling that we are trying to protect professional hockey stars…