Prospect Update - November 29th

Nov 29, 2022 - 12:00 PM

This week I’ll just start with the infirmary to get it out of the way: Jonathan Aspirot, Jacob Bernard-Docker, Roby Järventie, Viktor Lodin, and Mads Søgaard remain sidelined as you probably already know. Ridly Greig and Philippe Daoust join that list, with Daoust out for the remainder of the season. Total bummer. I’ve embraced the role of cheerleader for Daoust for a while now and this marks the second time he’ll miss most of a season since the Ottawa Senators drafted him. Last time around he bounced back and won a Memorial Cup—maybe next year he joins the Sens on a lengthy run (let me have this).

Prospect Team of the Week

Forwards

Angus Crookshank doubled his goal total this past week with three more on eight shots in a couple of games against Laval. Crookshank has lived up to his old reputation of throwing everything he can at the net so it feels good seeing the percentages regressing in his favour. Along with Egor Sokolov and Greig, Crookshank has played a huge role in starting to turn things around for Belleville despite all the injuries.

I’ve wanted to include Stephen Halliday in this feature just about every week since the Sens drafted him but someone has always nabbed the last spot. With a goal and an assist this past week, Halliday now has 13 points in his first 16 NCAA games. He makes for such a unique draft/prospect profile and I still don’t quite know what to make of his projections but Halliday intrigues the hell out of me. The ten shots in two games really caught my eye.

I’ve taken flack in weeks past for not profiling Tyler Boucher so here you go! He had another big week for the barberpoles as they’ve re-established themselves after a brief slide. Boucher again went a point-per-game this past week with Ottawa and has averaged just under four shots a night so far this season while getting up to his usual shenanigans between the whistles.

Defence

I dunno, gang, I think the Sens may have something here with this Jorian Donovan kid. He overheard all the comments about Good Local Kid and father-son connections and decided to put us in our place. All of us sudden through 18 games, Donovan has almost as many points, tripling his points per game rate from last season while doubling his shot per game rate. I can see why people really liked this pick in the fifth round.

Remember Tyler Kleven? He never really left. But his offensive numbers never really took off this season either—until lately and now he has some points to show for all of his efforts at UND. Kleven will never light things up in the offensive zone in the same way that he delivers earth-shaking hits, but he provides a lot of value for the Fighting Hawks and I really hope to see the lanky defender in Belleville this time next year.

Goaltender

Kevin Reidler and J20 AIK have had their share of struggles so far this season but of late the very tall netminder has strung together more quality starts including a win this past week (highlights below) and 41 saves in a losing effort yesterday. Considering he has another five-plus years of seasoning to go, I’ll appreciate every little baby step from afar.

Stats