The scene of the 2012 Super Series shifts from Quebec to Ontario tonight, as the two-game Ontario Hockey League portion of the series begins. Last night, Team Quebec earned a split of their two games with the Russian national Under-20 team with a 5-2 victory in Val d’Or.
Top 2013 NHL Draft prospect Nathan MacKinnon led the way for Team QMJHL with a spectacular four-point (1 goal, 3 assist) performance, while Florida Panthers 2011 first-round pick Jonathan Huberdeau tallied two goals and an assist. Francis Beauvillier and Jonathan Drouin also scored for the Q team. Christopher Clapperton, an attendee of the Flyers 2012 summer prospect development camp, assisted on the Beauvillier goal.
Tonight's game takes place in Guelph. Team OHL brings into the tilt an 18-game winning streak against the Russians in Super Series competition.
Although Flyers 2012 first-round pick
Scott Laughton (Oshawa Generals) is currently serving a 10-game suspension in the OHL, he is eligible to play for Team OHL in tonight's game. He will
only play tonight, as he is among a handful of players selected to participate in just one of the series games.
The Team OHL roster includes five players who were member of Team Canada at last year's World Junior Championships: Boston Bruins defense prospect Dougie Hamilton (Niagara IceDogs), Pittsburgh Penguins defense prospect Scott Harrington (London Knights), Columbus Blue Jackets center prospect Boone Jenner (Oshawa Generals), Winnipeg Jets center prospect Mark Scheifele (Barrie Colts), and New York Islanders center prospect Ryan Strome (Niagara IceDogs).
Other notables on Team OHL: Bruins goaltending prospect Malcolm Subban (Belleville Bulls), Ottawa Senators defense prospect Cody Ceci (Ottawa 67’s), Washington Capitals power forward prospect Tom Wilson (Plymouth Whalers), Vancouver Canucks center prospect Brendan Gaunce (Belleville Bulls), and Tampa Bay Lightning defense prospect Slater Koekkoek (Peterborough Petes).
Game tonight is 7 PM eastern U.S./Canada time. The game will air on NHL Network.
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ROOKIES MANGENE, JOHNSTON AND NOEBELS LOOK TO IMPRESS
Through the first nine games of the 2012-13 American Hockey League season, it has become evident that the Adirondack Phantoms continue to lack forward depth. There is no telling where the 4-5-0 team would be right now if it were not for
Sean Couturier and
Brayden Schenn.
As the season progresses, the club hopes to see some of their first-year pros blossom into regular roles on the team. Two players who have shown flashes of promise are
Matt Mangene and
Andrew Johnston. Although neither late-blooming player is likely to have the impact that
Matt Read has had at the NHL level, both Mangene and Johnston have shown the speed and skill to grow into effective AHL players.
Mangene has had some bad luck with injuries. He had an abbreviated summer prospect camp due to a foot injury that had him in a walking boot during the latter part of camp. Currently, he's dealing with an upper-body injury and will miss several more games.
However, in the four season games he's played to date, Mangene has been one of the more effective supporting cast players on the team. The undersized 23-year-old, who played both defense and wing for the University of Maine, is exclusively a forward now.
Although Mangene's point total (1 assist in four games) doesn't show it, he's created problems for opposing teams with his speed, which is somewhat comparable to that of teammate
Eric Wellwood. At the time he got injured, Mangene seemed on the brink of starting to put up some more points.
Johnston started in each of the Phantoms' first eight games. He was a healthy scratch last Saturday and he has been taking extra practice this week. That's often an indication that a player will not start in the next game, either. Few of the Phantoms, including Johnston, played well last Friday. As such, he ended up on the scratch list.
Prior to that, however, the 21-year-old SJHL overage free agent signee was one of the bright spots in some of the team's previous games that were otherwise debacles. That's why Johnston stayed in the lineup while
Terry Murray sat other players for a game or more, including Wellwood. Johnston showed good puck skills, above-average wheels and hustle in losses to Springfield and St. John's.
Overall, Johnston has one point (his first pro goal) in his first eight pro games. He could have as many as four goals in the first six games, as he has not lacked for scoring chances. Twice, he has goalies beaten cleanly but ticked shots off the inside of the goal post or underside of the cross-bar. Another time, he broke a stick on a one-timer opportunity with the goalie seemingly way out of position.
Forward
Marcel Noebels did not get much of a look in the preseason due to the sheer number of players at the Phantoms' training camp. However, rather than sending the German forward back to the Western Hockey League for an overage season, the Flyers' brass decided he was better off gaining some pro experience at the ECHL level and trying to work his way up to a spot on the Phantoms.
Thus far the decision has looked wise. Noebels compiled at least one point in each of the first eight games of the Trenton Titans' regular season (2 goals, 7 assists in total) before finally being held off the scoresheet last Saturday in Reading.
When I covered the Titans-Royals game in Trenton last Friday, Noebels was one of two players I focused on the most intensely. The other was goaltender
Niko Hovinen. Although I have seen both players play before on webcasted games and have seen both in practice, this was my first time seeing either one in game action in person; which allows for a more isolated focus.
Noebels recorded an assist in the game. It came during a power play, as Noebels skated in a stride off the right half boards and fired a shot at the net. The save was made but the rebound went directly to teammate Byan Haczyk stationed near the left post. Haczyk immediately jammed the puck home ahead of goaltender Philipp Grubauer.
Apart from the shot that led to the assist, Noebels showed an encouraging willingness to shoot pucks from a variety of different angles. He only got that one on the net, but he did hit the outside of the goal post on another attempt. Noebels displayed a decent passing touch on a couple of other occasions, but he had more operating room than he'd be likely to have at the AHL or NHL levels.
One of Noebels' stated goals is to continue to develop his two-way game. He's already on the right track in that regard. That is going to serve him well, because defensive play would be his ticket to the NHL. I still don't think Noebels is going to be an offensive player at the NHL level.
For one thing, Noebels is not a very good skater. Even in the ECHL game I covered, he was unable to get separation on a play that started out as a partial breakaway. The play was ultimately broken up. For another, although I think his hockey instincts are solid, I still didn't get the sense that Noebels' pacing of offensive zone reads and reactions were that of a future top six NHL forward. The higher you move up the ladder, the faster those passing and shooting lanes disappear.
On the flip side, Noebels is sturdy on his skates and hard to take off the puck. His hands are good in terms of settling bouncing pucks and more or less putting pucks were he wants them to go. Overall, Noebels actually seems better suited to the small-rink game in North America than the big-ice game he grew up with prior to transferring to the Western Hockey League.
A few months ago, people thought I was paying Noebels a backhanded compliment when I liked him to ex-Flyers forward Andreas Nödl. That was not my intention. What I meant is that Nödl was a big scorer in college hockey but has had to adopt more of a checking line game at the pro level. Noebels is not nearly as smooth of a skater as Nödl (a former second-round pick by the Flyers) but the other aspects of their games remind me of each other.
Only a minority of draftees even make it the NHL, and even fewer go on to become impact players of any significance. I was actually paying Noebels a sincere compliment in saying that I think he has a shot to play in the NHL. Even if that ends up being as as a role-playing forward on the bubble of the NHL roster, his draft selection will have been a wise one by Philadelphia.
Could Noebels continue to develop offensively and go on to make more of an offensive impact at the top level than Nödl has in Philadelphia or Carolina? Of course it's possible. When assessing any young players, you talk in terms of probabilities, not certainties. The Nödl comparison is just a guesstimate. The same thing goes in projecting Mangene, Johnston or any other player. The guys like Matt Read who rise quickly from unheralded young players to above-average NHLers are few and far between but they do exist.
Case in point: At the same age Noebels is now,
Ruslan Fedotenko didn't really project as a player who was going to stick for the long haul in the NHL. But he never stopped working at his game; never got down on himself even when he went undrafted or when he was demoted briefly from the AHL to the ECHL to get more ice time. When he finally got a shot at the NHL, he made the most of it and never returned to the minor leagues again. He's won two Stanley Cups and has been a big offensive contributor in both of the playoff runs that produced those championships.
So those things can certainly happen for a player like Noebels, too. But let's go one step at a time here and take the conservative approach in assessing him.
Noebels' early play for the Titans suggests that he's certainly pro hockey ready, and I'd say he is already an above-average ECHL player. There could be a spot for him on the Phantoms at some point this season -- possibly even sooner rather than later -- if his strong early ECHL play continues. But for now, the extra responsibilities and power play time certainly aren't hurting his development.
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