As promised a while back, some more looking at the veteran strengths of the teams heading into this season.....while every team will have some rookies who make impacts, championships are usually won or lost on the strength of your 18-20 year olds, not your 16 and 17 year olds.
As before, a "veteran" for the purposes of this is any player who has played at least 15 games (RS or PLF) in the league. And again, a caveat: I'm not taking into consideration the quality of the players here. A team with five veteran defencemen is a team with five veteran defencemen here, whether those are five NHL first rounders or five plugs who will be lucky to survive training camp this year.
And one more thing, all numbers below assume that the overage picks I made yesterday hold true. If you disagree with any picks for team overagers, you'll have to recalculate these numbers for that team using the career games total of the O/A of your choice instead.
Anyway, by position here....numbers are total # of veteran players, followed by number of games those players have in the league, and then the average number of games for each player. Teams are sorted by # of vets and then average games.
Goaltenders:
Edmonton Oil Kings: 3 vets. 154 gp, 51.33 avg
Lethbridge Hurricanes: 2 vets. 156 gp, 78 avg
Calgary Hitmen: 2 vets. 133 gp, 66.5 avg
Spokane Chiefs: 2 vets. 133 gp, 66.5 avg
Kelowna Rockets: 2 vets. 126 gp, 63 avg
Red Deer Rebels: 2 vets. 123 gp, 61.5 avg
Saskatoon Blades: 2 vets. 73 gp, 36.5 avg
Moose Jaw Warriors: 1 vet. 177 gp, 177 avg
Everett Silvertips: 1 vet. 163 gp, 163 avg
Kamloops Blazers: 1 vet. 150 gp, 150 avg
Prince George Cougars: 1 vet. 125 gp, 125 avg
Portland Winter Hawks: 1 vet. 111 gp, 111 avg
Regina Pats: 1 vet. 89 gp, 89 avg
Vancouver Giants: 1 vet. 88 gp, 88 avg
Kootenay Ice: 1 vet. 58 gp, 58 avg
Tri-City Americans: 1 vet. 58 gp, 58 avg
Chilliwack Bruins: 1 vet. 52 gp, 52 avg
Swift Current Broncos: 1 vet. 45 gp, 45 avg
Seattle Thunderbirds: 1 vet. 32 gp, 32 avg
Prince Albert Raiders: 1 vet. 30 gp, 30 avg
Brandon Wheat Kings: 1 vet. 20 gp, 20 avg
Medicine Hat Tigers: 1 vet. 17 gp, 17 avg
Notes - Yes, Edmonton has three veteran goalies: Archibald, Flette, and Tartaglione. They actually have four if you count Chris Ward, who falls short of the arbitrary 15 game requirement. A good example of how quantity <> quality.
Also note that a few teams (Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Seattle) have 18/19 year old Euro goalies coming to camp who are not counted in these totals. New Euros aren't counted in the defencemen and forwards below either.
Defencemen:
Prince Albert Raiders: 8 vets. 1066 gp, 133.25 avg
Calgary Hitmen: 7 vets. 1073 gp, 153.29 avg
Swift Current Broncos: 7 vets. 846 gp, 120.86 avg
Chilliwack Bruins: 7 vets. 567 gp, 81 avg
Everett Silvertips: 6 vets. 879 gp, 146.5 avg
Regina Pats: 6 vets. 804 gp, 134 avg
Lethbridge Hurricanes: 6 vets. 554 gp, 92.33 avg
Tri-City Americans: 6 vets. 280 gp, 46.67 avg
Edmonton Oil Kings: 5 vets. 907 gp, 181.4 avg
Kamloops Blazers: 5 vets. 764 gp, 152.8 avg
Prince George Cougars: 5 vets. 742 gp, 148.4 avg
Seattle Thunderbirds: 5 vets. 683 gp, 136.6 avg
Brandon Wheat Kings: 5 vets. 664 gp, 132.8 avg
Medicine Hat Tigers: 5 vets. 618 gp, 123.6 avg
Kelowna Rockets: 5 vets. 563 gp, 112.6 avg
Vancouver Giants: 5 vets. 553 gp, 110.6 avg
Kootenay Ice: 5 vets. 509 gp, 101.8 avg
Spokane Chiefs: 5 vets. 450 gp, 90 avg
Saskatoon Blades: 5 vets. 321 gp, 64.2 avg
Moose Jaw Warriors: 5 vets. 311 gp, 62.2 avg
Portland Winter Hawks: 5 vets. 285 gp, 57 avg
Red Deer Rebels: 4 vets. 240 gp, 60 avg
Notes: a good reason why the Raiders won't likely carry three O/A defencemen, as I mentioned yesterday. But as it stands, teams like P.A., Calgary, and Swift can roll out at least four d-men each who all have at least 120+ games in the league. Calgary has five guys at 150+ games. And Edmonton - yes, Edmonton - has four guys at 150+ and three of them are 200+ games experienced. You don't play that long in the league without being a competent player, so this is a big plus for a team like the Oil Kings. Maybe they can't score but they should at least be able to defend. Not to mention that those veteran defencemen should be in demand by contenders at the trade deadline. They could speed up the building process through a few trades come January.
Red Deer's defence is even younger when you consider that 164 of their 240 total games experience belong to Luke Egener. The other three (Morin, Scarborough, Levarsky) have 76 games combined. Similar in Portland (Gabriel has 108 of those games), Moose Jaw (Ehrhardt has 134 of theirs) and Saskatoon (Ward has 139 of their total).
Forwards:
Moose Jaw Warriors: 13 vets. 1794 gp, 138 avg
Saskatoon Blades: 12 vets. 1551 gp, 129.25 avg
Everett Silvertips: 12 vets. 1452 gp, 121 avg
Portland Winter Hawks: 12 vets. 1222 gp, 101.83 avg
Vancouver Giants: 11 vets. 1703 gp, 154.82 avg
Regina Pats: 11 vets. 1651 gp, 150.09 avg
Seattle Thunderbirds: 11 vets. 1594 gp, 144.91 avg
Lethbridge Hurricanes: 11 vets. 1456 gp, 132.36 avg
Prince Albert Raiders: 11 vets. 1235 gp, 112.27 avg
Kelowna Rockets: 11 vets. 1044 gp, 94.91 avg
Chilliwack Bruins: 11 vets. 926 gp, 84.18 avg
Medicine Hat Tigers: 10 vets. 1458 gp, 145.8 avg
Kootenay Ice: 10 vets. 1385 gp, 138.5 avg
Kamloops Blazers: 10 vets. 1076 gp, 107.6 avg
Swift Current Broncos: 10 vets. 1020 gp, 102 avg
Spokane Chiefs: 10 vets. 1017 gp, 101.7 avg
Calgary Hitmen: 9 vets. 1498 gp, 166.44 avg
Prince George Cougars: 8 vets. 1055 gp, 131.88 avg
Tri-City Americans: 8 vets. 959 gp, 119.88 avg
Brandon Wheat Kings: 7 vets. 649 gp, 92.71 avg
Red Deer Rebels: 6 vets. 898 gp, 149.67 avg
Edmonton Oil Kings: 6 vets. 588 gp, 98 avg
Notes: look at the averages and not just the totals here....Chilliwack has a decent 11 vets but as a group they are the least experienced bunch. Red Deer has only six vets but by average they are 4th-highest.
Vancouver may be rebuilding but they can roll out eight forwards (almost three full lines!) who all have 150+ games played. Moose Jaw and Calgary can put out six 150+ guys each. At the other end, Chilliwack, Swift Current, and Tri-City all have only one 150+ game guy.
More notes later when I have some time.
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