The numbers don't generally do Lagace much justice on a rebuilding team in PEI. The Dallas Stars' prospect looked good in his team's opener, a 6-2 win over Moncton on Friday. That performance didn't carry-over to the next game against the dynamic Halifax Mooseheads. Lagace was pulled after two periods on Sunday following a seven-goal shellacking on 27 shots.
Brynäs and MODO played each other yesterday. Ludwig Bystrom played 7:17 in a loss, and he had no shots, no points, and he was even. Once again, Emil Molin dressed and didn't touch the ice. It seems 2013 draft eligible Elias Lindhom has pushed him out of meaningful ice time.
Esa Lindell played 19:58 in a loss and registered 6 shots on goal. Also, I was surprised to see Erik Karlsson sign with Jokerit instead of Frolunda. The move might push Lindell off the first pair with Ossi Väänänen, but I doubt Lindell would lose much ice time moving down the lineup a bit. Plus, playing with a talented guy like Karlsson could be very beneficial to his game.
Are we expecting Vance to take a significant production step up this year? Seems he's been labeled a defensive D-man by some but what's the consensus around here?
Are we expecting Vance to take a significant production step up this year? Seems he's been labeled a defensive D-man by some but what's the consensus around here?
It's the Q so there is a ton of scoring. It'd be nice if he puts up big numbers or even just a modest increase in last season's production, but I wouldn't trust that as a great indication of future offensive success in the NHL or even AHL.
He's still raw so the main thing is he needs to play as many games as possible. I don't think we will have a very good idea about his ceiling until he gets to the AHL. I just don't think the Q is as good of a league as the OHL or WHL, and I think we could draw the conclusion the Dallas feels the same way based on their drafting tendencies.
On Vance, I think he's a candidate to go back to junior next year for his overage year. It'll probably be better for him than the ECHL because I doubt he makes the AHL.
Jokipakka with a goal and two assists in a 4-3 victory
...and not a bad decision to stay in Finland, given the assumption that he probably wouldn't see this much ice-time in the AHL (tonight over 28mins, also, most shots on his team with 9).
I think I'm going to add Philp Larsen to the weekly stat updates. Technically he's not a prospect ... but I'm already checking the SM-Liiga stats. His first action is tomorrow.
So far this week, I've seen Lindell's ice time fall a bit as Erik Karlsson's increases, but that was expected. It was a small hit so far ... about 3 minutes less ... hopefully that doesn't change.
Esa Lindell's ice time took another hit today after Erik Karlsson played over 30 minutes. He was down to just over 13 minutes, and he only managed 1 shot in a win.
Philip Larsen led his team in ice time with 23:59, and he finished with 1 goal and 1 assist in the 4-1 win.
Jokipakka had a goal and 2 assists in 29:17 of ice time in a 4-3 OT win for Ilves. He opened the scoring and assisted on the game tying and game winning goals. That's 6 points (2 goals) in the last 2 games.
