GRHL CHRISTMAS WISHLIST
Written By: Santa Combs
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This is kind of an early assessment of what each team might be asking Santa for this year with only 3 to 4 games under their belts. Some of these may be relatively general while others may be more specific. Anyhow, here is the lists I believe they should be sending to the North Pole.
Lincoln Division
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Moose- A roster that isn’t filled with 4 or 5 scratches. Some consistency here should help the Moose solidify their position as a contender. Also, a goalie that understands his job is to TEND THE NET!!!
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Sting- Give up less goals and stay healthy. 38 against is a league worst and the health bug has already been present in this roster. Any help to Dickinson putting pucks in the net wouldn’t hurt either.
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Wolves- Kovarik to make every game. He helps create more space for AJ Williams and Tomato by forcing the other team to focus on shutting him down. Plus a new stick for Rick so he doesn’t have to break out the 90s Mylec.
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Thundercats- Please oh please send the Cats a puck moving defenseman. One play controlling d-man here could allow Payne and the others to light up the stat sheet each night.
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Outlaws- Cohesion and direction! There is plenty of speed and talent on the team, but the 0-3 start comes from being 11 individual players and not playing as 1 team going the same direction.
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Show Me Division
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Barracudas- Consistency in a full roster. This team has been good but with scratches, especially in the goalie slot, its tough to gauge exactly how good they are.
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Venom- A protective bubble for Schulte and Hart, or Mearns to get off his ass and visit the scoresheet.
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Yetis- Stubblefield to make every game. He not only is a cheat code in net, but also provides a lot of leadership between periods and plays. And possibly a new pair of gloves for their color blind captain.
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Jets- Consistency on the back end. 36 goals against is 2nd worst and it’s a combination of sloppy defense and inconsistent goaltending. Someone teach Combs to count to 5 so he can close that hole!
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Raptors- Anyone who can sit behind the bench and count to 3. This team has been good for either 1 or 2 periods, but not 3. Also, maybe a meditation class for the goalie, he has played well but seems to lose focus and his cool after a bad goal this year.
WEEK 1 PREDICTIONS
Written By: "Duncan" the Walrus
As this season progresses and we get a better look at the teams in action, these predictions will get more in depth and hopefully, more accurate. So please bear with me as we attempt to decipher week 1 amongst the unknown and uncertainty.
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Game 1 (2:30pm) Moose vs Outlaws
This looks to be a close opening matchup to the Inaugural night of the Gateway Roller Hockey League. Both teams were projected to be around the middle of the pack in preseason rankings, and although it is the first game of the season; it might be huge come May. The Moose look to be bringing a pretty full roster while the Outlaws could be missing a couple of key pieces. The Moose will rely heavily on Costello and Lyons, but will need the supporting casts to add some depth scoring to be successful going forward. The Outlaws are a very similar team, however, Bommarito is scratched for the opening night roster. Korte, a big and talented defenseman, along with Kaiser, a top tier goaltender, are not a go yet for the roster. Both would be huge losses for the Outlaws if they can’t go. This is a tough matchup to predict with so many questions still needing answers, but as it sits currently:
Moose-8 / Outlaws-5
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Game 2 (4:00pm) Sting vs Thundercats
Wow, this is a powerhouse, heavyweight, main event tilt of the night. Both teams are predicted to be near the top of the standings come May, and this game won’t disappoint. Sting bolster what looks to be one of the higher scoring offenses in the league behind players like Dickinson, Krapf, Windmiller, and Estes. Thundercats on the other hand, are a very deep and defensively solid team. There are no holes anywhere in the Thundercat lineup and will look to Payne, McHatton, Hanafin, and others to help on the scoreboard. This game will probably come down to who gets to their game first, and how the Sting manage their depth. As a guy who believes defense wins championships, I going to have to predict:
Thundercats-9 / Sting-8
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Game 3 (5:30pm) Wolves vs Yetis
Like the 2pm game, this game features two teams who matchup with each other well. As of now both teams are either facing big name scratches or uncertainty in their opening night rosters. With the rosters being unknown and/or missing key pieces, this sets up to be a goaltender match that could decide the winner. Wall for the Wolves and Stubblefield for the Yetis have both proven their ability to win games almost single-handedly, and this game could very well come down to who out plays who in net. The Wolves will need a huge night from Amato, Williams, and Harshany to keep pace with the Yetis I believe. Jackson, Weber, and Duffin will put up points and if their counterparts can match them, the Wolves have a chance.
Yetis-7 / Wolves-5
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Game 4 (7:00pm) Raptors vs Venom
Well this game should be as close to old time hockey as we will get on opening night. The Raptors will rely on Sawyer and Hazlett for scoring but like other teams, will need some depth help throughout the season. The Venom feature one of the top 4 in the league of Schulte, Mearns, Ranz, and Haselhorst. If this group puts up big numbers, the Venom will go far. Depth of roster leans the Raptors way, but good management from Venom captains can compete throughout the lineup. The Venom are expected to be a top team, especially defensively with newcomer goaltender Frank Hart. I won’t count out the Raptors in this game but I think the scoring punch will be a lot to overcome unless they find the net early and often to get the Venom chasing.
Venom-10 / Raptors- 6
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Game 5 (8:30pm) Barracudas vs Venom
This is a very intriguing matchup and the first of the double header games. The Barracudas look to be a deep team with both scoring and defense solidly represented in their lineup. As of now, the Barracudas are facing some roster issues with a few scratches and some others that will be later decisions. One of those decisions is new goaltender Suhre, who looks to be a top tier goalie in the league this season. The Venom will be coming off their earlier game and depending on game management could be tired and worn going into this game. I would love to see this matchup in a fresh game with full rosters as it should be perfect tilt for the hockey lover. As of now, with roster issues vs the second game of a doubleheader:
Venom-6 / Barracudas-5
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Game 6 (10pm) Barracudas vs Jets
The Jets look to be one of the favorites entering the season with a powerhouse scoring punch along with strong defense. Depth would be the only concerning issue for the Jets going forward, but leadership and management can navigate those waters just fine when you look at the lineup. This team will rely heavily on the big 5; Quinones, Whitt, Moore, Beilke, and Q Hellmann. If they get contributions from depth, this team could go very far. As we covered earlier, The Barracudas are the second part of the doubleheader, and this is the back half of that. With their current roster uncertainty, this looks to be very tough matchup for them even though the Jets have some roster issues of their own. As it looks now:
Jets-12 / Barracudas-5
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A MOOSE PERSPECTIVE: Behind the Scenes of the Moose' 2022-23 GRHL Draft
Written By: Josh Pate
With this article I hope to give you guys a behind the scene look at the Moose draft. Going into the draft we had $75 for salaries. A couple of weeks prior to the draft I created a draft sheet where I sorted players by positions and lines. We slowly started to fill out the sheet on where we thought guys would be. After reaching out to my fellow Moose Club Captains we had our pre draft rankings but were missing a plan. My biggest concern was making sure we were solid defensively and Nick had someone to help feed him the puck or make plays.
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So we came together the night before the draft to make sure we were on the same page. Once we all got settled, I looked at Nick Costillo and asked “who do we need to draft to make sure you are successful”. Nick is our best offensive weapon we have in our Club Captain group. My thought was to make sure he would have a player or players that he was used to playing with. He didn’t skip a beat while saying “We have to get Brent Lyons at all cost and if we can afford Brandon Payne then we go for him as well”. He then throws out that he is great friends with Zack Bunjan and Andrew Burton was his best man. As the night goes on and we are going through the player list, Taylor throws out that “We have to get Steven Rader. I don’t know if we can afford him but he has to be on our list to get”. I look at the numbers for possible salaries of guys we were looking at and tell Taylor “we probably can’t afford him but I will write him in just in case the league overlooks him for some reason”.
At this point I'm telling them I’m hoping to steal Korte at $12-$14 because of the amount of games he misses, but we need someone cheap to pair with him on the back end. Van De Hey comes in with Jonathan Young. He says he’s a big guy but plays solid defense and was the alternate to Quinones on a previous team. Finding defensemen was my second biggest concern after finding a pairing for Nick. I didn’t know how teams would be structured but if we all played a 2x2, then we had 16 guys that I would consider traditional defensemen going into the draft to fill roughly 33 slots on all 10 teams. This number changes depending on where the Club Captains place themselves on their rosters. But for us we were looking to Find 2 guys on the backend. Our team is coming together pre draft but I’m still looking for those low end overlooked talents of the league. I throw out Chris Niemeyer for $6, Ryan Hall for $1 to play on the third line, or Travis Zobrist for about $5. At this point we call it a night and get ready for the draft on Sunday.
This is where the fun happens. Going in we are going to put up Nick Moore with the intention of drawing money out of other teams. We were concerned about his shoulder but hoping to draw out $20 or more from a team's Salary Cap. Then Lyons name gets put up for bid. We had agreed the night before that we would try to get him at $24 but had a hard cap at $27. We broke through the hard cap battling with the Yetis, but when Castillo put up $33 he looked at us in shock. Almost like, “hey I have to draft my guy, but did I just screw us on salary”. Fortunately, we won the bid at $33, and we told Nick we will work through it. We then get Bunjan and Burton for what we had written their salaries down in our pre-draft meeting.
At one point in the draft, I remember telling the guys that we have $13 for 4 players and let's not get stuck on one guy. The next guy up is Willie Webb for like $4 and I throw caution to the wind and immediately put in a $10 bid that we win. Webb was never on our radar as we assumed he was going to be too expensive. Fortunately though we were able to pick him up with the only available cap we had. It was at this point that I probably had the same look on my face as Castillo did with Lyons pick.
We then cautiously put up names to draw money out of other teams until we could strike for the guys we wanted the most with only $1 to spend on each. Timing was everything. I convinced Taylor to hold off 1 round before throwing out Rader's name, and with a sigh of relief we got him. Next we put up Jonathan Young hoping no one would out bid us, and again we got our guy. Finally with one spot to fill I put up Travis Zobrist. I was hoping no one would remember the bigger yet talented guy who played in a few dropins this past year at the Y in Edwardsville.
Notable players we were high on that we missed out on; Jason Belkie, Cliff Korte, Chris Niemeyer, Nathan Haselhorst, Brian Meagher, Ryan Raphael, Kyle Gehrig, and Eric Yeargain. We missed out on a lot of guys, but these were the guys we thought we could afford at specific times of the draft. When the dust finally settled we breathed a sigh of relief and were happy with the roster we put together. If all goes well and everyones playing styles mesh we should hopefully be able to keep our core group together for the next couple of years.
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MOOSE 2022-23 DRAFT RESULTS
Zach Bunjan: $15 2-Year Contract
Brent Lyons: $33 1-Year Contract
Andrew Burton: $14 2-Year Contract
Willie Webb: $10 2-Year Contract
Steven Rader: $1 2-Year Contract
Jonathan Young: $1 1-Year Contract
Travis Zobrist: $1 1-Year Contract
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Pate’s Hot Takes Post Draft Edition
Show Me Division:
- Surhe will be the leagues Top goaltender in 2023.
- Ryan Reader will lead the Yetis in goals and assists in 2023.
- Venom will earn a comp pick and finish 9th in the season standings.
- Jet’s narrowly beat out the Yeti’s to win the division 2 years in a row.
- Keith Duffin and Nathan Haselhorst will earn career highs in Goals and Points this season.
- Raptors finish 3rd in the division during the season but make it to the Championship game.
- Joe Combs finishes 4th in Goals Against because of the defensive addition of Jared Gilomen.
- Yeti’s have a strong season but get crushed by the Raptors in round one with a monster game from Chad Berkman and Ryan Patrick.
- Barracudas have a rough start to the season but knock the Jets out of the playoff in round 1 backed by a strong performance from Surhe and relentless offensive pressure lead by Cort Hellmann.
- If Surhe misses a few games early in the season comp picks will go Sting, Venom, Barracudas, Outlaws and the Jet’s will make the Championship game.
Lincoln Division:
- Sting will go winless this season.
- Wolves will lose any game that Schulte misses.
- Tom Williams will finish the season with 10pts.
- Costillo will have more than 100pts this season.
- Eryc Yeargain will finish with 15+ goals and 30+ points this season.
- Grant Kleinschmidt will have more points season than the Sting have goals.
- Outlaws don’t get their first win until week 6 and earn a comp pick 2 years in a row.
- Moose will go 7-0 in the standing after beating the Wolves in week 7 but finish second in the standings.
- Wolves will finish first in the Lincoln division, be the 2023 Season Champs, and hoist the Cup this season.
- Thundercats have the best roster in the division but will finish third in the Lincoln Division and lose to the Moose in round one of the playoffs.
- Thundercats will lead the league in scoring, but also finish 3rd in goals against.