Otters will meet Spitfires
WINDSOR — As good as 201617 has been for Dylan Strome, the Arizona Coyotes aren’t going to hand him a job at training camp.
Strome was excellent during the regular season and then through the playoffs, leading the Erie Otters to the Ontario Hockey League championship. The Otters captain had 75 points in 35 games and then contributed 34 points in 22 postseason games as the Otters won the league title for the first time since 2002.
On Friday night, Strome scored in the third period of the semifinal of the 2017 Memorial Cup and the Otters beat the Saint John Sea Dogs 6-3.
The Otters will meet the host Windsor Spitfires in the final on Sunday.
The expectation is that Strome will not only challenge for a job at Coyotes camp in the fall, but win one and be in Arizona’s lineup on opening night.
The Coyotes are taking a waitand-see approach.
“We don’t know,” Coyotes director of amateur scouting Tim Bernhardt told the Toronto Sun on Friday. “He’s going to get to the National Hockey League, but there is no timeline. That’s when you get disappointed and upset (when it’s not met). We’ve never had a timeline with Dylan. He will get there when he is ready. And when he is ready, he will be a really good player.
“Whenever you have a 6-foot-3 centreman who produces, you are excited to get him in your lineup, but there is no rush.”
The option would be for Strome to play for the Tucson Roadrunners, the Coyotes’ American Hockey League affiliate.
Strome played in seven games for the Coyotes last October and November, but was returned to the Otters after it became evident the Mississauga native wasn’t ready to make an impact each time he took an NHL shift. Strome had said during the summer that he figured he was done with junior, so there was some disappointment for him to swallow when the Coyotes returned him to Erie.
Strome was an integral player for Canada when the country took silver at the world junior, captaining the team in Toronto and Montreal. Still, Strome was the lone player from the top 10 in the 2015 NHL draft who was not an NHL regular in the second half of the season.
Strome put the negatives aside to remain a force for the Otters, and along the way, became better for it. Physically, Strome had to become stronger, and the Coyotes saw that happening as the season progressed.
“Any time you can be the captain of the team that wins the championship, it’s a great experience and it’s something that down the road you just can’t buy,” Bernhardt said. “Long run, big picture, it’s going to be a great thing for him, what he has learned.”
Before the Otters met the Sea Dogs, Strome had little desire to sum up his season.
“Try not to think about (this being his last weekend in junior hockey),” Strome said. “It doesn’t feel like the season is about to end. We have done ourselves proud to this point, but we know we are not going to be satisfied unless we get these last two wins.”
Strome, who set a Cup record with seven points against Saint John on Monday, put a nice insideout move on Saint John defenceman Chase Stewart before beating goalie Callum Booth at 2:38 of the third. POINT SHOTS Intrigue has been missing from large chunks of the 99th Cup, but we’re going to get it at the best time possible with the two OHL clubs meeting in the final. And let’s hope the WFCU building is full for the first time in the tournament.
Enough of the empty seats, expensive as the tickets have been.
An OHL team will win the Cup for the third year in a row after London last year and Oshawa in 2015.
The game was tied 2-2 after 40 minutes and the Otters might have been kicking themselves for not taking better advantage of a run of Sea Dogs penalties in the second period. Saint John beat a path to the box with four minors in a span of five minutes 10 seconds, but Erie scored only on the first power play on a goal by Taylor Raddysh.
A bizarre sequence unfolded as Raddysh appeared to give Erie a 3-1 lead at 18:51. Raddysh scored off an odd-man rush, but the goal did not count as it came on a delayed penalty — to the Otters. With Erik Cernak serving that minor, Julien Gauthier tied the game for Saint John in the final minute of the period.
The undrafted Darren Raddysh has been doing all he can to make one last impression to earn an NHL contract, and his hustle resulted in the first goal of the game. Raddysh beat Simon Bourque to negate an icing call and gained control of the puck.
Raddysh then moved his forehand to beat Booth high at 9:56 of the first.
Joseph Veleno, a top prospect for the 2018 NHL draft, batted a puck out of the air to tie the game for Saint John in the first period.
Ottawa Senators prospect Thomas Chabot took a total of seven minor penalties in the tournament and leads in that category. He had 12 penalty minutes in 18 playoff games.