Younger Petes players need more playing time
With 14 games remaining in the OHL season, the Petes’ playoff chances are fading away. They sit six points back of the Niagara Steelheads and 10 behind the Ottawa 67’s. Both those have been hot as of late and the Petes have not. Both teams have two games in hand on the Petes. The situation is dire.
In the remaining games, it makes sense for the Petes to focus on developing the players who will play a key role next year. On Saturday night, the Petes sat overager Alex Black and iced a lineup with four 2000-born defencemen – Declan Chisholm, Gleb Babintsev, Adrien Beraldo and Matt McNamara - and they won for the first time in 10 games. It’s also worth noting that that early on in the season the team won seven of nine games with those four young defencemen in the lineup.
It would also do the team well to make sure Hunter Jones sees some more action in net as the season winds to a close. This is a trickier situation for the club. Dylan Wells gives the Petes a better chance to win. He faced 50 shots in that win Saturday night and, as with so many nights, the past two seasons was the main reason the Petes were in it. Additionally, it is important for Wells’ development as he prepares for his professional career in the Edmonton Oilers system that he continue to get lots of action.
On the other hand, Wells is fourth in the league in minutes played and second in the league in shots against. To this point in the season, he has certainly seen his share of rubber. Ideally a better balance in usage between the Petes goaltending tandem would have been established earlier on, but the Petes need to see what they have for next season in Jones and Jones needs the opportunity to get properly acclimated to the league. As it stands now, unless Wells returns for an overage season, the team enters next season with a troubling lack of experience in the pipes.
This isn’t meant to cast aside the Petes veterans and potential overage players but the fact is, the veterans have played considerably throughout the season and the Petes sit in ninth place with little chance of a playoff berth. We’ve seen what this team can do for 54 games now and it hasn’t been good enough, so let’s see what next year’s team might look like. If there is an opportunity with Jr. A seasons ending to call up a potential future Petes player to give him a taste and earn his commitment, that may be worthwhile as well.
Some of the bright spots for the Petes in this dark season have come from the younger players. Nick Robertson has clearly found his way in the league and as he earns more and more ice time and has racked up six goals in the Petes last four games, while being close to a point per game over the last dozen. Pavel Gogolev has reached the 20 goal mark in his sophomore season and Semyon Der-Arguchintsev has easily exceeded his impressive rookie totals.
It has been a lost season for the Petes but there are signs of a good young core here for the coming years. As the season winds to an unfortunately early close, it’s time to put the emphasis of developing that young core front and centre.