Petes move on from grand experiment with Merkley
Wilson adjusts lines ahead of long road trip and after wins over two top teams, London and Ottawa
The waiting is the hardest part for Petes fans in the early part of 2018-19 season.
If the wait until Oct. 17 to first see the team play on home ice at the renovated Memorial Centre wasn’t bad enough, the early season schedule has seen the Petes play just once in 11 nights between Sept. 22 to Oct. 2.
Starting Thursday they’ll play six games over 10 days on the road, with stops as far away as Sault Ste. Marie and Flint, Mich.
Fortunately the wait to see what happens with Ryan Merkley is over. Merkley was returned to the OHL and subsequently traded to the London Knights.
In return the Petes received only a second-round draft pick and an additional conditional pick. It is a far cry from the cost paid by the Petes to initially acquire Merkley — Pavel Gogolev, two second-round picks, two third-round picks and a fourthround pick.
It’s hard not to think about how this team would look had they never acquired Merkley in the first place but the team was undoubtedly viewing that initial trade as a sunk cost and just looking to move on the best they can.
Moving on and putting all the focus on the coming season is made easier now that the deal is done and now that the Petes have defeated two top ranked teams — the London Knights and the Ottawa 67’s — in successive weeks. The game in between was less memorable, with the club blowing a 4-0 lead on the way to a 9-6 loss, prompting some changes in how the forward group lined up last week in Ottawa.
The line of Semyon Der-Arguchintsev, Nick Robertson and Liam Kirk has been together from the outset of the season and the trio has responded with a combined 17 points in three games and an early OHL player of the week honour for Der-Arguchintsev.
On Sunday the Petes aligned centre Zach Gallant between Cameron Butler and Mason McTavish — moved from centre to the wing — to create in effect a second top line. Gallant was dominant in the game, recording a Gordie Howe hat trick — a goal, an assist and a fight. Butler and McTavish each assisted on a goal scored by Max Grondin, who filled in on the line while Gallant served his fighting major.
These line combinations may not stay together but they do highlight some of the options available to the coaching staff with this year’s personnel. They can stack offensive lines, Grondin can play up and down in the lineup, John Parker-Jones has already played both forward and defence, and the options will only become greater as Michael Little and Dustin Hutton find their way back into the lineup.
There will be some difficult decisions in terms of distributing ice time and keeping everyone engaged and happy but having too many options up front is a good problem to have.
The wait continues for Petes fans, as the team completes road trips through Northern Ontario and the United States before finally returning home a little over two weeks from now. Matt Campbell has been a Petes season ticket holder for 30 seasons. His column appears bi-weekly during the Petes season.