Western Central Trade Deadline Needs

First article went over pretty well, so here comes the second one, this time about the war zone that is the Western Central. Western Central is a tricky one to predict, as there’s a couple lethal teams in this division that could both just as easily go all the way and win the Calder. These teams of course are the Moose and Wolves. More on the Icehogs later .



Western Central Regular Season Projections:

1. Chicago Wolves
2. Rockford Icehogs
3. Manitoba Moose
4. Milwaukee Admirals (break the curse!!!)
5. Grand Rapids Griffins

Chicago Wolves


Another team where they are built from the defence out, the Chicago Wolves have probably the best defensive core in the league. The two standouts in my mind are @phillysmvp and @Samurai-Siaki who have both been lights out so far, going 14-3-1 and 15-3 respectively. Rounding out the top 4 is @troy2499 and @Koriegh who are also having amazing years. Oh yeah, and between the pipes they also have all-world goalies in @moosapotamus33 (reigning goaltender of the year) and @MeatyTenderStix who himself is having an unreal season so far. There’s nothing to complain about here, so I’ll just jump into the main I would be concerned about: the forwards.


Don’t get me wrong, the Wolves have a pretty impressive forward group, with players such as @PaulyChunks, @Meestah Don , and @Soapy412. This line is easily a top 3 line in the league, and should be feared everytime you face them. However, after you get past these guys, there’s really not too too much to be scared of. @xJakenBake59x is having a great season by all measures along with @Gastr604, but do they have the overall depth to take down the other top team in this division in Manitoba? Probably not.


Of course, this is just me nit-picking a very very good roster, as you could argue that most of the players on their “second” and “third” lines could easily be on the top line of most other teams. With that said, I definitely believe that this is an area that the Wolves should look to improve on with the Trade Deadline looming on Sunday. If they can add a top tier centremen to play with Jake and Gastr, move @Bobby_Goggles to the third line, they would be in very good shape. In my eyes, the only way they could accomplish this goal would be to part with one of their better defensemen, which I know is definitely not ideal, but sometimes you have to make the tough decisions.


With that said, I could be wrong here and the Wolves could all buy into the ‘defence first’ mentality, and shut down the offensive dynamo that is the Manitoba Moose. But that is a very tall task, and in my eyes, it won’t happen unless they can add additional scoring threats to boost their depth.


Tl;dr: defensemen and goalies are gods, forward depth needs a bit of work



Rockford Icehogs


Here comes the hate mail, why am I picking the Icehogs above the Moose in the regular season, but don’t include them on the top tier level of teams? That answer is pretty simple in my eyes. Their defence is quite shaky, and their goaltending situation needs a bit of help.


The Icehogs are known around the league to be a possession team, boasting the highest TOA differential in the league, nearly 70 full minutes over the second place Cuda’s. However, in games where they are not able to keep control of the puck, they have often been blown out. Examples include games against the Barracuda, Thunderbirds, and Rampage a bit earlier in the season. This basically means that if a team can seize the puck from the Icehogs, and start playing their own game, Rockford doesn’t have the defensive structure to protect against offensive threats. However, I will admit, in recent games the Icehogs have been able to effectively shut down the opposition, and keep goals against to the minimum. If they want to have any chance going up against the Moose or Wolves in the playoffs, they will need to continue this defensive structure, and not revert to their old habits displayed earlier on in the season.


So with all that said, the main area of concern I have for the Icehogs are that their defensemen will not be able to get the job done in the playoffs, and as a result, their forwards won’t be able to spend as much time in the ‘fun-zone’. The Icehogs will need to add a shutdown defenseman at the deadline to help them with this, and as a result, may have to get rid of one of their more coveted forwards (hello Wolves?). Of course, a couple of their defensemen are having very good seasons so far, as players such as @dmac7719 and @Pidion have had great seasons so far. These two will have to come up big in the coming weeks, as well as the playoffs, to prove that they’re the real deal.


The Icehogs goaltending situation has been an interesting one to keep track of this season, as they’ve had a bit of a revolving door in net until recently. They seemed to have found their ideal backup goalie in @Dirty_dan274, but in the past two weeks he’s only played 3 games. I’ve been screwed in the past about goalies who fail to show up to their games (hi @Tys_got_tush), so I know how frustrating this can be. If I were Rockford, unless I know 100% that Dan will be returning and available for games, I would look for a more reliable backup, even if that means taking a bit of a hit in talent level. But that’s enough about their backup, their starter has been lights out this season in @primetimephresh. I won’t drag out Rockford too much longer, but I wanted to bring his name up because Prime has been a prime (sue me) reason why the Icehogs have been able to cover their defensive issues. With a record of 25-5-0 with an 81 sv%, there’s really nothing to complain about here, nice job finding a diamond in the rough, Rockford.


Tl;dr: Need a bit of defensive and backup goaltending help


Manitoba Moose


I may cause a bit of a stir here, but in my eyes, the Moose are the clear favourites to come out of the division. While their record has showed they’ve had a bit of a rough time in the regular season so far, if they can heat up at the right time they can easily become the best team in the AHL.


Their forwards are cream of the crop, with no clear holes in their forward group. Considering they have the defending MVP on their second line in @jackD00P (that of course is if you assume @nazzy2face and @LoBo_DaNgLeS_12 are their top line), it is very clear that the Moose’s forwards will begin to cause a ton of problems for teams come playoff time, matchup wise. Other forward standouts so far include @BryanAdoresLiz who is having a breakout year, and @Jmm420 who is dominating the AHL once again.


Arguably the top goalie in the AHL at this point in the season, @II-Dreamyy-II has shown before that he can carry the team if the Moose’s defense begins to act up. Up until this week, the Moose had allowed the least amount of goals in the AHL, and Dreamy is definitely a large part of that. @Archmagus9 continues to play extremely well at the AHL level as well, leaving the Moose with easily a top 3 goalie tandem in the league. As you could probably guess by this point in the article, the main area of concern for the Moose in my eyes are their defensemen.


Although the Moose have allowed the 2nd lowest amount of goals in the league, it may be a bit strange why I pinpoint their defensemen as their area of weakness. But, I believe a large part of the Moose having great overall defensive numbers is due to the fact that the Moose forwards come back to help on defence an awful lot, which has proved to be extremely beneficial so far. If they can continue this, their defence will hold up fine in the playoffs, but if not, I could see the Moose falling apart relatively quickly. A quick glance at their roster shows that the Moose don’t really have that true shutdown pairing, which may make life difficult come game 7. If the Moose can add an eleet level defensemen at the deadline, the AHL better watch out.


Tl;dr: Need a true #1 defenseman


Milwaukee Admirals


Despite being the team that has had the most controversy surrounding them, the Admirals may just find themselves in the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Watching their roster week after week has been a lot like watching the weather in Canada, it basically drastically changes every week. As evident from the number of players on their roster with 8 or less games played so far, the turnover that the Admirals have had to deal with is quite remarkable. And yet, the Admirals keep moving. A lot of the reason for their success in my eyes is just how much draft pick depth they had. Despite what others may believe, I think Vibez has done a great job in supplying his AHL team with the tools needed to succeed. Now I know this is a dicey topic, so I’ll just leave it at that.


The Admirals are like a lot of other good-not-great teams in the fact that they are very top heavy in both their defence and forward groups. Their top line of @SilKyy_96 / @GZUS19 / @WolfxI29I (MVP favourite in my eyes) has shown that they can basically carry the rest of their team to a playoff spot. Their top d pairing is also amongst the top in the league, as @thekiller9879 and @DanyHeater15 have proved to be quite the dominant pairing in the small sample size together. Where the Admirals need to make improvements is in overall depth. Past their game 7 lineup, the rest of the team has basically just been treading water, which has been good enough to put them in the 4th in final spot in the toughest division in the league, so much credit to them. Recent additions including @TikleMySackic and @WHOstifher show that the Admirals are definitely on the right track, so it’ll be up to the management to build off of this, and create more depth throughout the lineup.


Looking at their goaltending situation, it appears as though they have 2 very capable goalies in @Crease-Fire and @Big superkid. However, the Admirals may want to get an upgrade on Crease-Fire if they want to turn into true contenders, as it’s obviously very important to have two stud goalies come playoff time. After writing about the Eastern Atlantic though, I realize that this is a problem that most teams have, and because of that, the backup goalie market should be pretty interesting to keep an eye on this trade deadline.


Tl;dr: Need to build more depth in the lineup, upgrade on the backup goalie


Grand Rapids Griffins


Apart from the San Diego Gulls, I would say the team that has been the most disappointing this season would unfortunately be the Griffins. On paper, they have a very talented lineup from top to bottom, which makes me wonder what went wrong in Grand Rapids. The easy answer is to point to the abysmal goal scoring the Griffins had at the beginning of the season, which essentially cost them the season. But, I believe it may be a different reason that contributed to the Griffins failures so far. Same problem that plagued most of the AHL during the summer season, the Griffins have simply used way too many ECU’s. Using as many ECU’s as they have been can be very costly on both team performance, and team morale. If you’re constantly using ECU’s to cover for your roster players who fail to show up, it causes your team to lash out at the players missing games which creates a hostile team chat.


A quick look at the forward stats now though indicates that the Griffins have actually been scoring at a pretty decent pace recently. Despite their abysmal start to the season, the Griffins have had success throughout the season with forward standouts including @lBl2llNlK, @Hilly and @omnicidal-havoc. These players in particular will have to come up big down the stretch to allow the Griffins to potentially sneak into the Dance.


The Griffins have the luxury of having probably the top defenseman in the league in @Gumba l11l, but past him there’s not too much to gander at. @WillardMcNasty is definitely a very good second pairing defenseman, and the waiver claim of @King_Rinpin was also a nice pickup, but the Griffins will need a bit more defensive help if they want to have any chance at sneaking into the playoffs.


Love me some @Payner, but recently his struggles have been quite costly for the Griffins. Going 3-4-3 in the past 2 weeks is definitely not what you want to see out of your starting goalie when you're battling for a playoff spot, but I know if anyone can break out of this hump, it'll be Payner. Dude is an absolute beautician, so I fully expect him to turn on the jets in the last third of the season, and do everything he can to carry the Griffins to the promised land. Backup @JBrodeur435 will also need to start performing at a higher level, as his 75.2 sv% is below league average.

Tl;dr: Need defensive depth help

The main reason I have the Griffins over the Eagles is that I believe more in the Griffins offence and goalies to step it up and perform better than they have been so far this season.




I know this article will probably create more of a discussion than the other one, so please, if you disagree with anything I wrote, I invite you to shoot me a reply and I'll happily talk it out

 

This is the toughest division of the league, some good teams will miss out on the playoffs. (it kinda makes you wish that the wildcard spots could be cross conference)

Having said that, After reading your write up on the team, I believe that Rapids Griffins is a team that shouldn't be missing out on the playoffs, since their first weeks they've improved greatly and in terms of PP, PK and possession numbers they're always in the top 10. They don't hit but that's probably due to their great possession numbers and they rarely take penalties.

Like i said, just a really tough division.

Thanks for the read.

 

0-2 plus you quit not worth an actual mention

 

Last season I was an "interesting" bid and this season I'm a "nice pick up." Guess I'm moving up

 

Great write up, really enjoyed the read. Wolves in 4.

 

Improve on my 12 wins as a backup? Lmao. Save percentage is low because of the amount of shots faced I'll give you that but with a GAA under 3 and a 12-8 record I think I deserve more credit but thats just my opinion

 

It's ok @JBrodeur435, you have me now We'll get you more shots on goal to increase your percentage

 

Good write up ducks. thanks for the shout out buddy.

 

What division can we look forward to next?

 

Let's hear your division next. Clutch write up

 

Awesome write up. I agree with what you said about Chicago.

Thank you Ducks for the media

Cheers!

 

You still play in the AHL?

 

Maybe I'll have to, probably gonna take a day or two to write this one out due to schoolwork/work, but I'll try to hammer it out for you guys


I have a couple steaming hot takes ready for the Pacific so I think it would be fun to make

 

Where else would I be? Lol

 

Retired

 

Soon enough

 

@Ducksfanwaterloo can you mention me on 2 teams now since I was traded?

 

I just might have to

 

This is the dumbest thing i've read in a while. And that's saying something on this site.

 

But we beat the cuda ..Good write up.. not 100% accurate IMO but still dope