The Young Wolves are Making Waves

It’s been a fruitful start to the season for the prospects on the Chicago Wolves

By Nick Bass

 

Before the start of the AHL season, I wrote two separate predictive articles looking at what the Chicago Wolves roster could look like. On some levels, I was spot on. On others, mainly Jackson Blake playing in Chicago, I was dead wrong. But there is one thing that is evident at the New Years’ break, the young Carolina Hurricanes prospects are taking the reigns as prominent producers and helping the Wolves to be a better team. Starting off, let’s look at the top 7 point producers as of December 30th:

 

The oldest player? Juha Jääskä at 26 years old. The youngest? Bradly Nadeau at 19 years old. The average age? 22.4. While watching this team, you can see the true development of these younger guys from the start of the season up until now. As a reminder, the Canes didn’t cut a ton of guys from training camp until the very end, which meant that Cam Abbott and the brand new coaching staff for the Chicago Wolves didn’t have a complete roster to practice with until days before the puck dropped on the regular season.

Before we begin, I would like to label the special teams. This makes it easier for people to have an understanding of who plays where and how much they play.

Kid Unit Power Play – Bradly Nadeau, Felix Unger Sorum, Juha Jääskä, Scott Morrow, Aleksi Heimosalmi

Vet Unit Power Play – Ryan Suzuki, Noel Gunler, Skyler Brind’Amour, Justin Robidas, Domenick Fensore

It’s weird to see Suzuki, Gunler, and Fensore in the veteran category, but they all have more experience than the other unit.

Penalty Kill Unit 1 – Justin Robidas, ???, Domenick Fensore, Charles-Alexis Legault

Penalty Kill Unit 2 – Ryan Suzuki, Bradly Nadeau, Ronan Seeley, Scott Morrow

Now with penalty killers, it’s honestly been a “All hands on deck” situation as assistant coach Spiros Anastas uses everybody on the kill. But, these are the guys I see on the ice during the kill the most.

With that, let’s go through the position groups and discuss the Canes Prospects that are making a big impact on the Wolves’ success.

Forwards

Starting off with the number one point producer on the team, Ryan Suzuki has been excellent for the Wolves. He’s been a great play driver at even strength, has provided great value on the power play and has finally stayed healthy and flashed what made him a first round pick. He’s truly been the Wolves best skater through the first 27 games of the season. I am still holding out hope he makes his NHL debut at some point this season, as his game is at the best it’s been.

Suzuki’s normal linemate, who is currently off in Ottawa with Team Canada at the World Juniors, has also seen great development in his first professional season. Bradly Nadeau has been awesome as a first line winger, who has already shown he has great chemistry with Suzuki. Nadeau has seen penalty kill time, which he rarely/never saw at the University of Maine. He’s been solid on the power play, but more with his passing than his shot as he doesn’t have a single power play goal so far. His playmaking has also improved since his freshman year, becoming a good attribute to his game.

The other player that is currently away for the World Juniors, Felix Unger Sorum, has started to turn the corner on the center position. I wish that some AHL data was made public (faceoff stats, TOI), but even then you can still see the progress that Felix has made as a center. As the Wolves 2nd line center, he’s been more responsible defensively and he’s been making more plays away from the boards. The points aren’t there, but again, he’s trying to learn a position he hasn’t played since he was younger at a level of hockey that he hasn’t played at before. Felix is going through some growing pains, but there has been good growth in the areas that you want to see long-term.

When I talked about the Wolves’ roster going into the season, I mentioned Justin Robidas as someone would could be awesome. I’m so happy that I’m getting proven right. After spending his first professional season with the Norfolk Admirals in the ECHL, Robidas made the move up to the AHL and hasn’t looked out of place at all. He’s second on the team in points, he’s been a first unit penalty killer (1 SHG on the season), he’s been good on the power play, and he has the flexibility to be used as either a center or a winger. He also doesn’t take penalties, only having 1 penalty on the season so far. The biggest reason Robidas is finding success is because he just doesn’t quit. His effort level is simply off the charts. From the moment Robidas steps on the ice, he’s giving you 110% effort until both skates are off the ice. He’s a buzzsaw who has only seen his stock rise since arriving in Chicago.

Noel Gunler has been a sniper that the Wolves need. With Nadeau on one unit and Gunler on another, the power play has started to click after finding out that both of these kids have the ability to send rockets at opposing goalies. After two years of injury concerns, he’s found his game at even strength again and proven he can be trusted in high leverage situations. The last time he played for the Wolves, Gunler was a -12 in 31 games. So far this season, Gunler is a -1 in 25 games.

Last, but not least, Gleb! I won’t lie, he had a rough start to the season. But over the last few games that he played, he truly started to figure it out. In his last 7 games, he had 2 goals and an assist for 3 points. He had brought back his +/- to a respectable -2 after the shaky start and I was happy to see him having fun on the ice (see image with his octopus on Teddy Bear Toss night). But an injury could see him sidelined for a while longer. Hopefully he comes back better than ever.

Defense

Let’s start with the big one, Scott Morrow. He’s being asked to play top pairing minutes at even strength. He’s being asked to quarterback the “Kid Unit” power play. He’s being asked to be a penalty killer for the first time in his career. What’s great is that he’s constantly learning and getting better at every single aspect. Morrow has also been a very active shooter, having stretches of games where he’s taking 3 or more shots. His game is rapidly maturing and I believe that Morrow will be ready for full-time NHL action next season.

Morrow’s partner, Ronan Seeley, has been the Jaccob Slavin to Morrow’s Brent Burns, if you catch my drift. When Morrow jumps into the play or makes a move around a defender at the blue line and continues in, Seeley is the anchor holding it down and protecting the counter. With Seeley’s game, it’s nice when you don’t have to call his name a bunch because he’s not doing anything wrong. He’s a solid defensive defenseman that deserves a lot more credit.

The second pairing has been one that we all saw during the Prospect Showcase and one that I’m glad has stayed together, as they have great chemistry. They’re basically a clone of the Seeley-Morrow pair, but with the offensive D on the left side while the defensive D is on the right side. Let’s start with the LHD, Domenick Fensore. Fensore has been awesome. He’s almost surpassed his point total from last season, with 13 points in 27 games compared to 16 points in 39 games last season. Coming out of Boston University, Fensore was a power play QB who could skate like the wind. Now, Fensore is a power play QB who can skate circles around opposing players while also being a good penalty killer, a huge bonus to add to his game. Fensore is someone who will also play NHL games at some point in the future because of his development over the last two years.

Fensore’s partner, proud French-Canadian Charles-Alexis Legault, is a defenseman that is going through his rookie year at the professional level. It’s a tough transition, but Legault isn’t necessarily struggling. His +9 is second highest on the Wolves, only behind Ty Smith, who has only played 13 AHL games. He’s been a first unit penalty killer and has been solid. He’s been physical, which has come with some penalties from time to time, but has mostly just been good, clean hits. The offense that flashed late into his Quinnipiac career has also started to come through again, going into the break with 4 points in his last 5 games (1 goal, 3 assists).

Lastly, Aleksi Heimosalmi. His skating has led him to some good moments, specifically on the power play with opening up space. He’s had some decent moments at even strength, but it’s evident that this is his first time playing on North American ice. It’s a tough transition for anyone to make, so Heimosalmi gets some slack.

Goalies

There’s only one that we need to talk about, that being the big Russian. Ruslan Khazheyev has had a roller coaster season up until this point but his past two starts have been the best of his time in the AHL so far. A 29 save performance against the Iowa Wild on the 21st and a 29 save performance against the Milwaukee Admirals on the 28th were great to watch. I know his stats, a 3.27 GAA and a .876% save percentage, aren’t spectacular but I must remind the people that the jump from the MHL to the AHL is gigantic.

For example, let’s look at another goalie who made the jump from MHL/VHL hockey. Vyacheslav Buteyets played 35 games at the VHL level last year and had a 2.57 GAA with a .913% save percentage. This year, he has played just one game at the AHL level and has a 5.18 GAA and a .808% save percentage while spending the majority of his time at the ECHL level. Another example, Vyacheslav Peksa, spent the majority of his time in Russia at the MHL level, where he had a career 1.98 GAA and a .930% save percentage. So far this season, he has made one appearance at the AHL level, where he has a 6.00 GAA and a .778% save percentage.

It’s a tough jump but Khazheyev is starting to show the qualities that got him drafted.

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It’s a tall task for any coach to be handed a roster with an average age of 23.9 and try and get them to be competitive, but credit to Cam Abbott and his staff for getting the Wolves to 3rd place in the division. His development of the younger talent has been immense, helping the younger players grab bigger roles in the lineup and, most importantly, becoming key contributors on a competitive team.