Boychuk is here: How do the forward lines stack up now?

 OLL SIGN ZACH BOYCHUK (C, 35, CAN)

Image from https://stadion.si/sl/hokej/zach-boychuk-okrepitev-za-napad-hk-olimpija-ljubljana. Presumably from the photography boss Domen Jančič, but I can't see credit.

Here comes our first line centre! Ben Cooper brings in a player he coached in the World Juniors. There are some serious echoes of the Kale Kerbashian signing last summer: a 35-year-old Canadian centre arriving from the German league. They are also similar in build and production, but the key difference is that Boychuk comes with more NHL and AHL experience. 2009-2016 saw a lot of AHL time with significant NHL games along the way. 

The past 5 years can be seen below, from Elite Prospects. This is a certified points-scorer and playoff performer - AKA, exactly what we need. It is well known that I was a big fan of Kerbashian's game; I don't think he was given a fair shake, as they say, with his linemates or by the coaching staff. I would have loved to see what he could do under Ben Cooper, but 'them's the breaks', as Boris Johnson would say. Instead, we shall see how Boychuk fares. I predict and hope that it will be a very productive partnership. This is a pretty serious coup for the organisation and I applaud their move here.

I am hearing from my sources that Boychuk has signed for two years and that OLL are looking for another centre and defenseman to round out the summer transfer window. I wish we could have kept Kerbashian for that, so it will be interesting to see who ends up replacing Bičevskis as 3C. As you'll see below, neither Simšič or Pance are natural centres at this point in their careers, so I'm glad the club are looking to address this. 

It's ironic that by removing me from the PR circulation email list, the club are forcing me to rely more on insider info - which is exactly what they didn't like so much in the first place. The club clearly haven't read their Greek myths, because if they had, they would know that this is exactly how the folly of human agency plays out in its intertwining with fate. Do yourself a favour and play Hades, my dudes!

https://www.supergiantgames.com/games/hades/

POTENTIAL FORWARD LINES

OPTION 1: THE KIDS GET PROMOTED

POLEI - BOYCHUK - MEYER 

SABOLIČ - BONINO - MAHKOVEC

MEHLE - BERIČIČ - SODJA

SIMŠIČ - PANCE - KAPEL

13th F KUMANOVIĆ

Comment: I am absolutely champing at the bit to see Polei, Boychuk and Meyer on the first line together, with Bohinc and Lalonde on their blue line. 

(N.B. I shared this on my IG story and not many people liked it - perhaps Eric Andre has not reached Slovenia yet, but you should correct that ASAP!! 😂)

That 2nd line could be really productive, too. It's the 3rd and 4th where things become more murky. I am a big fan of the 'kid line', so promoting them to 3rd line would be fine with me. That would leave the 4th line a bit cobbled together, though. If Pance is comfortable playing centre, I would prefer to have Simšič on the wing, as he has shown a bit more offensive pop from there. His defensive details are good at centre, but he offers almost nothing in attack from that position. 

As above, this will change if and when a 3rd line centre is found. It'll be interesting to see what they look for in that role. Bičevskis was very defensive-minded. I think the team will have to prioritise offense and scoring throughout the lineup and rely on Coach Cooper's systems to prevent as many odd-man rushes and high-danger chances. We shall see.

OPTION 2: THE KIDS STAY WHERE THEY ARE

POLEI - BOYCHUK - MEYER 

SABOLIČ - BONINO - MAHKOVEC

SIMŠIČ - PANCE - KAPEL

MEHLE - BERIČIČ - SODJA

Comment: This is option 2 because I like it less. For me, the top two lines are set. I love Pančo, that goes without saying (he should be made captain and I will be furious if he isn't), but I think he works best at this point as an occasional injection of top-end skill on the 4th line and PP. Simšič and Kapel are pretty cooked, as the kids say, by this point - I want to see what Mehle and Sodja can do on the wings with more ice time. Let's look at players' ceilings, not their floors.

Polei, Simšič, Kapel and Sabolič

POLEI AND MEYER: 

OLIMPIJA'S NEW THUNDER AND LIGHTNING?

OLL Sign Evan Polei (29, LW, CAN)

I think Polei is who the team wished Tomaževič would have been last season. He's late 20s, 188cm (6'2'') and 104kg (229lbs). He is a prototypical net-front forward, which the team has already been at pains to point out. This guy is no joke - he played in the AHL for seven seasons after coming through the WHL with flying colours (69-33-29-62 for the Red Deer Rebels with the A on his chest). Last year, he played in Norway, scoring 19 goals and assisting 13 times for 32 points in 41 games. If he can translate those points to the ICE League, all the while causing chaos with his heavy physical presence in front of goal for his teammates, he will be a very valuable addition indeed.

The thunder and lightning comparison above is something that is used often in American Football when talking about running backs. You have one that is a bigger, bruising player and one that is smaller and speedier. I feel that Polei and Meyer could be that for us (think Devonta Freeman and Tevin Coleman from what became the infamous Atlanta Falcons failed Super Bowl run in 2016, or LeGarrette Blount and James White on the Patriots' side that year). They may not be on the same line together, but they'll most definitely be on PP1 together. The ability to both stretch with speed/skill (Meyer) and punish opponents with brute force (Polei) is key to offensive success in most contact sports, and hockey is no different. I look forward to seeing what new HC Ben Cooper can cook up for these guys.

EDIT: As ZG pointed out to me previously, last season saw us with so many forwards of highly similar body type. Signing guys like Meyer and Polei, who offer something different, is exactly what we needed to do. Now, as hockey players always seem to say, 'let's keep 'er going' and sign more impact forwards.

OLL Re-sign Kapel, Simšič and Sabolič

I've already discussed Sabolič - I think I was overly harsh in my Season Review and believe he can do a good job for us on the 2nd line.

Kapel and Simšič were both players I said 'no thanks' to in the same Season Review. There's a key pivot point here. If they are signed for depth (i.e. 13th forward, 3rd/4th line), that is fine. If they are signed to be 2nd line/1st line players, as they were for stretches of last season, that is not fine. Even with a new coach, I do not think they are of the requisite quality to seriously challenge for automatic playoffs (or to win a pre-playoff round). It will be interesting to see how the squad shapes up in August. We still need a first-line centre to replace Kale Kerbashian, and I have an idea of who that might be. I won't be posting anything on it - not because of the club's wishes, but because of my own decision not to.

What's next after OLL cancelled my meeting with the club?

Talking of the club's wishes, whilst I remain pretty bitterly disappointed, I have decided not to air any 'sour grapes' on here. I'm quite sure that there's a Promethean urge to 'burn bridges' in every human being, but our job is to transcend that and move on to better things. In that vein, I have acknowledged their decision and initiated my backup plan, which I will be discussing with some of the OHB inner circle over the next couple of weeks. Suffice to say, the net will be cast a bit wider than just Olimpija...

OLL Sign RD Clayton Kirichenko

I'll admit some surprise factor here, as I hadn't heard anything about this. I imagine the team are quite pleased about that! 

On that note, I wanted to say thank you to everyone in the OHB community who reached out to me after the pretty massive disappointment I encountered yesterday regarding my meeting with the team that got cancelled. There'll be more on that in the near future ("believe that", as The Critical Drinker would say on YouTube), but for now I just wanted to underline how grateful I am for all the support. I was devastated yesterday but made to feel much better by the wonderful people who contacted me. It means a lot.

Right, back to it - who's this guy? The team have branded him as Mr Top Scoring D-Man in the ICE League 23-24 season. Let's explore the reality behind that statement.

The inevitable Elite Prospects profile is here. What are the takeaways from these last 9 or so seasons?

- That WHL season as Captain for Medicine Hat (an insane name for a team, but I love it) is legitimately impressive. The WHL is no joke as a developmental Canadian league, and his casual +50 is highly commendable. 

- After that, he plays 5 years at the University of Alberta, including a pandemic washout.  None of these statistically jump out at you, but they show reasonable effectiveness at that level.

- He jumps straight into the ICE League after university, playing only two games in 22-23 and the full 48 in 23-24 with Pioneers Vorarlberg. In that second season with PIV, he was the leading scorer for defenders, as the team trumpeted. We must contextualise this, though - PIV were low down the league, meaning this total inevitably includes the kind of 'garbage time' points (scored when the game is essentially over already and the other team isn't trying as hard). It also includes a -8, which speaks to both PIV's team weakness as well as a potential common drawback to offensive D-men - they give up a lot defensively.

- He translated that flashy season with PIV into trips to two better leagues in 24-25 - first in Germany and secondly in Slovakia. As you can see, he moved to three different clubs in two leagues, which doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his value-for-money, talent or character. I'm not saying he doesn't have any of those three things, just that his performances last season do not look good. We must give him a chance to prove his mettle with us, but he's 29 now and is not some young up-and-comer (as sad as it is for another 29 year old, yours truly, to write that 😆).

Final thoughts, for now

So, not as exciting as first glance. Still, you have to hope under Ben Cooper's guidance that he will accentuate the strengths of his game and minimise the weaknesses. We don't want another Will Cullen-esque disaster, as happened in that same 23-24 season (Cullen was a highly rated North American right shot offensive D who was atrocious in his own zone and ended up leaving early in the season).

Despite the abrupt ending of my potential relationship with the club (it did honestly feel like something akin to a break-up text that I received yesterday, not going to lie), I am categorically not coming out here with an 'axe to grind' (i.e. to speak badly about them and their decisions just to spite them). Like Rob Staton of Seahawks Draft Blog, the man who inspired me to start OHB, I am concerned with the truth first and foremost. The truth requires some critical analysis, and that's what I hope you feel you've been getting throughout the last year. 

In that spirit, this feels a bit underwhelming. I was excited to see some news I hadn't heard about, but the reality of the situation is that instead of signing Lalonde and then signing someone even better for the defence, they've signed Lalonde and a bit of a question mark. Possibly a pretty expensive question mark, too.

Are Lalonde and Kirichenko that much of an upgrade over the disappointing Atwal and Ege from last season? As we say in England, the proof will be in the pudding. Let's wait and see. For now, I am confident that Lalonde can provide value even if he is not scoring a lot of points. That's thanks to his immense physicality. I haven't seen Kirichenko play - if he manages to fuel the offensive gear shift that we need, fantastic. We should admit, though, that he may be a Cullen-esque, potentially Mašič-esque liability in defence. Can our defence handle two offensively strong but defensively weak D-men, after it struggled mightily at 5-on-5 with only one of those last year?

Ultimately, I think that after the Bonino signing last season, we could dare to dream that this offseason would be truly transformative. So far, you cannot say that. Meyer and Lalonde are helpful additions with the potential for more, while Kirichenko could turn out to be an offensive wizard for us. Yet, two are ICE League re-treads (or, more positively, ICE League veterans) while Lalonde is someone we already had a trial run with last season. That's not a bad thing, but it's also not truly transformative for this squad. Where is the splash signing that will ignite our chances of real success? Not everything has to be like that, you need good depth - but I am starting to wonder if we will go as hard in the transfer market as I anticipated under Mr Lefebvre's ownership. There's still time. Show us you really mean it with one more scintillating scoring forward (or two), OLL!

OHB's updated defensive outlook

1st pair: Bohinc - Lalonde

2nd pair: Ćosić - Kirichenko

3rd pair: Mašič - Gregorc/Hebar

7th D - Gregorc/Hebar

This gives every pairing a clear offensive prime mover - Lalonde, Kirichenko and Mašič. All the others can still positively contribute in the OZ, too. Although not mega flashy, this unit could work - especially with the new coaching regime to help limit their exposure to high-danger looks for the opposition.