Wolves seek path to winning ways
There is no place to go but up in the standings for the Sudbury Wolves.
Anxious to get the 2015-2016 season started and looking to rebound from a disastrous 2014-2015 campaign when the Wolves won a franchise-history-low 12 games to finish last overall in the 20-team Ontario Hockey League, Sudbury sports a new look on many fronts.
David Matsos, who won a Memorial Cup in 1993 as a high-scoring forward with the Soo Greyhounds, begins his first full season as Wolves head coach.
Also new to the Wolves are associate coach Drake Berehowsky and general manager Barclay Branch.
Then there is rookie winger David Levin, who was taken by the Wolves with the first overall pick at the 2015 OHL draft. Levin heads to Sudbury after having scored 39 goals, 41 assists, 80 points in 55 games with the Don Mills Flyers midgets in 2014-2015.
Levin brings a sense of optimism to Wolves fans as the tweaked organization strives for a return to better days under Matsos, Berehowsky, Branch and long-serving president Blaine Smith.
To be sure, Levin is quite the different hockey story.
Having grown up playing inline hockey in his native Israel, Levin came to Canada at the age of 12 to pursue an ice hockey career.
“David is a very unique player on a lot of levels, given the fact that he hasn’t played organized hockey for all that long,” noted Branch, who moves to Sudbury after an 11-year run as assistant general manager with the erstwhile Belleville Bulls. “He’s a player who immediately jumps off the ice at you because you can’t help but recognize his hockey intellect, his skating and his puck skills.”
With a potential franchise player in Levin and other high-end young talent that includes 2014 first-rounder Michael Pezzetta and fellow forward Brady Pataki, the Wolves seem intent on surrounding their youngsters with responsible veterans and leaders.
Smith, the Wolves president who handed off the GM duties to Branch but who remains as the team’s front office boss under owner/chief executive officer Mark Burgess, said it is imperative that the older players step up in 2015-2016.
“We have several players in our forward group that are veteran players in our league now,” Smith noted. “We will need 19 year-olds like Chad Heffernan, Charley Graaskamp and (Los Angeles Kings, National Hockey League draft pick) Matt Schmalz to be playing in our top six and providing a consistent effort on both sides of the puck.
“We’ll also be relying on 20 year-olds Jacob Harris and Danny Desrochers for their continued leadership and strong work ethic. Pavel Jenys, who led our team in scoring last season, will attend training camp with the Minnesota Wild and we’re hopeful that we’ll see him back in our lineup this season,” added Smith.
As the Wolves look to rebound from a league-low 149 goals scored in 2014-2015 — combined with the OHL’s worst power-play efficiency — one of their best offensive boosts may come from back of the blueline.
Defenceman Kyle Capobianco, who was a third-round pick of the Arizona Coyotes at the 2015 NHL Draft, returns as an 18 year-old this 2015-2016 season with sights set on building off a 40-point campaign in 2014-2015.
“You have to have efficient specialty teams if you want to be a successful hockey club and unfortunately our powerplay was anemic for much of last season,” Smith said. “I think a guy like Kyle, as frustrated as he may have been last year at times, is more prepared now that he’s been drafted and that pressure is taken off. I really think he has the ability to explode offensively this year with a better group around him in terms of offensive skill and that’s something we’re really looking forward to seeing.”
Capobianco will be joined by overage veteran Patrick Murphy, who was recently acquired from the Erie Otters, and 19 year-old Jonathan Duchesne in carrying much of the load on the Sudbury blueline this season.
In addition to Levin and one of the OHL’s top power-play quarterbacks in Capobianco, it is being said that a pivotal piece to the Wolves success in 2015-2016 is 1997 birth-year goalie Troy Timpano, who Sudbury took in the second round of the 2013 OHL draft.
Timpano, who appeared in 46 games as a 17-year old while facing a barrage of shots, has the confidence of Smith.
“Troy was a real trooper for us last year and saw a lot of action in the crease,” said Smith. “This is his (NHL) draft year and he’s already pegged by Central Scouting as being on their radar. We really feel confident in Troy as our no. 1 goaltender. If we can play better in front of him I think that will only contribute to him having better numbers and our team being better defensively and cutting down on the goals against.”
By his own admission, Branch, as the new GM, has stepped into a good situation in Sudbury.
“There’s an excellent collection of youthful players, a very strong foundation to build upon moving forward and that’s exciting,” Branch stated. “The real challenge is to ensure that those young players are surrounded by the proper leadership and support to allow things to work hand in hand in not only making the hockey club as competitive as possible, but to ensure that the young players are going to develop in the right setting and at the right pace.”
Just wondering what happened to the Pilon boys. Checked the Wolves website and they’re not on their roster page. I thought they would have been a good fit there, as Sudbury is pretty much in a re-build year.
Pilon boys assigned to Soo Thunderbirds of NOJHL.