McLaren's 4th year off to better start

[tcookie 934]

Four years into the VHL career of Addison McLaren, the former first-round pick is hoping its finally time to make his mark on the league. McLaren has struggled to show much more than occasional glimpses of the potential teams thought he had entering the S75 draft, and was traded last season from the team that drafted him in Riga to the Toronto Legion.

 

While the Legion had hoped McLaren might solve some of their goal-scoring woes, the blockbuster trade with Riga didn't really turn the team around. They played a little better down the stretch, but were not able to make the post-season. McLaren's production was similar both before and after the trade, with 14 goals and 34 points in 39 games pre-trade and 13 goals and 29 points in 33 games post-trade.

 

This year with the Legion, McLaren will be the #1 guy on offense for Toronto, but it's a deep group overall and that should help both player and team. The Legion don't have any real weaknesses, with a good defense group and solid netminder as well. The biggest question mark for them is a lack of true star power. It'll be up to the high S75 picks, McLaren up front and Scotty Kaberle on the back end, to step up their games and provide that star power.

"I've never played in the playoffs yet in the VHL and it's certainly not how I expected it to go... especially coming into the league after winning back to back Founders Cups in the VHLM - you want to compete, you want to be in the playoffs and you want to win," says McLaren. "I've been saying the same things every year and this is the year we have to just go out and do it."

 

The Legion are doing a good job of that so far, out to a 6-0 start and leading the league with 32 goals for. For his part, McLaren is tied for 3rd in the league with 6 goals and tied for 9th with 11 points while also leading it with 39 hits. "I wanted to come into the league and make an impact like that. It's what I expect of myself and it's nice to be contributing. But it's 6 games and there's 66 more to go, then the playoffs, and I've got like three years worth of struggling to make up for so... I've got a lot to accomplish yet."

 

Four Legion players have hit double digits in points so far (Kaberle, McLaren, Lester Green, and Phoenix Dawson), and almost the entire team is playing at a PPG pace - with the only exception being Mikey Harris who has 5 points in 6 games. A year after inexplicably struggling to score with a team that had plenty of talent, the Legion seem to be taking well to some changes made in the off-season. "It's nothing but a start," says McLaren. "But obviously, it's preferable to struggling out of the gate. It feels good to be playing good hockey and not feeling like you're struggling and just need to find a way to do more all the time."

[Greg_Di 1,028]

Review:

 

Great perspective on your career and how you feel the trade to Toronto went. I am sure your production will improve!. Having your players quotes a different color really helped them pop in the article. You also mentioned other team-mates that are doing well which is always a plus. To improve I would definitely just add a picture. 9/10!

[Baby Boomer 765]

9/10 

Great article and very well written. It is very nice to read and it is fun to see your perspective about the trade and the beginning of the season. It is nice to see that you made paragraphs and not just a big wall of words. Keep up the good work and your effort will be rewarded.

[Gustav 6,481]

I knew getting you in fantasy would be a good move 

 

Keep it up, everyone deserves a nice breakout season.