A look at the former Vancouver core

[VattghernCZ 693]

A lot has been said about the Vancouver Wolves's moves last offseason, by me and others. To keep it short, after a 45-21-6 season, the perennial playoff team traded away their core of alt captain Dogwood Maple @dogwoodmaple (C, 72GP-32G-40A-72P), Oreo McFleury @JB123 (RW, 72GP-27G-41A-68P), captain Pierre Emile Bouchard @Gaikoku-hito (D, 72GP-15G-64A-79P) and alt captain Wann Kerr (C, 72GP-41G-48A-89P) to kickstart their rebuild. While it's too early to evaluate how the trade turned out for all sides, let's look how the ex-Wolves are doing right now.

Oreo McFleury (64GP-22G-27A-49P) – Calgary Wranglers

The Wranglers are going through the post-Janser rebuild, it's not surprising they're not doing the best with 26-28-10 record good for 5^th place in the North American Conference. At this point of the season, no Calgary player has reached 30 goals or 60 points. Their fantastic goaltending and very good defense are keeping them somewhat afloat, but the overall lack of scoring throughout the whole lineup (2^nd worst GF in the league) is slowing them down. Naturally, McFleury isn't having a great season, playing on the right wing of second line with Rip Wheeler and rookie Raimo Tuominen, and getting minutes on scondary powerplay units and primary penalty killing units. Oreo's 22 goals are 4^th highest on the team as well as his 49 points, and his 27 assists are 3^rd on the team. While there's still chance for McFleury to reach or even beat last season's 27 goals, or even his career high 28, it's hard to imagine him finishing the season with more than last year's 68 points. However, watch him start to flourish in the upcoming two or three seasons, when he's a crucial part of the future Wranglers core.

Dogwood Maple (64GP-27G-30A-57P) – HC Davos Dynamo

For Maple, being traded to Davos had to be one of the most infuriating moments of his career, but it's the tough side of the business. A season before the deal was done, the Wolves had been getting over the disappointment of losing to Davos in the Continental Cup finals thanks to the god-like performance of Lachlan Summers in the Dynamo net. If there ever was any frustration in Maple, he never let it be known publically and handled the whole thing as a true professional. Davos is a stacked team, leading the whole league with 97 points and 45-12-7 record. After spending many season as the Wolves' top line center, he was delegated to the second line in Dynamo, playing behind superstar center Leandro Goncalves (103 points in 64 games). Being demoted to the second line brought a little dip in Maple's offensive production (27 goals are 4^th on the team, 30A are 8^th, 57P are 5^th), but it allowed his two-way ability to shine. At this moment, Davos is the best defensive team in the league, and Maple leads the forward core with 37 blocked shots, and is second among forwards with 195 hits. While not having great season individually, Dogwood is playing a crucial role on an elite team, don't be surprised if he is the most successful player out of these four in the Cup department when all is said and done.

Pierre Emile Bouchard (64GP-13G-65A-78P) – Helsinki Titans

In a way, you can say the things went exactly the opposite way for Bouchard to how they went for Maple. While Helsinki are a middle of the pack team with 35-25-4 record good for 5^th place in the European Conference, Bouchard is having a fantastic season that could very well end up being his best one offensively, in assists and points department. His place is on the first defensive pair and the top powerplay units, where he quarterbacks the unit with star forwards Landon Wolanin and Daryl Dixon up front. Supporting this dynamic duo has helped Bouchard to log 65 assists, which is the 4^th highest total in the league. It also puts him on pace for 73 assists and 88 points, which would break his career high in assists (69A in S87) and tie his career high in points (88P in S87). While being the 3^rd highest scoring player on the team (and needless to say, the top assists guy), he's also second among Titans defenders in hits and third in blocked shots. His last season in the league is also crucial for Helsinki because of his experience, as he's mentoring their future no. 1 defenseman YaBoi Oven.

Wann Kerr (65GP-41G-45A-86P) – London United

Straight after finishing the S90 as the Wolves' top scorer, goal scorer and MVP, Kerr jump in London to center the first line with Leonard Triller and Molly the Cat. This line could make a solid case for a claim to being the best line in the league right now, as they have combined for 106 goals so far this season. Leonard Triller leads the league with 71 assists, Molly the Cat is tied for 4^th highest goal total in the league with 45, with Kerr trailing slightly behind, tied for 6^th place with 41 goals. Kerr himself has just tied his career high in goals with 41, and is 3 assists and 3 points away from tying respective career highs (45A and 89P in S90). While he dialed down the physicallity just a notch compared to last season (242 hits in S90), he still leads the whole team with 178 hits while only earning 54 minor penalty minutes to go with a single major penalty. He's also leading the forward core with 32 blocked shots, which is on par with the last two seasons. London is tied with Davos for the fewest goals allowed while having played one game more than Dynamo, but the lack of secondary scoring is currently keeping them in 4^th place in the European Conference with 41-17-7 record.

And how are the Wolves looking?

Bad.

Well, at least now. The major pieces they decided to keep and build around - $nubbed Analfist and Liv Slater – are both developing great, and the draft capital earned from trading away their former core allowed them to draft their future starting goaltender Dalkr Vidarsson and a very hopful crop of prospects highlighted by power forward Nico Belique.

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