Critical Offseason for Calgary

[solas 1,951]

The upcoming offseason will have a very large bearing on the next couple seasons in the VHL - even more so than usual.  Sure, the S51 draft class looks to be one of the weakest in recent memory, but the upcoming free agents will include an incredible amount of high-quality players that could make or break a team’s cup chances.  This is especially true in the North American conference.  After their historic three-peat, Toronto will have to struggle with the losses of Hans Wingate, Edwin Reencarnacion, and Marcel Faux to retirement.  Meanwhile, Quebec could quite possibly lose star players Aleksi Koponen, Unassisted, Jeff Hamilton, and Greg Clegane to free agency - which could take them out of playoff contention.  At the same time, Seattle and Calgary, two young teams that battled for the third spot in the conference last season, could quite easily establish themselves as contenders with some major moves in the offseason.

 

While Calgary might have the advantage over Seattle thanks to their finish last season, they’ll still need to make improvements to truly become cup contenders.  Players like Axelsson, Gowecny, Klingberg, and Lahey will certainly continue to develop, and Weinstein could easily become the best goalie in the league after the retirement of Hans Wingate.  However, the stacked free agent class provides a perfect opportunity for the Wranglers to add the bona fide star players that they may have lacked last season.  It seems very likely that both the Calgary management and players will spend a good amount of time trying to attract free agents.  But free agency discussion has only just started today, and only time will tell if things will pay off for the Wranglers.

[eaglesfan036 4,603]