Meute Roll While Slipher Struggles

[Hybrid1486 577]

Despite a very strong season from the Quebec City Meute, a season that saw them clinch the second seed in the VHL playoffs with a 51-19-2 record that will give them the home-ice advantage over defending league champion Davos when the next round of the playoffs starts, one of their top draft picks put forth a fairly disappointing effort.

 

In a season where scoring was through the roof and 13 (!) players had a triple-digit point total, fifth overall pick Vesto Slipher could only muster a measly 21 goals and 23 assists for 44 total points, which rated tenth for rookies and tied for 48th in league-wide scoring with the immortal Corey Klopfenstein and Phil Bennington. In Slipher's defense, Quebec's team strategy limited the ice time for most of the team's forwards relative to the rest of the league, and on the ice the team deployed a defense-first philosophy that depressed scoring but ultimately helped reel in the wins.

 

That said, the team needs more out of Slipher moving forward, and he needs to deliver more. After being vocal about the limited amount of ice time he was receiving early in the year, he responded to an increased role  by dropping his points-per-20 total from around 1.15 to 0.61 by the end of the season. That has to change moving forward, and if Slipher can help it then it will.