Graves Primed to Become Elite?

[STZ 5,360]

 

Washington, DC.

 

There are a lot of questions coming out of DC, this upcoming season. Is this finally the year they turn into a full blown contender? Is Washington and Valentino ready to break out and become the leagues top defense pair? Is Stone Wolski ready to be the full time starter? Can Aaltonen produce after undergoing depreciation. While DC has been from its inception an offense-heavy team build, going into S72 it seems as though they will need different faces to step up in order for their offense to be elite. Boris The Forest is coming off a spectacular year, and after paying the price of moving Frostbeard, it seems as though Eno Rama and the Dragons have a quality first line center. Their defense looked shakey at the end of the season, but with the emergence of Valentino and the position switch for George Washington, it seems as though defense might be their biggest strength.

 

So then, where does this put the S69 2nd Overall draft pick Benny Graves? He is slated to start the year with over 900 TPA and will center the second line with breakout player Raleigh Ritchie and Xavier Laflamme, both players they found outside of the first round of their respective drafts.Graves has put up almost a point per game in the past two seasons, while he was still under his rookie contract. Now he's entering his first season of his career-long contract he signed with the Dragons, and has seemed to have bulked up to add a physical element to his game. He's always had the speed and the size, could this be his year where he breaks out?

 

The Dragons are a team to watch, and with this kind of depth it is hard to imagine any team having an easy night against DC. Graves could very well be that secret weapon that puts DC into that championship caliber team echelon.