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Wolf Tracks: Hungry like the wolf

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In one sense, the Sudbury Wolves coaching and management team could probably relax this summer, knowing the team had a very successful season.

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However, it likely won’t play out that way. The problem is that once you have a taste of success, you’re generally left hungry for more. 

The Wolves were a good team in 2018-19, but in the end not a championship team. They were a shade away from winning a division, well back of being a conference champion and even further away it would seem from a league title.   

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As the OHL champion Guelph Storm take aim at a Memorial Cup championship this weekend, the blueprint they leave behind for the rest of the league offers some interesting, if not perplexing, lessons. To say the Storm went all in at the trade deadline back in January would be a significant understatement. 

Before Christmas, they traded away Ryan Merkley and Tag Bertuzzi, collecting a number of draft picks in the process. At that point, it might have seemed to an outsider that the Storm were contemplating some form of rebuild. But as the calendar turned to January, head coach and general manager George Burnett went to work and flipped the league on its ear.

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Guelph added MacKenzie Entwistle, Markus Phillips and Fedor Gordeev in three separate trades on Jan. 5, then followed up with a blockbuster on Jan. 9 that saw them acquire Nick Suzuki, Sean Durzi and Zachary Roberts from Owen Sound. 

The common theme? Six seasoned veterans — all 19 or 20 years old — combining extensive experience at the OHL level, NHL training camps and even international play.    

Junior hockey has always been a league where good teams make key additions prior to the trade deadline, and weaker teams deal their veterans to build a brighter future. But even so, Guelph’s load-up of talent was epic. 

And really, these playoffs in general have truly hammered home the point about veterans being indispensable if a team hopes to go anywhere once the snow begins to melt. Case in point, the top 10 post-season scorers in the OHL included five 19-year-olds and four 20-year-olds. The only youngster in the group was Ottawa 67’s standout Marco Rossi, a 17-year-old OHL rookie who will be eligible for the 2020 NHL Entry Draft. 

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Also worth noting, five of the 10 were players who switched jerseys mid-season – Suzuki and Durzi with the Storm, Lucas Chiodo and Kyle Maksimovich with the Ottawa 67’s and Owen Tippett with the Saginaw Spirit. 

If you’re Sudbury GM Rob Papineau, that has to speak volumes. 

The Wolves were a drastically improved team last season, and they should be pretty competitive next season, too. But two of their most impressive offensive talents, Quinton Byfield and Blake Murray, will only be 17 and 18 years old in 2019-20. Important defencemen such as Liam Ross, Isaak Phillips and Jack Thompson will be in the same age range, as well. 

The Storm blueprint isn’t the only one that works. The Hamilton Bulldogs relied a bit more on built-in chemistry to win the OHL championship in 2018, but they too made some key acquisitions to bring in more experience as the season went along.

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One of the problems for Sudbury that has been mentioned previously in this space is that it’s impossible to predict how long Byfield will continue to wear a Wolves jersey. Next season is guaranteed, but after the 2020 NHL draft, all bets are off. Depending on which team drafts him and what their salary cap looks like, it’s possible the towering, former first-overall OHL pick, who is the reigning rookie of the year, might move up to the pro ranks sooner than one might expect. 

Still, it’s not out of the question that Byfield is part of a 2022 Memorial Cup run by the Wolves, meaning he leads them there as a 19-year-old. 

Keep in mind the path Nick Suzuki has taken as a former first-round NHL pick, 13th overall. Sticking around and playing out your junior careers has its benefits. The former Vegas Golden Knights draft choice, traded to Montreal as part of the Max Pacioretty deal, has to be reaping benefits from the experience of leading a team to a league championship and Memorial Cup appearance, not to mention his time with Team Canada at the world junior championship. Suzuki will eventually be a pro, and the patient approach might pay dividends down the road. 

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But not all NHL teams see it that way, and OHL teams therefore have no ability to plan accordingly. 

One thing we know is that NHL scouts will want to see Byfield regularly throughout next season, so it draws attention to the program and GM Papineau can try to use to his advantage from a recruitment standpoint. For instance, any potential prospects he’s chatting with in advance of the CHL Import Draft next month will be very aware that the Wolves will be in the spotlight next season. That can’t hurt. 

Wolf Tracks goes on summer vacation today without a care in the world, confident there will be a competitive team and plenty of great storylines come September and throughout most of next season. 

Summer likely won’t be that simple for the Wolves management team though, not with that taste of success still fresh in their mouths. 

Hungry like the wolf, I suppose.

This is Jeff Giffen’s final Wolf Tracks column of the season.

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