Ultimately, the best place for Jeremy Bracco to stay on track as a burgeoning offensive talent is with the Kitchener Rangers.
The 19-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs second-round choice, who was eligible to play in the AHL by dint of being drafted from the U.S. national team development program, is headed back to Kitchener. Bracco has the next-level ability to make plays at a high pace, but that’s better honed in playing 20-plus minutes per game major junior than in the AHL.
There probably should not have been much doubt that the move was inevitable. There are 19-year-olds every season who fall into that sliver of space of being too good for junior but not ready for a NHL brind. Bracco still needs a season to work at bringing peak effort to the ice as frequently as possible.
The Freeport, N.Y., native had 21 goals and 64 points across 49 games for Kitchener as an 18-year-old after leaving Boston College. The ceiling for this season is much higher. The Rangers, as evidence by the small sample of having scored 19 goals in their first three games, might be a much more potent team than the 2015–16 edition.
Bracco will surely be in line for a front-line role with Team USA at the world juniors. The Americans are also in the round-robin group that will be based at Air Canada Centre.
There was precedent for the Rangers losing a 19-year-old scorer to the AHL. In 2010–11, the Chicago Blackhawks placed Jeremy Morin, who was coming off a 47-goal season for Kitchener, with their AHL team.
Cougars off to fast start
There is excitement about Prince George out in B.C. that has nothing to do with Will and Kate. The Prince George Cougars are 6-0 for the first time in the club’s history under new head coach Richard Matvichuk, who was coach of the year in the ECHL last season with the Missouri Mavericks.
Now in their second season under the ownership group fronted by Dallas Stars defenceman Dan Hamhuis, the Cougars are much deeper than in seasons past. Eight players were in NHL camps this month. The switch to Matvichuk, with assistant coaches Shawn Chambers and Steve O’Rourke, has also quickly paid dividends.
LOOK AT THESE BEAUTIES Hamhuis (middle row, third from left) and 11 other top prospects are introduced ahead of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft. Hamhuis went 12th to Nashville from the Prince George Cougars. (Ryan Remiorz/CP)
Prince George has been buoyed offensively by 19-year Jared Bethune, overage left-winger Colby McAuley and centre Brad Morrison, a New York Rangers fourth-rounder. Captain Sam Ruopp was away with the Columbus Blue Jackets until returning to contribute to a weekend sweep against the Kelowna Rockets.
Jansen Harkins (Winnipeg Jets) and Jesse Gabrielle (Boston Bruins), Prince George’s two leading returning scorers, were sent back by their NHL teams on Sunday.
Prince George last won a playoff series in 2007, when future NHLer Devin Setoguchi led a run to the Western Conference final. That drought might end in the spring.
Firebirds rise from ashes
The consensus pick for dead last in the OHL, the Flint Firebirds, are out to a 4-1-0-0 start.
It is too soon say whether Flint is for real, especially since all four wins were at home, but it is an encouraging sign, considering what was forecast. Nineteen-year-old forward Ryan Moore has run wild (14 points in five games), and Dallas draft pick Nicholas Caamano (13 points) has yet to be shut out.
Last week, of course, Flint GM George Burnett fortified the goaltending and forward corps. Connor Hicks was part of the return for moving Will Bitten to the Hamilton Bulldogs, while Kole Sherwood, a surplus forward in London, was also added. Hicks won back-to-back starts last weekend, and Sherwood had five points in two games.
The off-ice controversy last season overshadowed that Flint wasn’t bad in the first half. The Firebirds’ point percentage was above .500 at the 25-game mark, before everything went sideways.
Palmu quick off the draw
The Owen Sound Attack‘s Petrus Palmu put his name in the record book on Sept. 28, tying the mark for the fastest goal from the start of a period. Palmu scored four seconds in the second, employing the ‘skate through the circle’ stratagem to speed into the zone and wire a shot by Hamilton’s Kaden Fulcher.
The last OHL player to score four seconds after an opening faceoff was the London Knights‘ Doug Synishin in 1989.
In fairness to Fulcher, that was his first shot of the night. The Bulldogs made a change after allowing 22 first-period shots on rookie Cole Ceci and falling behind 5-2.
Canadian NHL team prospect of the week
Filip Chlapik, C, Charlottetown Islanders (QMJHL)
The Ottawa Senators second-rounder returned to the Quebec League and had eight points across three games for the Islanders, who have the Maritimes Division lead after two weeks.
Chlapik led the Islanders in assists last season and was second in points with 54 in 52 games. (Darrell Theriault/Charlottetown Islanders)
Chlapik’s points per game actually went down last season after he was drafted No. 48 overall by the Senators in 2015. The Czech has some talented teammates around him in Charlottetown, including fellow Senators prospect Cody Donaghey.
New name to know
Luke Zazula, D, Kamloops Blazers (WHL)
Last in the alphabet, but second in WHL rookie scoring with four points in as many games. The 16-year-old Zazula has started well for the Blazers, although it should not come as a total shock since he was invited to Hockey Canada’s national under-17 development camp in the summer.
Zazula is 5-foot-8 and 168 lb., and the small stature perhaps partially explains why he was still available for Kamloops with the 82nd choice of the 2015 bantam draft. The Langley, B.C., native has a mean streak along with the skill to contribute offensively. Zazula progressed so rapidly at the Delta Hockey Academy last season that he earned a three-game call-up to Kamloops.