The CHL’s first weekend of games is in the books, so we take a quick look around for some very early-season takeaways.
QUINTON BYFIELD HAS ARRIVED
The first-overall pick of this past summer’s OHL Draft isn’t eligible to be taken by an NHL team until 2020 — and even then may not leap Alexis Lafreniere for the No. 1 overall spot — but he’s already turning heads and has come out of Sudbury’s first two games with two points.
On the road in Guelph on Friday, the Wolves earned a 4-2 win that was secured by a great insurance marker from the 6-foot-4, 214-pound Byfield, who has drawn some light comparisons to Eric Lindros for his size and offensive upside. He also recorded an assist in the game, a primary helper on Shane Bulitka’s power-play goal that got Sudbury on the board and cut into Guelph’s then 2-0 lead.
But don’t expect this major junior season to be a walk in the park for Byfield. Though he enters the league at near-full size already, he still has to catch up to the OHL game in some regards. For instance, though he figures to play big minutes down the middle, he won just three of 12 faceoffs versus Guelph, and one of seven on Saturday against Owen Sound.
After such a positive start in the opening game, Byfield got a bit of a reality check against the tough Owen Sound Attack, who line-matched to shut Byfield and his mates down. The Attack, using the last-change advantage that comes with home ice, often ran out overage checker Kevin Hancock against Byfield, or experienced veteran defencemen Markus Phillips and Trent Bourque. It was a steady dose of shutdown matchups for the 16-year-old centre, who was held pointless with a minus-1 rating. He did manage four shots, though, giving him a total of eight in two games.
“With two great skating defencemen, both with great gap control, there isn’t much room to do anything. Sometimes as a 16-year-old you try to overdo it. He’s going to be a heck of a player,” Owen Sound head coach Todd Gill told the Owen Sound Sun Times.
Byfield is coming off a solid pre-season in which he managed nine points in five games and has been put on a line with a couple veterans in Macauley Carson and David Levin. Carson missed the first two games with a suspension and will miss a third on Thursday before he’s eligible to return on Friday. If the trio is reunited, it could be a tough matchup for other teams.
“When you look at that line, you have a guy in Carson who can drive the net, can go get pucks and is big and he can get the puck to Quinton, who skates extremely well, who plays with pace, and you have David, who might end up becoming the goal-scorer on that line, because he’s got a great shot,” Wolves head coach Cory Stillman told the Sudbury Star during the pre-season. “The three of them fit well together in the games that they’ve played and it shows in the point total – in the last three games, they have produced every time they have played together.”
The two-point start for Byfield is promising not just because he’s on the board, but because he did it all on the road. Sudbury will play another away game Thursday against the Barrie Colts before heading north for their home opener Friday against the Oshawa Generals.
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A TOP NHL DRAFT PROSPECT RIPS UP WHL ON FIRST WEEKEND
With a chance to be a top-10 pick in the NHL Draft next summer, 17-year-old Kirby Dach started off his season extremely hot and is your WHL scoring leader after the first few games.
The 6-foot-4, 198-pound centre was leaned on in the season-opener against defending WHL champion Swift Current, and followed through by winning 16 of his 23 draws and recording two assists — a primary helper on his team’s first goal, and a secondary marker on the game-winner early in the third period.
The very next night on Saturday, Saskatoon hosted Swift Current to complete the home-and-home and looked like a completely different team — while Swift Current looked much more like a defending champion that’s had to retreat into a rebuild. This time the Blades surged to an 8-0 victory and Dach became the league’s first star of opening weekend with a three-goal, five-point outing.
2019 #NHLDraft Update: @BladesHockey forward Kirby Dach is good at hockey. #WHLOpeningWeek pic.twitter.com/lIPCVXOFP9
— The WHL (@TheWHL) September 23, 2018
“We’re playing with a little bit more structure than we have in the past, and it’s showing out there on the ice,” Dach told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. “We’re moving pucks a little bit quicker, playing a little bit faster as a team, burning teams a little bit more than we used to. Our game plan and our strategies have changed, and I think that’s helped our team out a little bit more. We’ve come together as a team right away, from the start of camp.”
Dach is one of a few NHL draft-eligible WHLers who figure to turn the league’s fortunes around this season. After only two players from the league were taken in the first-round last June (17th and 31st), Dach joins the likes of Dylan Cozens, Bowen Byram and Peyton Krebs as likely 2019 first-rounders.
PLAYERS RETURNING TO THE CHL
Although the CHL season is off and running, some impactful players will still be added to lineups as NHL teams continue to send players back to junior.
For instance, the Florida Panthers chose to send Owen Tippett back to the Mississauga Steelheads rather than keep him up for a nine-game regular season extension as they did last season. Tippett, an offence-minded player whose knock comes on the defensive side of the puck, scored 36 goals and 75 points in 51 games for the Steelheads last season and will get the full slate to try and stick out from the crowd in 2018-19.
One player to watch closely is Cody Glass. Should he, as expected, return to the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks, he’d be an early favourite to win that league’s scoring title after already scoring 102 points last season. But he was injured at Vegas Golden Knights training camp, which could delay his return, although he’s listed as day-to-day and it’s not believed to be a serious issue. His team could surely use him after a disappointing 0-2 start to the season, in which it scored just four goals.
In the QMJHL, Joe Veleno was returned to Drummondville by the Detroit Red Wings. Once in the running to be a top-five NHL pick, the centre fell all the way to 30th overall.
Back in Drummondville, Veleno will get to settle in and play the full schedule with the Voltigeurs after being acquired from Saint John halfway through last season. With the Sea Dogs, Veleno was mostly buried on a loaded depth chart from the moment he stepped into the league as a 15-year-old in 2015-16, but still grew into a point-per-game player.
After he was traded, though, the Voltigeurs needed him for a bigger role and Veleno answered with 48 points in 33 games. Drummondville now has league championship hopes and needs Veleno to be at least that good again this season.
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