The squad - strengths

[Jayboy]

FORWARDS

10 Tanner Eberle
12 Justin Hodgman
15 Anthony DeLuca
17 Evan Mosey
19 Travis Oleksuk
20 Jonathan Phillips
62 Martin Latal
63 Brendan Connolly
75 Robert Dowd
88 Marc-Olivier Vallerand
90 John Armstrong



DEFENDERS

05 Daine Todd
13 Davey Phillips
28 Kevin Schulze
44 Sam Jones
47 Adrian Saxrud Danielsen
77 Keaton Ellerby


NETMINDERS

31 Ben Churchfield
33 Barry Brust
34 Curtis Warburton

Well when you look at this squad, you would be hard pressed to find the weakness?

[mark]

I suspect any weakness would be found within those who are new to the club, although I do believe that Fox's diligence in recruitment is better than that of some of his predecessors and that should prevent another embarrassing Corey Pecker style incident. The main factor is the limited amount of hockey many have played in the last twelve months, that cannot have made selection any easier but of course it has been the same for all the clubs in the league.

New players need to buy into the fact that over here it is the league that counts and not the playoffs, points lost in September are just as vital as those in March.

Fox has recruited a team that has excellent skating ability, potentially the best netminder in the league and some big mobile D men. He now has to get them to work as a team from front to back, if he achieves that then I think it's a team that will challenge for all the trophies this season.

[rnewbolt1]

The only potential wekness I see is if the 'Golden Child' (as some refer to him as) will stand up to a full injury free season otherwise its just wait and see for me

[SteelerBlade]

It’s clear we have quality individuals & more sizeable bodies on D.

I think the key will be in our system, Fox enjoys his D getting right in the mix offensively which brings us lots of goals, but we also tend to concede lots and leave our Netminders with no chance at all.

If we can sort our D system we should challenge, I don’t see offence being an issue.

[Jayboy]

It’s clear we have quality individuals & more sizeable bodies on D.

I think the key will be in our system, Fox enjoys his D getting right in the mix offensively which brings us lots of goals, but we also tend to concede lots and leave our Netminders with no chance at all.

If we can sort our D system we should challenge, I don’t see offence being an issue.

I was very pleased to hear Brust talking about managing his defence and moulding those players to his idea of a successful D unit. He spoke about being very hands on and the defenders taking on board his systems and not any they feel like playing and using that to his advantage within a overall team system... we have definitely had Goalies in the recent past that were not as good as this as they should be, by doing this Brust effectively becomes the Defencive coach..

All netminders try and do this to some degree, but as a successful talented netminder with Brusts experience in the higher leagues then he might just make the difference the team needs at the back in more than his own abilities..

A defence MUST play to the goalies strengths and a great deal of the time when a defence starts to look bad is when a defender/s haven't a clue what the goalie is going to do next and/or he hasn't a clue what they will do... Brust may just be the difference that we haven't seen in recent years!

[smbmetal]

I would say that it's a good upgrade to the team that finished our last season.

If the forwards have a good season then I can see us being the top scorers.

We certainly have upgraded defensively on paper and have added a little bit more toughness at the back end.

I still have a concern over our average age, but time will tell on that one.

Certainly looking forward to the season starting more than usual and not just because of the Covid situation.

[TealSteeler]

It certainly looks an upgrade on the roster that finished the aborted season.

Fox has looked at that roster and thought yep, that could be improved here and that can be improved there. He certainly has the knowledge and contacts to attract players. I very much doubt that the so called "best coach in the world" could assemble a roster like this.

For all the good that Duba provided, we have a proper "stud" goalie in Brust. He will command his defence and probably go nuts if they let him down.

People question that average thing. Well there's no substitute for experience in my book and this roster has it in spades. If they gel, then we'll be delighted as a whole. Hopefully the roster won't need too many changes in the season ahead. Let the puck drop!