The upstart West Virginia River Rats didn’t make it easy, but the El Dorado Lynx weathered a late push and closed out their series in six games with a 4-2 home win to take the 2021 championship.
It’s been nine years since Lynx superstar Alex Ovechkin last hoisted the cup. The winger scored a crucial third-period goal in the deciding game to help stave off West Virginia’s comeback bid.
Congratulations to the Lynx and their GM, Chuck Shaeffer, on an excellent season and playoffs!
The West Virginia River Rats, who had one of the league’s worst records last season, made a huge splash to start the 2020-21 season, going 18-2-0 and scoring 114 goals in their first 20 games. It’s early, but that high-octane offensive output, led by a dominant top line of Leon Draisaitl, Sebastian Aho and Patrik Laine, puts the Rats on pace to shatter league records by season’s end.
In the Plante Conference, the usually competitive Parry Sound sagged to a very disappointing 6-12-2 start, leaving an opening for both Baltimore (13-7-0) and Pittsburgh (12-6-2) to put themselves into the top four in the conference. Salem (12-8-0) made up for its anemic offensive start (57 goals) by allowing just 49 while El Dorado (13-6-1) also had a strong start.
No team in the Sawchuk was remotely as good as West Virginia, but the first quarter saw good starts from defending Gump Cup champ Boston (14-5-1), thanks to sparkling play by Ben Bishop. Vancouver (13-4-3) had a surprisingly good showing, putting the team a few points ahead of cup contending division rival Delta (11-6-3). Adirondack fans were shocked to see its team limp along to just 3 wins in the first 20 and the league’s worst record.
Draisaitl leads all scorers after 20 games, with a jaw-dropping 45 points. Linemates Aho and Laine are third and fourth, respectively, and Aho leads all goal-scorers with 20. San Jose’s Mitch Marner is a distant second behind Draisaitl in the scoring race, with 33 points. Baltimore’s strong quarter was largely driven by its blueline, which featured three players — Brent Burns, Anthony DeAngelo and rookie Cale Makar — scoring at a point-per-game pace. Also of note, Vancouver’s two Sheas, Weber and Theodore, are one-two in defenseman goals with 10 and 9. Makar’s 20 points give him a five-point lead in the rookie scoring race.
Boston’s Bishop has three shutouts already, along with the best stats (2.39, .920) of any of the goalies who have seen more than half of their teams’ games so far.
Trading is now open in the GMWHL, and the newly crowned Boston Banshees got things started, dealing forward Max Domi to the Denver Spurs for forward Colton Sissons and netminder Anton Khudobin. Domi began his career with the Spurs and was traded to Boston in 2017 in an eight-player blockbuster that brought now-departed Braden Holtby to Denver. He registered 13 goals and 31 points in 51 games this season with the Banshees. Boston hopes Khudobin can provide some high-quality support for starter Ben Bishop.
It was the first of three deals on the day. Later, Boston welcomed new expansion club Hershey to the league by dealing three 4th round picks (its own, Parry Sound’s and Pittsburgh’s) along with rookie forward Eric Robinson for Hershey’s 2nd rounder.
Finally, the Delta Sturgeon said goodbye to forward Dylan Strome and long-time defenseman Alex Goligoski, sending them to the Hamilton Ti-Cats for a pair of 2nd round picks. Strome has disappointed so far in his career, but Goligoski has been a big part of the Sturgeon blueline for 11 seasons and is 15th in franchise history for points. Still, the 10 points he had in 2019-20 was a career low.
The Boston Banshees have put an exclamation point at the end of their miraculous season, beating the El Dorado Lynx in five games to win the 2020 Gump Cup.
The Banshees swept both Vancouver and Delta, and took the first three against the Lynx, too. El Dorado finally handed Boston its first postseason loss with a 2-1 squeaker in game 4, but the Banshees bounced back, overcoming a 2-0 deficit in game 5 to win 3-2.
It’s the first win for the Banshees franchise since moving to Boston, and makes up for the Banshees’ back-to-back finals losses in 2017 and 2018.
Congratulations to Ted Geoffrion and the Banshees on the incredible finish!
The matchup is set for the 2020 Gump Cup: the El Dorado Lynx and Boston Banshees will face off in a best-of-seven series to determine this year’s top team.
The league will crown a champ other than the Salem Sabercats for the first time since 2016. El Dorado last won it all in 2012, while Boston is looking for its first championship since 1998, back when it was the Kansas City Copperheads and under different ownership.
Despite the long drought, the Banshees have an air of destiny about them heading into the series. They swept both Vancouver (no real surprise) and Delta (a much bigger one) on the road to the finals, following a magnificent 57-17-8 regular season that saw them lose just five games on the road. Still, the team is no doubt haunted by its two straight finals losses in 2017 and 2018.
The Lynx, meanwhile, came into the playoffs as the third seed in their conference, and gutted out wins against the higher seed in two straight seven-game series. And they’re doing it on the backs of unlikely heroes like Derek Ryan (who leads the team with 15 points) and Jeff Petry. As the underdogs, they may be able to take the Banshees by surprise.
The series begins this week in Boston.
They’re tied for third fewest goals for, and if you can’t put pucks in nets, you’ve gotta keep them out. That seems to be the theory behind the Denver Spurs‘ splashy Christmas Eve trade, which saw them acquire young goaltender Jordan Binnington, along with versatile forward Colton Sissons, from the South Park Renegades. In return, Denver shipped out wingers Mathieu Joseph and Auston Watson, along with its first round rookie pick in 2020.
In a separate deal, and with four goalies on the active roster, the Spurs sent one-time starter Braden Holtby to the San Jose Hosers for a 2nd rounder.
For the second season in a row, the Salem Sabercats have pulled off a major post-draft trade. Last year, it was the acquisition of Anze Kopitar, who went on to be a major part of its cup run. Now the Sabercats have taken an even bigger swing, acquiring star winger Patrick Kane and a third round pick from the Hamilton Ti-Cats for young winger Travis Konecny and Salem’s first and second round picks in 2020.
In 11 seasons with the Hamilton franchise, Kane has scored 30 goals five times, 40 goals once, and put together a monster 70-goal year in ’16-’17. He had a relatively down season by his standards in ’18-’19, with 33 goals and 69 points in 82 games. Salem hopes he’ll bounce back to point-per-game form. Konecny, entering his third GWMHL year, had 14 goals and 38 points in 57 contests last season.
Kane was a first overall pick for a then-Sacramento team that was on the cusp of moving to Nashville. The second pick that year? His new team- and (probably) linemate Nicklas Backstrom. There’s no question that the acquisition changes Salem’s outlook for the year: it addresses its biggest weakness (top-6 wingers) and puts one of the world’s best players in a position that otherwise might have been occupied by Gustav Nyquist. Whether this signals a rebuild or retool for Hamilton is another question. With Claude Giroux, Jeff Skinner, and Jakub Voracek, the team still has veteran star power up front. But the loss of Kane, who twice led the league in scoring, will be felt keenly.
The South Side Renegades looked pretty good coming out of the rookie draft, having nabbed winger Brady Tkachuk, goaltender Jordan Binnington, and a quartet of young defensemen in Erik Cernak, Caleb Jones, Maxime Lajoie, and Christian Jaros.
But the rebuilding Renegades weren’t quite content with the makeup of their blueline, and made a pair of trades to change that. First, South Side acquired stay-at-home righty Chris Tanev from the Vancouver Night Train for third and fourth round rookie picks in 2020. Then, they flipped promising offensive rearguard Erik Gustafsson to the Delta Sturgeon for veteran Alec Martinez and Delta’s first rounder in 2020.
For Vancouver, it meant clearing roster space for recent draftee Filip Hronek. For Delta, what it hopes will be a PP superweapon to help get to the promised land. For South Side, it means a facelift of a blueline that, after Seth Jones, has long been in flux and either a step closer to a playoff berth or trade assets at the deadline if they’re out of the race.
9/9/2019 – Central California
With the 2019 Rookie Draft completed, the Delta Sturgeon opened training camp. As happens each year, there are some youngsters attempting to force their way onto the squad, veterans trying to hold their spots, and some younger players trying to push their way into more prominent roles.
With Management spending a lot of draft picks for veteran players, this year’s crop of Rookies is much more likely to be either on the Reserve squad, or getting limited time. That’s a fine place to be as an organization, even though you would like to have impact right away, sometimes it takes some seasons.
The key battles will likely occur on the blueline, where the acquisition of Zdeno Chara, the development of Ryan Pulock and Esa Lindell will make things mighty uncomfortable for veterans like Dan Hamhuis, Alex Goligoski and Alec Martinez.
Said GM Martin, “These are all quality players, and can definitely help clubs…but it’s going to be a numbers game heading into camp. Someone needs to step up and take that #7 spot on the club, and then beyond that we have to see how many spots we will allot for younger players vs. veterans. None of these guys are happy about the situation, but the fact of the matter is that they need to prove they can still be contributors on this club. We have 12 defensemen on the roster, and there’s just no way we’ll be able to go into the season with that many folks on the blue line.”
When asked about Edjsell and Zykov….
“Well, Victor’s agent has informed us that he has signed a contract to play overseas this year. It’s unclear at the moment if we will be retaining his rights, but clearly neither of us has been happy with his progression in North American Hockey. Valentin is a great young man, but at this point, we’re just not seeing enough from him and his agent has asked for a trade. We’re trying to accommodate that request, but it’s slow going. Regardless, we’re willing to give him a chance to earn a spot at camp. “
When asked about his play thus far, Dylan Strome said “Look…it’s tough playing in this league. I was not happy to be relegated to the bench so much last season. I am out to prove this year that I can be a productive and valuable team member. They have made it clear that icetime needs to be earned, and I will do everything I can to prove to the Coaching Staff and Management that I can be a player they can count on. I am looking forward to the upcoming season, and I am confident that my game will make major strides this season.”
GM Martin was asked if he expected any deals leading up to the final roster cuts prior to the start of the season. “Well, I don’t know if expect is the right word to use. I am always looking to upgrade the team, and certainly we will be active if it makes sense. But if there isn’t a deal to be made that makes sense, I am totally comfortable with the players we have.”
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The Charleston Chiefs have dealt one of its top players, centre Steven Stamkos, and the 10th overall rookie pick in 2019 to the San Jose Hosers for the 2nd overall pick in 2019.
The move is the biggest of the offseason so far, and marks the second straight year the rebuilding Chiefs have dealt a top centre. Stamkos had 70 points in 78 games this past season, and a disappointing 19 goals. He was a first overall pick for the Chiefs in 2009.
The move seems designed to nab a top-shelf defenseman — either Rasmus Dahlin or Miro Heiskanen — for the Chiefs’ thin blueline. Stamkos, meanwhile, joins a San Jose team that’s already stacked down the middle, led by John Tavares and Jack Eichel. It’s possible that he may shift to the wing, where the Hosers are weaker.
Gump Worsley Memorial Hockey League 