Dalton via email asks: Dom, I miss your podcasts with Kirk (Luedeke) and Reed (Duthie). They were the best. Any chance you will do them again?
Answer: Kirk and Reed are busy with their respective teams in their respective leagues and just don’t have the time. As for me, the answer is a simple one: No one ever asks me to go on their podcasts. Maybe I’m just not as good as you thought!
Chowda via X asks (jokingly): Who’s the good-looking guy in the drawing? LOL
He is jokingly referring to the image above.
I was doing a BNG podcast with Mark Allred and Kevin O’Keefe at the time. I had such a terrible migraine and as you know, the show must go on. The light was bothering me so bad that I had to wear sunglasses. Kevin did a screen capture and turned it into a cartoon and the rest is history.
He also asks: What OHL city is closest in proximity to where you live?
Answer:
Heading East: Kitchener 47 KM, Guelph 74 KM, Brantford 81 KM, Mississauga 124 KM.
Heading West: London 48 KM, Sarnia 139 KM, Flint 248 KM, Windsor 252 KM.
If you look at the map below, I live on the X between London and Kitchener. Those 8 barns I listed are all within a 2-hour drive.
Dani via email asks: Dom, I look forward to your prospects updates every Monday as they provide a lot of information. Two players are missing from last season I wanted to ask about, Matias Mantykivi and Dustyn McFaul. Thank you!
Answer: Mantykivi was 4 years removed from his draft and needed to be offered an Entry Level Contract by the Bruins by June 1, 2023 or become an unrestricted free agent. He was not offered that contract and is no longer their prospect. Mantykivi is a notoriously slow starter and is off to his best start ever in the Finnish Liiga with 5 goals and 5 assists through 13 games.
McFaul is also no longer a Bruins prospect. He was within 5% of acquiring the necessary credits to graduate and by deciding to go back to Clarkson University for a fifth year, he became a free agent.
Mike O’Connor via X asks: Hey Dom… Regarding scouting prospects today compared to 10- 15 years ago.. What trends have you seen that has changed in the scouting world for the good and bad for teams and prospects…
Answer: Mike, the biggest difference is analytics. I know some of the advanced metrics are unavailable to fans for many leagues around the world but they are available to some. But it becomes quite the balancing act between the eye test and the analytics. Character plays a bigger role today then even a dozen years ago and, if all things are considered equal, a player who is multi-positional wins out. That is a trend that is very important to the Bruins in recent history. It appears size is once again important but size, without the skating abilities is not. What I find hard to judge now as opposed to 10 years ago is that there are so many puck moving defencemen now that finding that true, shut down, physical defenceman is becoming difficult.
Travis via email asks: I’m sick and tired of fringe players being given the top ice time in Providence over prospects. Something needs to be done about it and Sweeney needs to step in.
Answer: Not really an answer because I don’t see a question here so, I’ll just give a response. While the AHL is a developmental league, it is also a business that has to appease an owner not named Boston Bruins. As an organization, winning games is important and if playing veterans is the key, who am I to argue with that? Not to mention, you have a coach that wants to one day further his career with an NHL coaching job. Winning is important for that as well. And if the coach thinks that icing a veteran squad is his way of accomplishing that, he’s going to do it. Now, I’m not saying I agree with that, but I understand it.
Closer781 via X asks: A day or two behind but why do I get the feeling Heinen is still around for when they send Potrais (sic) back down?
Answer: Well, to answer your question, I am not sure why you (or anyone else) would get that feeling to be honest. The fact is that right now, Matthew Poitras gives the Bruins a better chance to win then Danton Heinen. Can we say that after game 3, 5 or 9? We don’t know which is why there is a trial period. There is nothing wrong with the Bruins keeping their options open, but I don’t think Poitras will be heading back to the OHL simply because the Bruins can send him there. It’s his play on the ice that will be the deciding factor. If he can’t sustain this level of play, it might be best for him and the team. We’ll know in a couple of weeks and I for one am excited to see how it plays out. But I doubt anything is written in stone right now.
The way I see it is there are 4 players vying for 3 spots including 13th forward: Poitras, Heinen, Johnny Beecher and Patrick Brown. If Poitras and Beecher stick with the team, then it’s between Heinen and Brown for 13th forward. If one of Beecher or Poitras is sent down, then one of Brown or Heinen play and the other is the 13th forward.
At this point, it’s just cap maneuvering. If one of Beecher or Poitras is sent down, their money covers Heinen. If they both stick and Heinen beats out Brown for the 13th spot, Brown gets sent down and his money covers Heinen. They’ve already waived Brown, so he’s free to go in 30 days or 10 games. They put him through waivers just for this.
That’s all the questions for this edition. If you wish to submit a question for next week’s edition or in the future, you can email me anytime at ohlwriters@gmail.com.
Dom - Hockey 