It’s been hurry up and wait for the Moncton Wildcats and their plans for the 2019-2020 season.
It’s been eerily quiet, too quiet.
The organization hasn’t officially announced their roster let alone their latest two rounds of cuts.
It’s been quiet on all fronts Moncton Wildcats.
With things being so quiet one can only speculate the team is taking their time with personnel decisions, which you can’t really fault them, given the circumstances.
So now what?
Well this is what we do know.
1) Rosters had to be submitted to the league last Friday.
2) The Wildcats still have four overagers on their roster.
3) The Wildcats have recently signed two 17-year-old forwards, Francis Langlois and Alexandre Parent, while also signing 18-year-old free agent Philippe Daoust.
4) The Wildcats have three imports on their roster.
That’s what we do know.
Pivot Point
It’s been hurry up and wait for the Moncton Wildcats and their plans for the 2019-2020 when it comes to their import situation.
Does that sound familiar?
There’s no question Manuel Alberg will play some games for the Wildcats this season.
That we do know.
Oh wait, well we don’t know that for certain.
Hell, we don’t know very much.
So let’s just speculate then.
Alberg’s addition is insurance given the uncertainty surrounding Axel Andersson’s arrival in the Hub City.
Again, the Wildcats wouldn’t have selected him in the import draft if they didn’t think the Bruins Prospect wasn’t going to report.
He’s coming, well that’s entirely up to the Boston Bruins and well they have their own shit to work out.
So what about Khovanov?
We do know Alexander Khovanov had surgery and will probably perhaps miss the beginning of the season.
Ok, so Manuel Alberg will more than likely play games for the Wildcats and slot in to the Cats Top 6.
The number of games he plays is entirely up to Khovanov’s recovery or Andersson’s arrival.
Line Combinations
Ok now on to the the overager situation, which I don’t really want to touch on very much because they are both solid players and great people.
I guess it’s just business, which I believe to be off side sometimes, but I digress.
The overager situation will drastically effect line combinations.
If Wildcats decide to keep Christian Huntley and Andersson comes, they may elect to move Sean Stewart back to the forward position, which in turn may cause a ripple effect on the group of forwards.
If Wildcats decide to keep Dylan Seitz, Stewart will more than likely be paired with Tristan De Jong as the 5-6 combo.
So here’s my take on four potential line combination scenarios.
Scenario #1: Seitz is the odd man out, Andersson still at Bruins Camp and Khovanov is healthy enough to return, the line combinations quite possibly look like this;
L’Heureux Khovanov Pelletier
Alber Cyr Desnoyers
Hudson Daoust Langlois
King Stewart Foreman
Parent/Rumsey
Spence Aspirot
Huntley De Jong
Stewart Hebert/Dow
Rodrigue/ Lavallee
Scenario # 2: Huntley is the odd man out, Andersson back from Bruins Camp, Alberg on waivers
L’Heureux Khovanov Pelletier
Hudson Cyr Desnoyers
Seitz Daoust Langlois
King Stewart Foreman/ Parent/Rumsey
Spence Aspirot
Stewart Andersson
Hebert/Dow De Jong
Rodrigue/Lavallee
Scenario # 3: Huntley in, Seitz out, Andersson back from Bruins Camp, Stewart moved up front
L’Heureux Khovanov Pelletier
Hudson Cyr Desnoyers
Foreman Daoust Langlois
King Stewart Stewart/ Parent/Rumsey
Spence Aspirot
Huntley Andersson
Dow/Hebert De Jong
Rodrigue/Lavallee
Scenario #4: Huntley in, Seitz out, Andersson back from Bruins Camp, Stewart remains on D
L’Heureux Khovanov Pelletier
Hudson Cyr Desnoyers
Foreman Daoust Langlois
King Stewart Parent/Rumsey
Spence Aspirot
Huntley Andersson
Stewart De Jong
Dow/Hebert Rodrigue/Lavallee
There you have your 2019-2020 Moncton Wildcats Team Roster…….Now What? Well I let you try to figure it out!
