Scoring by committee.
That’s what the rebuilding Moncton Wildcats hope to do.
Goals were easy to come by the last two seasons for the Cats, but that will certainly change this season.
The surprise return of of Tampa Bay Lightning Prospect Gabriel Fortier will undoubtedly help the Cats, but it remains to be seen just how long the gifted goal scorer and solid two way winger will be in town with the start of AHL scheduled for earlier December.
But who’s going to score for the Wildcats?
Philippe Daoust and Jacob Hudson will certainly be called upon to shoulder most of the load offensively.
It would also appear that the Cats 1st round selection Yoan Loshing is more than capable of being an impact player, but it would be unfair to expect him to score twenty or more in his rookie season.
Obviously the Cats blueline can generate offensive with the likes of Jordan Spence and Tristan De Jong, but will that be good enough?
Spence is good for at least a point a game, but his role on a rebuilding team will be drastically different as well this year especially when tasked with playing a shut down role.
Returning players like Francis Langlois, Kyle Foreman and Jake Stewart will put up more points this season, but ten to fifteen goals for each of them might be a stretch.
There’s a strong sense that if all the free agent invitees can showcase an offensive side to their game they will have a great chance of cracking the Cats roster.
It’s way too early to speculate at this point the Wildcats overage situation, which might also affect their offensive output if they chose to move a forward in favour of keeping Dakota Lund-Cornish.
There are also some rumours that Jared McIsaac could possibly return to the fold, which would definitely help things offensively, but that would only complicate things even more for Ritchie Thibeau.
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Thibeau and his staff have done a terrific job thus far with the Cats rebuild, but the absence of Jake Rozzi and Ryan Hopkins was definitely surprising and might set the positive momentum of the rebuild back slightly.
Rozzi’s offensive numbers were remarkable last year and he would definitely help the Wildcats this season if he chooses to report. Rozzi could in fact move up and down the line up and definitely chip in offensively in any role with the team.
It’s unclear if and when Rozzi and Hopkins will report, I’m sure the Wildcats organization would hope its sooner than later.
For now the rebuilding Wildcats will look to score by committee or by any means necessary for that matter in hopes of being as competitive as possible in 2020-2021.
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