The Moncton Wildcats have landed a game breaking forward for years to come.
With the 13th pick overall in today’s CHL Import Draft Ritchie Thibeau and the Moncton Wildcats selected speedy two-way forward Jonas Taibel.
Taibel is a skilled forward with outstanding instincts for the game. The Austria born forward grew up playing his hockey predominantly in Switzerland.
He’s played several times internationally with Switzerland with his most recent outing coming in the World U-18 Championship.
The 2004 born forward is a home run for a rebuilding Wildcats team needing to desperately find offensive fire power within their core group. Taibel will be turning 17 in August.
Taibel joins Russian 18 year old forward Maxim Barbashev as the Cats imports. It would appear everything is taking shape when it comes to the Wildcats future championship framework.
It remains to be seen where Dan Lacroix and his coaching staff will play the Swiss import. There’s no question he can play both forward positions with relative ease.
One can do a deep dive on analytics, nevertheless, it’s clear the Wildcats desperately need to generate more offence. The Cats can lock things down defensively and forecheck with the best of them, but the organization will need to score a lot more gaols if they want to make a strong push for a playoff spot in a return to a full QMJHL schedule.
Thibeau and his staff targeted the best player available and organizational need today when they selected Taibel. This selection is a massive victory for the organization moving forward.
Taibel skates extremely well, is defensively accountable in all three zones and possesses solid puck skills in traffic. He can definitely step in and be a dominant force in all three zones for the Cats.
All signs point to the Moncton Wildcats becoming a championship contender in two seasons and their newest import draft selection will undoubtedly be a part of their championship foundation moving forward.
Jonas Taibel is a Moncton Wildcat.
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