Two weeks ago, the Erie Otters were in Niagara when the IceDogs played their first home game of the season. It’s pretty common for the Otters to have to sit through four or five home openers a year, as they typically begin their OHL season on the road, knocking off some long eastern conference road trips early on in the season.
Since it’s my home rink, I went down to talk to Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Taylor Raddysh about the short off season he had, what it’s like to play without his brother Darren, and being the Otters’ top player after sharing the stage with Dylan Strome, Connor McDavid, and Alex Debrincat to start his OHL career.
On Lightning camp:
“It was pretty cool to be with the guys and everything, it was a great experience for me.”
Was there any advice the team gave you. or things to work on this year?
“They mentioned to work on my defensive game, and just overall work throughout the year.”
This is probably the shortest off season you had in your OHL career, do you think that will help, or will it get in the way at the start of the year?
“It’s fine, it’s what you want right? I kept busy and worked out a lot so I don’t think it will hurt”.
This year you’re going to be looked at as the star of the team, something you didn’t have with Darren [Raddysh], McDavid, Debrincat and Strome on the team before.
“I don’t think there will be too much pressure, it’s a good team and a lot of guys, and as a player you want to be a leader and have that responsibility.”
Hopefully next time we meet up, we won’t have to stand in the cold wind and rain to have a chat.
The other prospects were pretty active as well as you can see below.
As always, find in-depth prospect reporting over at Bolt Prospects.
Ontario Hockey League
Christopher Paquette (F) – 1G, 0A
Peterborough Petes – 4-2-0-1
Sept. 28th: vs Oshawa Generals
W 5-2 – 1G, 0A
Sept. 30th: @ Niagara IceDogs
L 5-1 – Did Not Play
Oct. 1st: vs Niagara IceDogs
W 8-4 – Did Not Play
Oct. 5th: vs Flint Firebirds
W 3-1 – Did Not Play
Oct. 6th: @ Ottawa 67’s
L 4-3 OT – Did Not Play
Oct. 9th: @ North Bay Battalion
W 7-3 – Did Not Play
Boris Katchouk (F) – 6G, 1A, +7
Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds – 5-1-1-0
Sept. 28th: @ Barrie Colts
L 4-3 OT – 0G, 1A, +1
Sept. 29th: @ North Bay Battalion
W 2-1 OT – 1G, 0A, +1
Oct. 1st: @ Sudbury Wolves
W 2-1 OT – 1G, 0A, +2
Oct. 5th: @ Windsor Spitfires
W 4-3 OT – 2G, 0A, +1
Oct. 6th: @ London Knights
W 4-1 – 2G, 0A, +2
The Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds are
Taylor Raddysh (F) – 0G, 1A, +2
Erie Otters – 2-4-1-0
Sept. 29th: @ Niagara IceDogs
L 4-1 – 0G, 0A, +1
Sept, 30th: vs Kitchener Rangers
L 3-2 – Did Not Play
Oct. 6th: @ Kitchener Rangers
L 5-3 – 0G, 0A, -2
Oct. 7th: vs London Knights
W 5-2 – 0G, 1A, +3
Raddysh was injured in the game against Niagara and sat out the Otters’ OHL Championship banner raising night. He was back on the ice and helped the Otters beat the London Knights, to end their four game losing streak.
Alexey Lipanov (F) – 1G, 3A, +1
Barrie Colts – 5-2-0-1
Sept. 28th: vs Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds
W 4-3 OT – 1G, 2A, +1
Sept. 29th: @ Sudbury Wolves
W 4-1 – 0G, 1A
Sept. 30th: vs Hamilton Bulldogs
L 2-1 SO – 0G, 0A, +1
Oct. 5th: vs North Bay Battalion
W 3-1 – 0G, 1A, +2
Oct. 6th: @ Sarnia Sting
L 4-1 – 0G, 1A, +1
Oct. 7th: @ Saginaw Spirit
W 6-2 – 1G, 2A, +1
Lipanov is excelling in Barrie, and the Colts are doing a 180 from last season where they finished dead last.
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
Otto Somppi (F)
Halifax Mooseheads – 4-1-2-0
Sept. 27th: @ Acadie-Bathurst Titan
L 5-3 – Did Not Play
Sept. 30th: vs Acadie-Bathurst Titan
W 4-3 – Did Not Play
Oct. 1st: vs Charlottetown Islanders
W 3-0 – Did Not Play
Oct. 6th: vs Quebec Remparts
L 3-2 OT – Did Not Play
Oct. 8th: vs Blainsville-Broisband Armada
L 5-4 OT – Did Not Play
Somppi is still recovering from off-season surgery.
Western Hockey League
Brett Howden (F) / Oleg Susonov (D)
2G, 3A / 3G, 0A, +1
Moose Jaw Warriors – 5-1-0-0
Sept. 29th: vs Regina Pats
W 5-4 OT – 1G, 0A, -1 / 2G, 0A, +1
Sept. 30th: vs Red Deer Rebels
W 4-2 – 0G, 2A, +1 / 0G, 0A, +1
Oct. 6th: vs Kootenay Ice
W 5-2 – 1G, 1A, +2 / 1G, 0A
Oct. 8th: vs Swift Current Broncos
L 4-3 – 0G, 0A, -2 / 0G, 0A, -1
The Warriors had a great weekend, aside from ending with their first loss of the season. Howden has five points this week, and Susonov had three goals from the blue line. Can’t beat that.
Libor Hajek (D) – 0G, 2A, -4
Saskatoon Blades – 1-4-0
Sept. 29th: vs Medicine Hat Tigers
L 6-2 – 0G, 0A, -2
Sept. 30th: vs Calgary Hitmen
W 5-4 – 0G, 2A, +2
Oct. 6th: vs Swift Current Broncos
L 6-2 – 0G, 0A, -4
Oct. 7th: @ Regina Pats
L 7-3 – No Points
The Blades are feeling the effects of loading up for their Memorial Cup run in 2013. They spent loads of players and draft picks to bulk up the team and now they’re still stuck in rebuild mode. If this keeps up, Hajek could fetch a good return at the trade deadline after the world junior championships.
Cal Foote (D) – 1G, 2A, +1
Kelowna Rockets – 4-1-0-1
Sept. 29th: vs Everett Silvertips
L 4-3 SO – 1G, 1A, +3
Oct. 4th: vs Victoria Royals
L 8-3 – 0G, 0A, +2
Oct. 6th: @ Prince George Cougars
W 7-6 OT – 0G, 0A, -3
Oct. 7th: @ Prince George Cougars
W 4-3 – 0G, 1A, -1
The Rockets are doing fine, sitting second in the BC division, and despite a bumpy weekend they’ll do alright. Cal Foote is playing like a first-round defender, aside from that Prince George game, and will do the Lightning proud this season.
USHL
Cole Guttman (F)
Dubuque Fighting Saints – 0-1-1
Oct. 6th: vs Chicago Steel
L 6-2 – No Points
Oct. 7th: @ Green Bay Gamblers
L 2-1 OT – No Points
Nicklaus Perbix (D)
Omaha Lancers – 0-1-0
Oct. 6th: vs Tri-City Storm
L 2-1 – No Points
The USHL kids didn’t have a great opening weekend, but it can only go up from here.
NCAA
Kris Oldham (G)
U. Nebraska-Omaha Mavericks
The Mavericks begin their season October 13th.
Ross Colton (F) – 4G, 0A
U. Vermont Catamounts
Overall: 1-1-0 / Conference: 0-0-0
Oct. 6th: vs Colorado College
W 3-0 – 1G, 0A
Oct. 7th: vs Colorado College
L 4-3 – 3G, 0A
Four goals to start the year, how could you kick things off any bigger? A hat trick in game two, scoring all of the goals as the Catamounts lost to the Tigers to end homecoming must have eased the pain of the loss.
Ryan Lohin (F) – 2G, 1A
U. Mass-Lowell River Hawks
Overall 0-2-0 / Conference: 0-2-0
Oct. 6th: vs New Hampshire
L 4-3 – 0G, 2A, -1
Oct 7th: @ New Hampshire
L 3-1 – 0G, 1A
Lohin begins the season with three points, an excellent beginning to a season.
Johnathan MacLeod (D)
Boston U. Terriers
Overall: 2-0-0 / Conference: 0-0-0
Sept. 30th: vs Union
W 4-1 – No Points
Oct. 6th: @ Quinnipac
W 3-2 OT – Did Not Play
The Terriers are off to a great start with two wins over non-conference teams.
Ryan Zuhlsdorf (D)
U. Minnesota Golden Gophers
Overall: 1-1-0 / Conference: 0-0-0
Oct. 6th: @ U. Minn-Duluth
L 4-3 – 0G, 0A, -1
Oct. 7th: @ Union
W 2-0 – 0G, 0A, +1
The Gophers kicked off the 17/18 season in the Ice Breaker tournament, hosted by the UMD Bulldogs. They finished 1-1, and will start conference play next weekend vs Penn State.
Here’s the PPG and NHLe tracker for the prospects. NHLe is the NHL points equivalent of a players points in their developmental leagues. Gus Kastaros came up with these and while they aren’t perfect predictors, it’s fun to use.
Lightning prospects points
| Player | League | Points | Games | PPG | NHLe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Samuel Walker | Big 10 | 18 | 26 | 0.69 | 19.87 |
| Ryan Lohin | Hockey East | 22 | 21 | 1.05 | 31.78 |
| Alexey Lipanov | OHL | 21 | 43 | 0.49 | 12.81 |
| Cole Guttman | NCHC | 18 | 25 | 0.72 | 24.21 |
| Nicklaus Perbix | NCHC | 13 | 26 | 0.50 | 16.81 |
| Ryan Zuhlsdorf | Big 10 | 4 | 24 | 0.17 | 4.78 |
| Gabriel Fortier | QMJHL | 64 | 50 | 1.28 | 27.29 |
| Radim Salda | QMJHL | 23 | 31 | 0.74 | 15.82 |
| Alex Green | ECAC | 1 | 5 | 0.20 | 3.77 |
| Cole Koepke | NCHC | 11 | 26 | 0.42 | 14.22 |
