The 2014-15 Western Hockey League season marked a return to prominence for the Everett Silvertips. They achieved a level of success not seen in Everett in almost a decade, winning their first U.S. Division title and first playoff series since 2007.
While the season ultimately came to a disappointing end — a second-round playoff loss to Portland in five games — the Silvertips hope it was a stepping stone on the road to the franchise’s first WHL title.
With that in mind, here’s a breakdown of this year’s team.
Offense
The Silvertips set a franchise record with 242 goals last season, good for ninth among the WHL’s 22 teams. Everett relied on a balanced offense to increase its scoring by 27 goals over the previous season.
This season, it looks like they will follow a similar scoring-by-committee approach.
Carson Stadnyk is the lone returnee among last season’s top four point producers. The 20-year-old scored 27 goals and added 42 assists. His 69 points ranked second behind Nikita Scherbak’s 82 (27 goals, 55 assists). Leading goal-scorer Kole Bauml, last year’s team captain and MVP, is gone after scoring 30 goals and collecting 30 assists.
Ivan Nikolishin, who had 16 goals and 46 assists last season, was traded to Red Deer in the offseason, and while Scherbak could technically return to Everett, the 20-year-old Montreal draftee is likely to play professionally.
That leaves Stadnyk to lead the way offensively, though he will need help from the likes of 18-year-old right wing Patrick Bajkov (23 goals, 22 assists), overage center Remi Laurencelle (23 goals, 18 assists) and 19-year-old left wing Dawson Leedahl (14 goals, 19 assists). Nineteen-year-old right wing Graham Millar scored 13 goals and had 10 assists last season.
Nearly half of Bajkov’s goals (11) and Millar’s goals (seven) came via the power play, so it remains to be seen how much those two can contribute at even strength. Stadnyk also scored 10 by way of the power play.
Eighteen-year-old left wing Matt Fonteyne had seven goals and nine assists last year and could be in line for more ice time after an impressive first weekend at the Holiday Inn Classic.
And one promising newcomer is 17-year-old Russian import Yan Khomenko, who has looked good in the preseason, particularly on the power play. Khomenko had a goal in each of Everett’s three games at the Holiday Inn Classic and also had a pair of assists the opening weekend.
Defense
Defenseman Noah Juulsen turned in a tremendous 17-year-old season a year ago. The Montreal Canadiens noticed and selected him in the first round (No. 26 overall) in the 2015 NHL draft. Juulsen scored nine goals and added 43 assists in 68 games to rank fifth on the team in scoring and ninth among all WHL defensemen. He was a key performer in both power-play and penalty-killing situations and was named the Silvertips’ Most Dedicated Player.
Overage defenseman Cole MacDonald also will be important back on the blue line. The 20-year-old had 10 goals and 26 assists a season ago, including five power-play goals. Eighteen-year-old Kevin Davis had 22 assists a season ago.
Newcomers to watch on defense include 16-year-old Jantzen Leslie and Russian import Alexander Scherbakov.
Leslie, Everett’s first-round pick in the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft, played in six regular-season games and six playoff games last season. He tallied three assists in the regular season and one in the playoffs. Leslie had a goal and nine assists in 32 games with the Lloydminster Bobcats Midget AAA team of the AMHL last season.
Scherbakov, 16, is a 5-foot-11, 200-pound defenseman from Moscow. He had five goals and eight assists in 30 games with the CSKA Moscow Under-17 team last season. Scherbakov suffered a shoulder injury at the Holiday Inn Classic and his timetable to return is yet to be determined.
Goaltenders
Carter Hart supplanted returning starter and then-19-year-old Austin Lotz last season. The now-17-year-old Hart went 13-2-0-3 with three shutouts from January to the end of the regular season, finishing first among WHL goaltenders with a 2.29 goals against average and tying for second with a .915 save percentage.
Hart started all 11 playoff games and tied for second among playoff goalies with a 2.28 GAA and ranking third with a .929 save percentage.
Lotz finished fifth in the league with a 2.73 GAA and had four shutouts.
Eighteen-year-old Mario Petit also has looked impressive thus far as he recorded a shutout and allowed just two goals in more than 160 minutes of ice team during the first two preseason weekends.
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