Quote:Originally posted by Keenan@Sep 19 2013, 01:25 AM
With free agency all but over are you happy with how your team looks heading into the season? What do you feel is your biggest strength? Weakness?

Do you think that your new additions (Winter, Sto Helit, Fisher) will hit the ground running or do you see them needing a game or two to acclimate to the new way of doing things in Hamilton?

Do you think Rehn Miller will lead your squad in scoring again? Who do you see challenging him?

Good luck this season, Schultzy

For the first time in a while Free Agency was kind to Hamilton. We were fortunate enough to have some amazing players decide to come to Hamilton and continue their careers here. Anytime you get top line talent like Winter, Fisher, Sto Helit to join your team and a top line player coming off a career season in James Blaine to decide to stay in Hamilton, it's a great feeling. You know you've helped foster a place that hockey players want to be and a contender that players want to be a part of when they win.

We're extremely deep in every position now. Down the middle, on the wings, on the blueline, and in goal. Depth is clearly our greatest strength. We're one of the top teams the last few seasons and now we're so stacked our top players are going to be pushed down the roster to make room for even more top players. This means more rest, better matchups, less fatigue and a better team effort. When guys like McKeil and Tripp are battling to get ice time and a guy like Ekblad is on the bottom pairing, you know you have a stacked roster that can win.

People will look at our roster and say our goaltending is a concern. I think they're wrong. We've got three extremely capable goaltenders and they don't have to steal us any games this year. Cyan Winters has repeatedly proven the naysayers wrong and posted career numbers again and again carrying the Hawks to the top of the Eastern Conference the past two seasons. Reimer is one of the most talented prospects in the League and is already better than Winters. I think this will be the start of a tremendous career in Hamilton. Our goaltending is drastically better but so is the team in front of the net. Together, I think its a net gain from last year where we were already a top contender in the East.



I think Winter, Fisher, Hall, Sto Helit are going to fit in great. These are veteran performers who know how to lead and how to get the job done. Obviously there will be some juggling when you have this much talent, there are so many options but we're confident that when the puck drops these guys know what to do and how to get us the wins we need.



Rehn Miller had an MVP season last year, he really did. That line was absolutely amazing and completely dominant for Hamilton. Blaine and Vitikka just clicked with Miller and there were days when they singlehandedly won us games. I think Miller really made his mark on the League last season and announced that he is a top line player. Will he continue that success this season? I think so. I think there's enough talent around him that a great Playmaker like Rehn is going to be find an open scorer. Blaine deciding to rejoin Hamilton was huge and that line could be just as dominant this season.


Players to watch challenging Rehn for the Hamilton scoring lead: Hall, Blaine, Vilmenietis, Winter, McKeil and Sto Helit. Don't sleep on Fisher though, that guy knows how to score and he could be the surprise of the year.