How good will the Silvertips be in 2015-16?
I haven’t a clue.
Usually when a season ends it’s pretty easy to project to the next season. There’s usually a good idea about who’s coming back, and there’s usually a good idea about who’s coming in. That doesn’t necessarily mean those offseason projections are going to be right. Everett was projected to be a middle-of-the-pack team in the U.S. Division this season, but ended up winning the division title. That’s the nature of the game when dealing with players ages 16-20 who can have wild swings in development from one season to the next. But at least there’s a reasonable framework to work from.
However, that framework just isn’t there for Everett right now.
Maybe more than in any previous offseason there’s uncertainty about what Everett is going to have to work with next season.
There’s all kinds of questions with regards to Everett’s returning players. There are seven candidates for the Tips’ three overage roster spots, and that’s further complicated by one of those candidates being a goaltender and another being a Euro. There’s questions about Everett’s two Euros as it’s possible the Tips won’t have either back. There’s even the specter of health concerns potentially affecting players’ ability to return.
But the bigger questions involve the potential newcomers. Everett has several elite-level players who may or may not play for the Tips next season, led by superstar prospect Auston Matthews. Whether Everett lands any of those players will have a big impact on the talent level of next season’s team, so it’s a big offseason of recruiting for Tips general manager Garry Davidson.
Everett should be in at least reasonable shape next season regardless of how things fall in the offseason. The Tips appear to be solid in goal, and they have enough foundation pieces on defense that they should at least be able to limit the opposition. If the big guns don’t show up, then Everett is right back where it was before this season, knowing they’ll be OK defensively but wondering whether they’ll be able to score goals.
But if things do fall Everett’s way during the offseason, then the Tips could vault to the front of the line in the Western Conference. The two teams currently playing for the conference title, Kelowna and Portland, will take significant personnel hits. I expect both teams to still be pretty good, but not the dominant forces they’ve been in recent seasons. Seattle looks like the team to beat because of everything it returns, but the T-birds also need to figure out what they’re doing with their goaltending. So it’s possible a team can move into position as the conference favorite if it has a good offseason.
But whether the Tips can step through that opening depends on who shows up for training camp, and right now it’s a mystery who’s arriving in August.
Next: 2015-16 preview: The returners (leadership?)
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