This is just as true for the Patriots defence-corps; gone are hugely important pieces like Mike Prapavessis, Robert Powers, Cory Lauer, and Tyler Enns. Those four guys are all hugely different and the diversity of high quality roles within the squad made the unit, in my opinion, the best D-corps in the league by a good margin last year. Then once you got through them, you had to figure out how to beat Evan Buitenhuis, so good luck with that.
That being said, the landscape of the 2014-15 OJHL season is such that general managers all around the league are scrambling like mad to scrape together defence-corps (i.e., that there are not a lot of quality defencemen to go around) and so, especially in terms of the quality of the two guys that are back for the defending champs, Toronto is actually in relatively good shape.
Here they are.
Niko Kovachis has the chance to be the absolute best defenceman in the league this year. He has a lot of skill, he has a cannon of a shot, he is a lead-by-example character type, and if he can play with more snarl to match his very solid frame (I believe around 6-foot-2, and 195 or so pounds), then look out. He played with Prapavessis in what was the OJHL's best defence pairing last year (only possibly matched by the Williams-Poldma combination in Aurora), and I would assume that coming off an RBC Cup run in which he was a hugely important piece, he will enter this year with a lot of confidence. I have no doubt that he could be an impact player in Major Junior right now if that was the route he took (and if the Ottawa 67's didn't give up on him), and if he doesn't get a high quality Division I scholarship this season I will be shocked; that is, if that's what he wants. He is almost certain to play big minutes, in all situations (as he did last year), and I truly am excited to see what kind of impact Niko will have this year.
The thing about Tyler Currie is that while he was steady last year, he, Fortier and those that know him, including myself, know that he is capable of being much more than just steady. Injuries have slowed him down so far in his full-time junior career, but what he meant on the inside of the Patriots organization last year was far more than I would assume people on the outside could understand. He has well above-average defensive awareness and intelligence, and his stick in the defensive zone makes him a very difficult player to break down. Unlike some other smaller defence men, he doesn't have blazing speed, but he is calm and collected on the puck and I expect him to be a much more effective player going forward this year than last. Like Kovachis, he played with an absolutely elite partner last year in Robert Powers, so it'll be interesting to see what happens should Fortier and co. elect to not play the two vets together and I personally expect that they won't unless they have to.
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