Last year, I wrote a blog about what the rosters to an OJHL All-Star game might look like, if they had one, based on Conferences like many other leagues in the world (You can find it here if you're interested). With the 2016-17 season over half done, and the Eastern Canada Cup All-Star event done back in mid-November, I thought I'd do it again this year, since it was fun a season ago and people seemed to like it (and disagree with me, which is also fun!).
If you're unaware, the OJHL is split up into the Northeast and Southwest Conferences, and like many other all-star games, I'll force myself to pick at least one player from each team; and further from that they must be on the team at time of this writing. As I wrote last year, I have a lot of great friends and think very highly of a ton of players in the league, so as always, exclusion from this is not an indictment or anything like that! Also, it's just for fun (unless Commissioner Savoy reads this and wants to find a way to make it happen ;)).
The format I have set, like last year, is 12 forwards, six defencemen, and three goalies per team. It's going to be tough to pick from all the talent, but here goes nothing!
Northeast Conference
Forwards
Brayden Stortz, Wellington Dukes
Nic Mucci, Wellington Dukes
Luke Keenan, Whitby Fury
Nik Coric, Whitby Fury
Liam Morgan, Trenton Golden Hawks
Lucas Brown, Trenton Golden Hawks
Cameron Lamport, Lindsay Muskies
Danny Bosio, Kingston Voyageurs
Ryan Casselman, Cobourg Cougars
Rylee St. Onge, Markham Royals
Kyle Thomas, Pickering Panthers
Mel Melconian, Aurora Tigers
Defencemen
Brennan Roy, Cobourg Cougars
Louis Di Matteo, Trenton Golden Hawks
Cole Thiessen, Newmarket Hurricanes
Max Novick, Stouffville Spirit
Kyle Hallbauer, Kingston Voyageurs
Justin Bean, Wellington Dukes
Goaltenders
Stefano Durante, Cobourg Cougars
Connor Ryckman, Wellington Dukes
Logan Gauthier, Whitby Fury
Some thoughts
Pretty tough to leave some of the beasts of the east out of this, to be honest. I love what Jeremy Pullara of Trenton and Josh Maguire of Cobourg bring, so to leave them off stinks, and if Brenden Locke, also of the Cougars, hadn't gotten hurt, keeping his skill off would probably have been impossible. Certainly a bevy of other guys on Trenton, Cobourg, and Whitby probably deserve to be here (you could have an East All-Star game and it would be a blast), but the mass of talent in the east also pushed out deserving Northerners like a couple of Newmarket's excellent forwards who have been great lately such as Alex Ierullo, Todd Winder, and Marco Bozzo. Trenton's Josh Allan would've been the best defenceman in the league in my opinion if he were healthy, but he has not been, while it's a numbers game for Markham's Laine McKay and Aurora's Eric Holland. In net, Matt Menna has been ridiculous (in a good way) for Cobourg lately in Durante's absence, and it is hard to argue with the numbers of Trenton's Chris Janzen...but sample size for the former, and the team in front of him for the latter has probably hurt their perception in my eyes. Both those guys are deserving, nonetheless.
Southwest Conference
Forwards
Christian Difelice, Buffalo Jr. Sabres
Phillip Lagunov, Burlington Cougars
Chris Cobham, Burlington Cougars
Jack Jacome, Georgetown Raiders
Josh Dickinson, Georgetown Raiders
Chris Karabassis, Mississauga Chargers
Ture Linden, North York Rangers
Ryan Foss, Oakville Blades
Bryce Misley, Oakville Blades
Jackson Bales, Oakville Blades
Cameron Wright, St. Michael's Buzzers
Zack Lyons, Orangeville Flyers
Defencemen
Matt Watson, Burlington Cougars
Brad Yowart, Milton Icehawks
Mark Paolini, St. Michael's Buzzers
Gianfranco Cassaro, Toronto Jr. Canadiens
Ryan Wells, Toronto Patriots
Jacob Payette, Georgetown Raiders
Goaltenders
Jeremie Lintner, North York Rangers
Josh Astorino, Georgetown Raiders
Cossimo Lazzarino, St. Michael's Buzzers
Some thoughts
Choosing and not choosing players in my own conference is such agony, since I know so many of the kids around it. A big reason why some potentially obvious players were left out was not because of talent, but because I watch so many games in this conference that consistency of effort and performance loom large. Of course I could easily fill this team with Georgetown Raiders, who have absolutely dominated the Southwest from the beginning till now; while on the flip side, I could not in good conscience pick one of those three Oakville monsters without taking all of them (they've been that good). St. Mike's guys like Finn Evans, Lucas Breault, A.J. D'Orazio, and Cam Searles are all deserving too, but I can't all of them! The crease is pretty crowded with talent, and it isn't performance or consistency that hurt the Jr. Canadiens tandem of Dalton Ewing and Andrew Cippolone...it's simply that they are such a 1a, 1b that it would be too hard to take either of them. Milton's Will Rawski has been good in net, but it's still too hard to take a goalie that gets shelled, even if it's not his fault, and while we're on the topic of goaltending, Oakville's Brendan McGlynn is certainly the #4 in this group, and sucked to leave him off too. I would've loved to take Colton Kalezic of the Patriots, but his hot start has really cooled off, while the biggest agony of the conference was not picking North York Rangers captain Kyle Clarke, who is more than deserving, but just could not fit. Speaking of Jr. Canadiens, the health of Sal Filice kept him off despite the fact that he is as good as any defenceman on this squad. If I had a couple more D spots, my own personal love of Oakville D-man Jeff Clarke's game would've probably forced my hand, but alas...rules.
Anyways folks, that's it! Let me know what you think, if you disagree, etc, and thanks for reading.
