Maple Leafs Prospect Report: Playoff Updates

The playoffs that started all over the Canadian and European leagues are in full swing. Canada's leagues have wrapped up the first round as of last night, with Miroslav Holinka and the Edmonton Oil Kings playing game 7 of their series vs Prince Albert.

This is already pretty long so let's get right into it.

Victor Johansson

A great run by Leksands and Johansson ended with disappointment in the semi finals. They were the best team in the league for the regular season, in terms of the standings, and they very narrowly lost their three game series in the full three games by one goal despite heavily outshooting the other team in every game. Johansson was arguably their best defenseman, having an impact in all three zones. He finishes his season with a huge breakout season for production, with 39 points in 47 regular season games, and adding 5 points in their 7 playoff games. Both were among the league bests for defensemen.

The hope for next season is that he earns a more regular spot in the SHL to get experience as a pro, since the junior league in Sweden isn't much of a test for him anymore. He has this off-season to really bulk up and add on muscle, to help him physically deal with much bigger, older and stronger players in the pros. I think that he has a strong foundation for his strengths as a player, and having more muscle to back it up will help him immensely. I'm working on a more complete breakdown of him as a player to conclude his season.

Alexander Plesovskikh

Plesovskikh and JHC Spartak won their first round series 3-1 against Dinamo Shinnik. Plesovskikh has scored three goals and added one assist, with his goals looking oddly similar – showcasing his subtle ability to get open in dangerous areas of the ice, at least against junior competition. Things like this are why he's been given a bigger role down the stretch, which has held in the playoffs. He's been on their top line at even strength, getting time on the second powerplay but very little shorthanded.

Spartak's next opponent will be the fifth seeded JHC Dynamo St Petersburg. Their schedule has yet to be released. On paper it is a major mismatch in Spartak's favour – they had 18 more points and 9 more wins in the regular season, and their goal differential (+98) is a lot more than three times better than Dynamo's (+27). So I would expect another pretty quick series win for Plesovskikh and Spartak.

Easton Cowan

Cowan and London dominated Owen Sound as expected. They completed a four game sweep, where Cowan had 4 goals and 9 points but was only tied for second on the team in points. They outscored them 27-12 in the four games. Cowan was playing in his usual role, on a loaded up top line with Denver Barkey and Sam O'Reilly, top powerplay time, top penalty kill time.

Cowan had a bit of a down year when it comes to production. Whether that's because there was a change in usage, him trying to work on different parts of his game, lingering injuries he dealt with off and on all year, or some mix of all of that and anything else is anyone's guess. But it was also clear that before the playoffs he was ramping his game up, and this heater he's on in the playoffs is just a continuation of that strong stretch of play. Counting regular season games, he's on a 14 game point streak where he's put up 13 goals and 33 points.

London will face Erie, who pulled off a bit of an upset against the Memorial Cup champions, Saginaw in pretty short order. It should still be a huge mismatch in London's favour, and I'd expect another pretty quick series. Here's their scheduled second round:

Game 1 – Thursday April 10th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 2 – Saturday April 12th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 3 – Tuesday April 15th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 4 – Thursday April 17th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 5 – Friday April 18th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 6 – Sunday April 20th @ 4:00 pm EST

Game 7 – Tuesday April 22nd @ 7:00 pm EST

Ben Danford

Oshawa had a much harder time as the fourth seed against a very young but very star-studded Brampton team, but they pulled off a six game series win. Danford was very good in his usual calm, physical, shut down defensive way while helping move the puck and chip in offensively where he could. He was getting top minutes at even strength and on the penalty kill, and little to none on the powerplay that I can remember.

Their second round will be even tougher now, as they will face the top seed from their conference: Brantford. Mind you, there was only 5 points separating them in the regular season standings, so it's not that much of a mismatch. But Oshawa is also playing without their top offensive player, Beckett Sennecke, but I haven't seen how long he is expected to remain out after missing the previous two games in the first round.

Here's their second round schedule:

Game 1 – Thursday April 10th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 2 – Sunday April 13th @ 2:00 pm EST

Game 3 – Tuesday April 15th @ 7:05 pm EST

Game 4 – Thursday April 17th @ 7:05 pm EST

Game 5 – Saturday April 19th @ 7:00 pm EST

Game 6 – Sunday April 20th @ 6:05 pm EST

Game 7 – Tuesday April 22nd @ 7:00 pm EST

Sam McCue

After a surprisingly productive season in the goal scoring department, McCue was a lower ranked team on Flint taking on the second best team in the league by their record. It went about as well as you'd expect it to go, with Flint being beaten 4-1 in the series. McCue had a rough go of things, though the team as a whole couldn't get much going. He had his chances, compared to others, but he finished with no points despite peppering 15 shots on net.

With Flint eliminated, McCue has this off season to work on getting himself into even better physical shape and working on fine tuning parts of his game that could still use some improvement. He should be someone who is interesting to watch at their rookie camp and prospect tournament.

As an older birthday in his draft year, McCue can turn pro after this season but based on nothing I would not guess that's likely. He is more likely to return to the OHL for an overage season. However, one avenue available to him that wasn't until this year is going to the NCAA for another couple of years of seasoning before turning pro. He has no such commitment yet, but if he does want to go that route I expect we'll hear about it sooner rather than closer to the start of next season. For what it's worth, his OHL team account is sure acting like he's 'graduating' from the league but that's not a guarantee he won't return if that's what he wants.

Borya Valis

Heartbreak for Valis and Prince George. They were the favoured seed, but were playing Portland – a team that had their number all regular season. They had a dramatic comeback in game one on home ice, but lost the next three to go down 3-1 in the series. They managed to claw back to force a game 7 and had an early lead, but still played catch up all game. They fell short, losing 4-2 after a late empty net goal.

Valis was very good for Prince George all series. He wasn't their main play driver, but he had 7 points in the 7 game series and honestly was a bit unlucky/snake bitten after peppering the net with 31 shots on goal (4.4 per game) with only 3 goals to show for it. That includes 7 shots on net in game 7, with no goals to show for it. Now that he has been eliminated from the WHL playoffs, he will be able to join the Marlies for the rest of the year. I don't know if we'll see him in any games, but starting to be around the staff and facilities will help prepare him for pro hockey in terms of nutrition, fitness, habits, and skills training and development.

Nathan Mayes

Mayes and Spokane had their way with Vancouver in the first round. They did lose one game, mostly because they took so many penalties. But they heavily out shot (212-136) and outscored (28-15) Vancouver across the whole series.

Mayes played well, along with pretty much everyone else on the team, but he was at a point per game with 5 points in the series. That's not to say he was a big offensive force, but he was able to get those points because he spent so much time not in his own end. He leads the whole league in the playoffs in +/- with a +9, and while that is a very problematic stat I can say the reason why is he was superb defensively in the way that matters to me. He shut down attempts to enter Spokane's end, he shut down set offense and he got the puck out of his own end with possession maintained. Then all he had to do was get it to the offensive creators, and he reaped some secondary assists for his efforts.

Spokane will be facing Victoria in the second round, who technically finished ahead of them in standings because they won their division but were behind them for total points. They were also worse in both goals for and goals against as a team, and are not as good for either powerplay or penalty kill success percentages. So while Victoria will have home ice advantage, on paper Spokane is the better team. It will be a tougher matchup than the previous round, but I would still expect Spokane to advance to the conference finals.

Here's their second round schedule:

Game 1 – Sunday April 13th @ 9:05 pm EST

Game 2 – Monday April 14th @ 10:05 pm EST

Game 3 – Wednesday April 16th @ 10:05 pm EST

Game 4 – Friday April 18th @ 10:05 pm EST

Game 5 – Saturday April 19th @ 9:05 pm EST

Game 6 – Tuesday April 22nd @ 10:05 pm EST

Game 7 – Wednesday April 23rd @ 10:05 pm EST

Noah Chadwick

Chadwick and Lethbridge had a pretty easy time in the first round, beating Brandon in five games. Chadwick, as their top defenseman and used in all situations, was strong all series. He had points in four of the five games, with 1 goal and 5 points in the 5 games as well as 18 shots on net. His five points are tied for third on the team, with Lethbridge having a pretty balanced offense.

Their reward is to face their provincial rival, the Calgary Hitmen who finished 7 points ahead of them in the standings. Calgary swept their first round series and are playing very good hockey, so I wouldn't be surprised if Chadwick also joins the Marlies in the next couple of weeks.

Here's their second round schedule:

Game 1 – Thursday April 10th @ 9:00 pm EST

Game 2 – Saturday April 12th @ 8:00 pm EST

Game 3 – Tuesday April 15th @ 9:00 pm EST

Game 4 – Wednesday April 16th @ 9:00 pm EST

Game 5 – Friday April 18th @ 9:00 pm EST

Game 6 – Saturday April 19th @ 9:00 pm EST

Game 7 – No date/time announced yet.

Miroslav Holinka

After leading the series pretty much the entire way, Holinka and the Edmonton Oil Kings lost game six and seven and were eliminated. Like McCue, Holinka was also held without a point but honestly I thought he was playing better. With his team being fully healthy again, he was mostly used as a 3C with time on the second powerplay unit and time on the penalty kill.

Games five and six in particular, I thought he could have easily had a couple of goals and maybe an assist or two on top. But the Prince Albert goalie was the big difference. Edmonton outshot them in basically every game, and it was a very close series overall.

So what's next for Holinka? Like McCue, I don't think it's likely he signs and ELC yet. He'll have the summer to rest and recover and start working out anew. Getting stronger always helps, but I think he can also work on fine tuning his skating. Adding more explosiveness and quickness on his first couple of strides, and working on his edges to get more agile and quick through his turns. His defensive game is already at a high level, so really he needs to work on linking that to his offense – agility and explosiveness will help him get better at driving transitions, and to create better separation in quick bursts in the offensive zone.

We'll see how much he can improve in these areas when their development camp and rookie tournaments hit this summer. Plus, I expect we'll see him in some summer international tournaments for Czechia that they use to prepare for the World Juniors.

Thanks for reading!

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