Ajax Knights 2014 Offseason Team Evaluation

[Ryan]

I thought it would be a good idea to have all other 13 GMs rate my team during the offseason before heading into the 2014-2015 season. This is mainly because I've had the same team for three seasons now and would like feedback on how my team is rated in case I have been jaded by one or two seasons of solid play from a few players. I also thought it would be a good idea to leave it up to each GM as to whether they would like their team rated so I decided to do this in my own team's folder.

There are seven categories: pro forwards, pro defense, pro goalies, farm forwards, farm defense, farm goalies and overall team. You can vote once per category between 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). You don't have to do this for your own team, I just thought it would be something to do during the dog days of July/August and might actually help spark some more league activity, in addition to pointing out weaknesses in my team that I am not aware of. It's an anonymous poll so please vote honestly and leave comments below if you wish!

[Deleted]

Why I rated why I did

Pro Forwards - Like my team you don't have the "name" value but you have lots of quality hard working multi-cat guys who I would take over 1-dimensional Scorers
Pro Defence - Middle of road, love Shattenkirk, we will see if Niskanen can avoid the "big salary slump"
Pro Goalies - Great 1-2 in net
Farm forwads - Outside Palat not a fan of many, worried about Chiasson in Ottawa
Farm Defence - Don't see any as anything higher then a #4 guy
Farm Goalie - Decent lots of NHL backups who will get you some extra starts, don't see future #1 there tho.

Overall - You have a team who can challenge for a playoff spot this year, but I would be worried about future.

[Deleted]

pro F - Stud guy with Giroux, surrounded by a bunch of hard works, good all around contributors. 7/10
pro D - Good mixture of offense and peripheral stat contributors 7/10
pro G - Good goalies, but both have only really had one good season (last season) 7/10 If they can repeat last season, I would say 9/10
farm F - No real potential superstars, but good contributors 6/10
farm D - A couple of hidden gems on there, if they can reach their potential I'd say 8/10
farm G - Some good prospects, but they are stuck behind good goalies so it may be tough for them to see action 7.5/10

[Steve]

Pro F - Giroux easily leads your foward group and Backes is a great multi-cat guy. LW is a major weakness, but RW is actually one of your major strengths. By the time you get to a 3rd forward line, the drop off in talent is quite severe. Score - 6/10.

Pro D - Shattenkirk is a very good D and Bieksa brings a lot as multi-cat beast. After that, it is kind of iffy as Timonen is really getting long in the tooth. I think Niskanen will disappoint and the rest are 3rd pairing guys at best. Score - 4/10.

Pro G - Excellent starters in Varlamov and Bishop; in starters alone you are very strong. I want to see both continue their play from last season... or you may be in trouble. Score - 8/10.

Farm F - I don't see too many top 6 guys, but for a lot of these players, it is too early to tell. Palat looks like the real deal. Khokhlachev and Chiasson could become top 6. Score - 4/10.

Farm D - These players can turn into a real strength for you. Murphy, Elliott and Dumba could become very good pros. Score - 7/10.

Farm G - Jones could become a goaltending stud, if given the opportunity, but that will be hard behind Quick. Visentin and Berra have really good potential too. Score - 8/10.

Overall - Ryan, your team should be pretty competitive. Great goaltending is what will carry you more than anything. You are definitely a playoff contender, but you will have to work to get there. In looking at your future draft picks, well, you're pretty weak here as you won't be able to build very much for your future with your having no picks in 2015 and only 1 in 2017. It doesn't bode well for your future. Overall Score - 6/10.