Hub preview continues with the Montreal Hub.

1 0 0

by tonychizzle

by tonychizzle

Today we will dive into the Montreal Hub featuring the Chicago Comets, Dallas Derricks, Detroit Mustangs, Philadelphia Pandas, and the Winnipeg Mints.

Chicago Comets finished 15th in the Eastern Conference.

After a long string of dismal seasons, Comets fans have little confidence that any decisions made to improve that will do anything to actually improve. They have had 2 of the last 4 top draft picks (Taylor Reitsma, and Luan Khumalo) which have both been busts, and this year had the 2nd pick. They made the safe choice in going with a well rounded Center in Ilya Habib from Safa Beirut in the Lebanese Premier League. He recorded a league leading 33 goals with 57 assists winning the leagues MVP. But even with a solid playmaking prospect like Habib, it's not enough to solve nearly a decade of mismanagement, bad signings, and high turnover.

It's safe to say that we can expect much of same from the long suffering Comets. Our prediction for the first 24 games will be 4-20 (and that is generous).

Dallas Derricks finished 9th in the Eastern Conference.

In the move for Dallas to the Eastern Conference thanks to the addition of America Mexico City and Chivas Guadalajara, The Derricks were faced with the reality of longer travel times and potentially tougher opponents. But for much of the season held on to or were within a game of a playoff position. Due to some injuries to key players like Andrew Pincent, and All-Star Brad Maida, a late season collapse meant they were out of the playoffs. But with some restructuring and the signing of Simon Howarth from Miami they are positioned to advance higher in the standings.

Our prediction for Dallas in a hub with teams that all finished below .500 last season, they will likely do quite well in this phase and land around 18-6.

Detroit Mustangs finished 12 in the Eastern Conference.

The decline of the Mustangs the last two seasons undoubtedly been the icing on the disappointment cake for Detroit sports fans as they have had to endure a lot of bad franchises. What has made the Mustangs decline tolerable for their fans is the fact that it has really been through no fault of their own. The team has been under some sort of jinx as injuries to a number of key players at the most inopportune times has completely derailed two seperate seasons of rebuilding. First in 2018-2019 after the much hyped signing of Pascal Despatie, he suffered a season ending ACL injury in December of 2018, and the Mustangs were never really able to recover from losing the man who they built their top line around. Then last season their top draft pick Solomon Cruikshank was injured with an Achilles tear before season started and goalie Ben Tallent torn his groin in January as they were starting to get some traction towards a playoff push.

Now hopefully this with some key players coming back to health, they can bringing some winning spirit back to the Motor City. Our prediction for the first quarter of the season will be 14-10.

Philadelphia Pandas finished 13th in the Eastern Conference.

The first season post retirement of Henrick Korstrom was a forgettable one for the Pandas. Korstrom who played for the Pandas from 1999 to 2019, was the teams all time leader scorer (445), leader in assists (579), and games played (1630). Adding salt to the wound was goalie Connor Summach signing with rival Washington (who would go on to win the Queens Cup). Bouncing back will be critical for head coach Russel Woodrow, who is acutely aware of the expectation of success given that his hiring was the result of a mid-season coach firing.

The Pandas managed to pull off quite a blockbuster transfer with the European Leagues Zurich Lions to acquire Alex Benz and Max Teufenauer. The Pandas had to invest a lot to get these guys in, and there are still ongoing issues with travel to Canada, but once all that is sorted out we could see a Pandas team that is quite formidable in the east. In this hub our prediction for the Pandas is an optimistic 15-9.

Winnipeg Monarchs finished 14th in the Western Conference.

With the moving of the Raleigh Bulldogs to Monterey Mexico and subsequently moving into the Western Conference, the Monarchs agreed to switch to the East. The timing is not great with the adjusted travel schedule and tougher rivals in the East vs West but the Monarchs were given the gift of not 1, not 2, but 3 first round draft picks for making the shift to the East. So hopefully with the addition of some depth, the Mints cans make the most of this new chapter in their storied franchise.

With this format of playing each of your closest rivals 6 times each, they'll learn quickly what they are in for. Our prediction for phase one for the Monarchs will be a 9-15 record.

Like and follow for more NFHL content.