Too Many Hats?
The Nokians early season woes have left the Nokains GM/Owner/Coach/League Commissioner/League Adminstrator/Travelling Consultant/etc wondering if it is all related to wearing too many hats. It's been been some ok moments but mostly bad moments.
Heading into the 2011/12 season brought a lot of uncertainty for the team but that can be said for all the teams. Big questions about how players were going to look like or how the four team expansion was going to affect the team make up left the Nokians without much of plan until it was tieme to decide something.
Drafting
Only in the third year of the league, it's hard to try and judge a teams' drafting record in only three years. At first glance however, it doesn't look that great. Scanning the prospects list does not raise a lot of eye brows. Yes the Nokians ended up with John Tavares, but that was a no brainer. He also took a bit of time to become useful and only just entered the BFHL this year, already an RFA next year and surely to command a huge pay raise.
Perhaps indicative of the level of talent available the last few years, the prospects worthy of mention tend to be slow developers. Eric Tangradi, whom the Nokians were hoping to turn into an effective power forward is struggling to be consistent and make an impact. Joe Colborne, while "coming along nicely" is another waiting game. Nokians have been looking for offense from D over the years and continue to wait for the likes of Bobby Sanguinetti, Brandon Gormly and Justin Faulk to make the grade and reap the benefits of a potent offence from the defence.
Nokians scouting has seemingly improved with time however by snagging Nick Leddy who's looking great this year and also Brandon Saad unexpectedly making Chicago Blackhawks out of camp. Of course one would argue it's simply because they are on the greatest team in the world. There are other notables but it's too depressing to discuss due to the injured nature of the players.
The 2011/12 Lineup
It looks horrible. The team is basically a couple centers, a couple defencemen, a wiley veteran winger, and a goalie. Nobody came back with a really good year under their belts. Nokians GM also let Brandon Dubinsky walk to an offer sheet (albeit for an attractive compensation package) and also regret letting solid third liner, Chris Higgins, go for a couple question marks.
Peter Regin looks to be injury prone, like many of the Nokians young stars, while Sami Lepisto is barely staying in the line up but looking better, probably because of Chicago. So that may be worth it all by itself.
Free Agency
Nokians free agent activity was nothing to write home about as they either missed opportunities or simply negligent in identifying the holes in the team. Patches were done to the defense to help make it more serviceable but a lot more needs to be done if the Nokians hope to be consistently competitve this year.
Distant Future
All is not lost, however, for next year as there looks to be some solid bounce back seasons for two wingers in Jason Pominville and Milan Michalek. Counted to be consistent forces for the Nokians, both had disappointing injury filled seasons that affected their abilities. Nokians are said to be testing the waters for any interest in these players while looking to free up cap space and provide greater roster flexibility.
Today
What holds in the near future for the Nokians is to study game tape and review line strategies. Defense is still an area of highest importance to improve on but there is definitely some room for improvement simply with studying game tape.
Look for the Nokians to be more active with their roster while also evaluating player personnel to ensure a competive product this year.