The
2017-2018 WHL season saw the Oyster Bay Liberty win their third WHL
championship two years after returning from a 10 year
absence from the league.
With 402 goals Liberty was led by the league leading 49 goals of Alexei Ovechkin and
Logan Couture's 34 goals. Liberty edged out the competition with
solid years by Nazem Kadri 32 goals, Patrice Bergeron 30 goals,
Nikolaj Ehlers 29 goals, and the impressive
rookie Alex DeBrincat with 28 goals. Incredibly, Liberty has 3
championships and 5 years in the money in only 6 seasons in the WHL.
With this win the Oyster Bay Liberty move up to 4th overall in the
Prize Money Rankings all time. Oh, and they won three Team of the
Month awards also!
Coming in second place with 400 goals were the Sudbury Wolves.
The wheeling and dealing Wolves came in second place in large
part to a breakout year of Nathan MacKinnon 39 goals, and career
years by Tyler Seguin 40 goals and David Pastrnak 35 goals. With
this 2nd round finish the Wolves increased their record to 14
seasons in the money all time, and only 1 behind the Reservoir
Dogs record of 6 times finishing in second place.
Rounding out the money winners were the heated rivals Bada Bing
and Big Three. Bada Bing held off Big Three's late surge with an
8 goal night on the last Saturday of the season and fell only 2
goals shy of taking second place from the Wolves. Bada Bing was
lead by the sophomore and 2nd highest scorer Patrik Laine's 44
goals and a breakout year for Sean Couturier 31 goals. Adding to
the the strength of Bada Bing were three more sophomore's,
Brayden Point 32 goals, Sebastion Aho 29 goals and Mikko
Rantanten's 29 goals.
The fourth place finishing Big Three came on late after a slow start to the season. A big reason for their success was a trade made in December acquiring Evgeni Malkin 42 goals for Jack Eichel 25 goals and defenseman Viktor Hedman 17 goals. Malkin started the season slowly just like the Big Three but took off after the trade. Big Three also had career highs for Connor McDavid 41 goals and Taylor Hall 39 goals and a solid 37 goals for John Tavares.
Other interesting notes of this past season;
1. Bada Bing made two unbelievable selections in the extra
rounds of the entry draft selecting in round 21 Sean Couturier
with 31 goals and in round 23 with the very last selection of
the draft Tomas Hertl with 22 goals.
2. The Reservoir Dogs had an off year but managed to
finish strong by setting a new WHL record for Team of
the Month with 100 goals, surpassing the record held by Sudbury
Wolves
97 goals set just last season. Note* Helmut's record of 96 goals was accomplished in the
standard month of November 2006, all other other monthly highs
occurred in the extended month of March.
Best 1st round pick #2: Ovechkin 49 goals Oyster Bay Liberty
Best 2nd round pick #18: Tavares 37 goals Big Three
Best 3rd round pick #26: Lee 40 goals
Winter is Coming
Best 4th round pick #34: Malkin 42 goals Reservoir Dogs
Best 5th round pick #37: Hall 39 goals Big Three
Best 6th round pick #47: Monahan 31 goals Winter is Coming
Best 7th round pick #59: E Staal 42 goals
Son of Rudy
Best 8th round pick #71: Ehlers 29 goals Winter is Coming
Best 9th round pick #76: Eberle 25 goals
Sudbury Wolves
Best 10th round pick #87: MacKinnon 39 goals Sudbury Wolves
Best 11th round pick #96: Trocheck 31 goals
McDonaghlds
Best 12th round pick #100: Point 32 goals Bada Bing
Best 13th round pick #116: Zucker 33 goals
Winter is Coming
Best 14th round pick #125: Bergeron 30 goals Oyster Bay
Liberty
Best 15th round pick #129: Dadonov 28 goals
Reservoir Dogs
Best 16th round pick #142: S Reinhart 25 goals Reservoir
Dogs
Best 17th round pick #151: Connor** 31 goals Helmut
Best 18th round pick #156: Jones* 16 goals
Helmut
#157: Vanek 24 Goals McDonaghlds
Best 19th round pick #164: DeBrincat** 28 goals Oyster Bay
Liberty
#168: Hornqvist 29 goals McDonaghlds
Best 20th round pick #174: Hayes 25 goals Helmut
EXTRA PICKS
Best 21th round pick #185: Couturier 31 goals Bada
Bing
Best 22th round pick #187: Giordano* 13 goals Sudbury
Wolves
Best 23th round pick #191: Hertl 22 goals
Bada Bing
The standings from the original drafted teams, no re-entry, no trades.
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