SEALING THE DEAL

#SealTheDeal a rather clever hashtag rookie forward Louie Senpaski came up with, Senpaski has been rather busy this season, enjoying all that being a GHLer has to offer. However his production at least when it comes to scoring goals has not been what was expected of him. “The GHL is tough, ya know? I am going against the best guys in the world. I am not happy with my play and I am hitting way to many posts. I am confident I will get where I need to be.”

Seals GM Alexi Stepanov has been busy as of late, made a big trade at the beginning to acquire sophomore goal scorer Joseph Tylers and then sat quiet, until the Seals started to fall behind. The defense were allowing to many goals and the forwards were having a hard time scoring as many as the opposition. Even with Seguin having a career year with 24 goals and 37 assists in just 59 games played, he is second in points in the league. Tylers doubled his goal total since a demotion to the second line, playing his natural position seems to be paying off as he went from 11 goals on the year to 22. "I think I was struggling a little bit to find my game on the wing so I'm glad to be playing back where I feel I belong.” Tylers explained, “Louie and I have been hitting the gym pretty hard this year. I know he and I would like to be producing more offensively especially when we're in such a tight playoff race. I think for now we just have to keep doing what we're doing and the wins will come." 

Stepanov went and acquired top playmaker Max Domi to head up the third line. Not satisfied there, recently the Seals made a big trade to acquire defenseman Dallas Cardone who was unhappy playing for the Wings and made it clear he wanted out, also coming in the deal was Brady Tkachuk. “Cardy (Cardone) was someone I looked at drafting when the opportunity to add him to our lineup arose I jumped at the chance, trading away our top center prospects to get him made sense to us, we have great depth with Segs, Tylers, and Domi. Adding Tkachuk was also a big selling point with our goal scoring we needed some extra grit and Tkachuk has that in his blood.” Stepanov sang praises of his additions. “We are never done making moves to improve this team, it’s a tight playoff race, and a race I don’t intend on losing.” The Seals have their hat in a lot of trade discussions with the trade deadline drawing near they are definitely a buyer.

At the time of writing this article, Stepanov made yet another big move. Jonathan Huberdeau is on his way to California in exchange for a first round pick in the 2021 draft, Comeau and Lehkonen. 

Year two of the GHL has been exciting to say the least. Lots of teams making big moves all year, with no signs of settling down. Now as we approach the home stretch, many teams have taken a total 180. The playoff race is heating up and promises to be very exciting. All the way up to the last game.

Sean Lewdenski is the Head Analyst and insider for The GHL. Originally from Warsaw, Poland, he has moved to the states to pursue the American Dream.