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Six players who hit double-digit scores, including one who averaged more than a point per game in his first year with the Niagara IceDogs, are eligible to return for another season in the Hockey League. Ontario.
Left-winger Danil Gushchin led the IceDogs with 41 goals and was tied for the lead in assists, with 30, despite only seeing action in 51 of the team’s 68 regular-season games . The San Jose Sharks prospect beat Niagara with 71 points.
Center Pano Fimis was second in offensive production with 44 points. Niagara’s first pick in the 2021 OHL Draft set a team rookie record for single-season assists, 30, to accompany 14 goals.
Close behind, just one point, was right-winger Aidan Castle, the only IceDog to play in all 68 games. He scored 15 goals and had 28 assists.
Left winger Brice Cooke, who with Fimis and Castle won the Greater Toronto Hockey League Minor Midget Triple A Championship, scored 18 goals and added 10 assists for 28 points in his OHL debut.
Mid-season acquisition Brenden Sirizzotti had 10 goals and 21 assists in 43 games at Niagara after being acquired from the Ottawa 67’s. The right winger has seven goals and 11 assists in 30 games with Ottawa.
Left winger Juan Copeland had 12 goals and 10 assists in 58 games while fellow rookies left winger Dylan Roobroeck; and Declan Waddick, center; scored eight goals apiece for a team that had to enter two draft cohorts after missing the 2020-21 season due to COVID-19.
Right wing Anthony Agostinelli and center Daniel Michaud scored nine and eight goals respectively for the IceDogs in their second season in the OHL.
Michaud had four goals and 11 assists in 27 games with the Oshawa Generals before coming to Niagara at the trade deadline.
Goaltenders Josh Rosenzweig and Joey Costanzo are also set to return for a third and second year, respectively.
Rosenzweig had two shutouts, a 4.35 goals-against average and .882 save percentage in 40 games after becoming the team’s No. 1 safety net after Tucker Tynan was traded to Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds for draft picks.
Costanzo, who won’t turn 17 until July, allowed 4.92 goals per game and had an .879 save percentage in 17 games.
All but two players who finished the 2021-22 season on the IceDogs roster can return for another major junior year.
Left winger Liam Van Loon, 19 goals, 13 assists, 32 points in 39 games; and defenseman Dakota Betts, eight goals, 25 assists, 33 points in 61 games; were the only over-aged on the end-of-season roster.
Niagara’s regular season total of 218 goals was the third-lowest in the 20-team league. Only Ottawa, with 199 goals in 68 games, and Oshawa, 210 heading into their home season finale against the North Bay Battalion, have found the back of the net fewer times than the IceDogs this year.