When the Whalers hang the up their OHL Championship this Saturday night at the Compuware Sports Arena it will end a chapter that was one of the more exciting seasons they have had. The banner will hang as a memory of a great season, but when the puck drops at 7:05, the memory will fade into the distance and the reality the Whalers are in a new season will kick in. To say this will be a rebuilding year is putting it lightly. The team lost Steve Ward, Evan Brophey, Jared Boll and Dan Collins to name a few, a few of the eight players they lost to the NHL. Instead, the team will look for other people to step in. Enter Jeremy Smith and Michal Neuvirth.

The tandem led the league in GAA last year and it wasn’t all because of the team in front of them. Both goaltenders, Neuvirth (2006) and Smith (2007) were second round picks in their respective drafts and both project to end up being NHL starting goaltenders. Neuvirth would like to be up in the pros right now, but it looks like the Capitals will send him back leaving two possibilities.

The first would be to have them split the games like they did last year, something that will be important considering the young team they are playing in front of will almost certainly give up a ton more shots this season than they did prior. Splitting the games would leave the goaltenders fresher as the grueling season rolls on. It could possibly help them stay in the playoff hunt.

The second option would be to trade one of them. Neuvirth and Smith would both draw good offers and could help clog some holes. The next question would be is who to trade? Neuvirth started more games last year, carried the load in the playoffs and put up slightly better numbers than Smith during the regular season. Smith had slightly smaller numbers than Neuvirth and saw limited time in the playoffs, although he went 2-0. The answer is, however, Neuvirth considers himself ready for the pros and is going to play at most one more season for Plymouth. Smith, though, has three years, including this season, left to play in the OHL and will most likely stay for all three. His major question mark would be if he could carry the load in a pressure situation like the playoffs, but last year he led Team USA to a silver medal in the Junior World Cup.

Trading Neuvirth would ultimately speed up the rebuilding process that is enviable for the Whalers. Although the load of the season would fall on Smith, it would ultimately pay off in future seasons and at this point Head Coach/General Manager Mike Vellucci needs to recognize that.

With the goaltending issue aside, the next question would be where the offense is going to come from. The team will not score nearly as many goals as they did last season, probably not even close, but Sean O’Connor and second year players Vern Cooper, AJ Jenks, and Chris Terry should lead the team quite well. All will see huge ice time increases but Cooper, Jenks and Terry should have learned a lot from the previous season and should be ready to step in.

The huge question mark is going to be how the new players, almost a dozen of them, will fair. Only time will tell on how this question gets answered but one thing is for sure. Once the banner hangs, success ends and the grind back to the top begins for Mike Vellucci’s Plymouth Whalers.