IHL: Kansas City Uses Youth as Formula for Success

By Parker Neale
One of the bright surprises in this young IHL season thus far has been the play of the Kansas City Blades. They have burst out of the gate with a 7-1-1 record and have captured 4 of the 8 weekly awards thus far with Harold Druken and Artem Chubarov earning Player of the Week honours and Corey Schwab garnering the Goaltender of the Week award twice already.

The Blades can attribute much of their success thus far to the play of Schwab and Alfie Michaud in goal. The former has won 6 of his 7 starts and has posted a 1.76 goals-against-average and 0.930 save percentage in the process. Michaud has carried his weight as well with 1 win, a 2.36 GAA and 0.926 SP. These two veterans, at the “ripe” ages of 30 and 24, respectively have definitely shown how their experience can be a great asset.

On the blueline, the Blades have a solid, defensive-minded group that can also chip in some offence when needed. Zenith Komarniski and Steve Lingren have contributed 6 and 5 points in 9 games each, respectively. Ryan Bonni and Regan Darby have combined for 48 penalty minutes. And, Bryan Allen has tallied 4 points and 8 penalty minutes in 8 games. His game continues to round into form and we should see him in the NHL very soon, possibly even this year.

Up front, the forwards provide a well-rounded attack. Mike Brown has popped in 2 goals and racked up 19 penalty minutes while Dody Wood has 3 points and 40 pim’s in only 6 games. Harold Druken, Josh Holden, Brad Leeb, Jarkko Ruutu and Vadim Sharifijanov all contribute about a point a game. And, while Chubarov started off slowly, he could do no wrong last week as he notched 3 goals and 3 assists and was +9 over the three games. These numbers made him the lock for Player of the Week and gave him the best plus/minus in the league for that span.

The startling fact about the success of the Blades thus far is that the average age on the team is approximately 23. This bodes well for the parent club, the Vancouver Canucks who are also using a youth movement as a formula for success. It will be interesting to see how this Blades squad will fair over the entire season as they continue to be challenged by other skilled and veteran-laden clubs.