Kitchener walked away with their 3rd Memorial Cup last night. It was a fitting finish for the Rangers who looked unstoppable since the trade deadline in early January.
This represents a back-to-back win for Sam O'Reilly and Jared Woolley who were traded to Kitchener from London at the deadline, and is a bittersweet ending for a large cadre of overagers who are graduating out of junior hockey this year. In particular I have to highlight Dylan Edwards who is such a gritty, hard working player. He was a big player on a weak team in Erie for his whole junior career, but he didn't see any success with Erie and he finally asked the GM there this fall if he could look for a trade for him so he could have a chance this year. To Erie's credit, they did manage to work out a trade with Kitchener in early December, and there was no one more deserving of that win in my opinion. He's a small player which means he's been overlooked by the draft so far, but he's not afraid to play physically and he's a huge scoring threat and play maker and one of the big three forwards for Kitchener.
Have to also mention Andonovsky who is a life-long Ranger having started as a lower draft pick and finally becoming captain last year. He was a huge influence on the teams culture, and looked like he had said goodbye to the organization last year, moving to the AHL in September. He had an injury, though, and so the Sens transferred him back to the Rangers and he was able to finish of the season with them as an overager and get that opportunity to hoist the cup.
Everett was an excellent team, but I can't be more proud of the Rangers who almost never deviated from their play that they've been exhibiting the entire latter half of the season, and stormed through the Memorial Cup with absolute dominance.
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