Belleville Bulls betting new goalie Graham won’t crack: OHL Burning Questions

The Ontario Hockey League regular season begins Thursday. They play one of these every winter? Man, it never ends. With the days getting shorter and the season getting nearer, BTN is taking an early look at each team in reverse order of last season's standings.

Belleville Bulls

In 2012-13 — 44-16-5-3, .706 point pct., 222 GF/164 GA. First, Eastern Conference. Lost 4-3 to Barrie in conference final.

Final Dynamic Dozen ranking — fifth OHL, 15th CHL.

On the junior/pro bubble — C Brendan Gaunce has two goals in NHL preseason with the Vancouver Canucks, who have three first-rounders from the past two drafts bidding to make the lineup. Twenty-year-old C Alan Quine is trying to get a foothold in the New York Islanders farm system.

Drafted — Gaunce (Vancouver, first round), Quine (New York Islanders, sixth), D Jordan Subban (Vancouver, fourth), D Brady Austin (Buffalo Sabres, seventh).

2014 NHL draft watch — Los Toros have 11 underage players, including skilled C Niki Petti and C Michael Cramarossa, whose brother Joseph Cramarossa is in the Anaheim Ducks system.

1. Why might the Bulls not slide as far as projected?

The last time Belleville had a big graduating class after a conference final year was 2009-10. They struggled and became sellers, which was why they were able to land their current captain with the No. 2 overall pick the following spring. Similarly, those '10-11 Bulls, like the '13-14 edition, were carrying on after seeing off a star goaltender, with Mike Murphy carrying the same mantle as Malcolm Subban.

There is a better succession plan in place with the 18-year-old Charlie Graham, who acquitted himself more than adequately over the past 1½ seasons while backing up Subban (all all three of his shutouts were away from home. That '09-10 Belleville team didn't have the same luxury. Belleville has lost a lot of its scoring touch, but under coach-GM George Burnett it typically has proven to be a tough-out team which can weather a lot of one-goal and overtime games.

The Bulls also open the season with a veteran top four on defence with overages Austin and Jake Worrad, stable 19-year-old Adam Bignell and Jordan Subban. That's a potentially good group so long as it stays intact, pending the overage situation. A trade would open up ice time for first-rounder Justin Lemcke. To sum up, the Bulls are a sound organization on the hockey side, so they get some benefit of the doubt when they have to restock the shelves.

2. Well, will the next time one sees Gaunce in black, orange and gold only be if the Canucks break out a 1980s retro jersey?

As a general comment, the start of the OHL season also coincides with the silly season when it comes to talk about teenagers sticking in The Show. Gaunce's chance might be enhanced by his emotional maturity and his medium-high ceiling as a second or third-liner. His situation is different from the gifted attacker who either has to be on a scoring line or go to a lower level of hockey.

Gaunce, going strictly on gut instinct and his goals in the fake games, seems like a good bet to make his NHL debut next month. The 19-year-old might need another season to improve his skating.

3. Will Jordan Subban spark an unproven offence?

No doubt you checked HockeyDB and noted Subban has more points (71) than his Norris Trophy-winning oldest brother, P.K. Subban, did in his first two seasons in the Friendly City (68). The youngest Subban was practically Belleville's leading scorer in the first half last season, but being more stalwart defensively and reducing the first part of 'high-risk, high-reward' will probably endear him more to the Canucks than leading OHL defencemen in scoring.

The rub is the Bulls might need even more of an offensive contribution from the 18-year-old.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet. Please address any questions, comments or concerns to btnblog@yahoo.ca.