The Backyard Hockey League, Auckland’s premiere beer league, is back for season 5.
Since all the rosters got a major reset for the 2017-18 season, Puck Yeah invited BHL President Cam Green to provide our readers with the lowdown on all the squads for ‘The Show: Season V’.
In part two of our six-part series, things gets a little cheesy – it’s Top Cheese.
The Top Cheese has always been viewed as a team with great depth and they continued their trend of drafting quality players this summer. The Cheese drafted a remarkable 13 rookies throughout the franchise including seven within their BHL squad.
After the exit of longtime team co-founder Ryan Langford, the Green Machine has been forced to start again from scratch and will start by restructuring their leadership team. Jeff Albert wears the ‘C’ for the club and will be joined by 3 alternates in 2018.
Forwards:
Andy Hart – Dylan Dickson* – Kieran Judge
Jared D’Amico* – Justin Daigle – Cam Green
Csaba Kersco-Magos – Tom Joseph – Tyrell Peak*
Defencemen:
Cameron McLeod* – Jeff Albert
Blake Moyle* – Jack Hull*
Devin Fennell – Dwayne Maki
FHL Reserves:
Dwayne Maki, Tom Joseph
Goaltender:
Joel Rindelaub*
The Frontyard Hockey League is the official farm system for the BHL. Top Cheese’ affiliate is The Sauce. View their roster here.
Note: Players marked with an asterisk are BHL rookies and can be sent down to the FHL without having to clear waivers.
BURNING QUESTION:
To no one’s surprise, Top Cheese selected Justin Daigle with the BHL franchise’s first ever first overall pick. That pick, matched with the strategy of drafting several ex-pats and first-year unknown players, Top Cheese made a total 11 roster changes from the previous version of the Cheeseheads that lost in the Conference Finals last season. Can the Cheese find a new identity in time to land their first BHL Championship?
ONE TO WATCH: Joel Rindelaub (USA)
After being taken with the 25th Overall Pick, Joel becomes just the second goaltender in the franchise’s history. A product of the NCAA’s Purdue University could prove to be the steal of the draft, should he be able to find his form early and often. Only time will tell.
ON THE FARM:
Winners of the inaugural FHL Season, The Sauce will look to repeat as champions in 2018. Armed with incredible depth up front and on the backend, the Top Cheese affiliate will look to goaltender Tabitha Crump to help lead a charge for a second title. Her performance may very well be the deciding factor in year two for the club.