Hat tricks aren’t all that common in hockey. Some players can go a career and never get one.
Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals is the NHL’s active leader and he has 17 in 921 games. Every time one happens at Budweiser Gardens, Sharon and Dick Hoos throw a sombrero on the ice to celebrate. Over the years, they have probably stopped counting the number that they have tossed.
On Wednesday morning, the Knights made a hat trick of an announcement.
Dalton Duhart, Ryan Bangs and New Jersey Devils’ draft pick, Jesper Bratt will be joining the team this season. Three new players into the fold.
Duhart was London’s third-round pick in the 2017 OHL Priority Selection. He’s from Grand Blanc, Michigan and is coming off an excellent offensive year with Detroit Belle Tire U16, in which he averaged better than a point per game. Duhart was also a force at the OHL Cup in April as part of Elite Hockey Group. He scored five goals in four games which was good for second place in tournament goal scoring and tops in goals per game.
Duhart plays the game a little like a shark. He relentlessly tracks the puck on the ice, forcing turnovers and both making and finishing plays.
Ryan Bangs is a year older and is also known for his offence, only it comes from the back-end. Bangs had 23 points in 24 league games with the Arnprior Packers last season. Bangs also played with the Carleton Place Canadians and was part of their CCHL Championship team. He is 5’11″ and 161 lbs and will be in an outstanding position with the Knights in that he will be able to watch and learn from Montreal Canadiens’ fifth-round pick, Victor Mete and smooth-skating Minnesota Wild selection, Jacob Golden. Bangs hopes he can follow in the footsteps of both of them and hear his name called at the NHL Entry Draft in Dallas, Texas.
The Knights also announced that Jesper Bratt will be coming to London in the fall. Bratt was selected 49th overall by the Knights in the 2017 CHL Import Draft in June. He was a sixth round pick of the New Jersey Devils in 2016 and spent last year playing in the Swedish Allsvenskan, which is the second-highest league in Sweden and had 22 points in 42 games, playing against men.
Bratt could have continued playing against men. He is eligible to play in the American Hockey League as a 19-year-old but will follow a similar path to the one taken by Janne Kuokkanen, who played for the Knights last year after being selected by the Carolina Hurricanes.
Also, like Kuokkanen, Bratt owns a quick release and an excellent shot. He also has great speed. The native of Stockholm will be working to add weight to his 5’10″, 174-lbs frame as he looks to adapt his game to North America with the hope of playing hockey in New Jersey some day.
Bratt has represented Sweden at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup, where he won bronze and a silver from the Under-18 World Hockey Championship.
The Knights will open training camp during the final week of August and will play their first pre-season game at home to the Sarnia Sting on Friday, Sept. 1 at Budweiser Gardens. London will visit Sarnia on Sept. 2 and then play the Erie Otters at Budweiser Gardens on Sept. 15 in London and Sept. 16 in Komoka.
The Knights’ 2017-18 season opener will bring together the last two Memorial Cup Champions on Sept. 22 at Budweiser Gardens as London meets the Windsor Spitfires.
Four Knights have managed to record opening night hat tricks: Logan Hunter, Dave Bolland, Seth Griffith and Max Domi.
For now, London will settle for a hat trick of player signings. By the end of September, they will be back looking for the kind that find their way into the back of the net.
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