The Lethbridge Hurricanes will drop the puck on a new WHL season Friday when the Medicine Hat Tigers visit the ENMAX Centre and players and coaches are optimistic about a young group that looks substantially different from last season.
“Yeah, I think we obviously are very optimistic, and I think most teams in our league are,” said head coach Brent Kisio.
“You know, when you start a season, it’s a fresh start,” he said. “[There’s] a lot of new pieces, a lot of moving parts, but we’re all excited and ready to go.”
Throughout training camp, the theme seemed to be turnover, with few players returning from the team that was knocked out in the first round of the playoffs last year by the Calgary Hitmen.
“You know what? There’s a lot of talent in these young guys,” said forward D-J Jerome, who was acquired by the Canes from the Victoria Royals in an off-season trade.
The 20-year-old is one of three over-agers on the Hurricanes, with defencemen Ty Preforntaine and Koletrane Wilson also providing a veteran presence.
Jerome is also one of three Lethbridge-born players on the roster, joining rookie forward Zack Stringer and starting netminder Carl Tetachuk, who will look to improve upon his first full WHL season as a starter.
“This is an important year for me,” Tetachuk said. “I’ve just got to step it up from last year. Being the No. 1 guy, I’ve got a big role to play.”
The 18-year-old is the obvious top dog between the pipes, with Bryan Thomson competing for starts as the backup.
“Tetachuk came in last year and did a great job for us, and obviously became our No. 1 guy,” Kisio said. “And with Thomson, he’s here to battle as well, so that’s a battle they’ve got to work out themselves.”
Kisio confirmed that Tetachuk will get the start in Friday’s home opener against the Tigers.
In front of the tandem is a d-core that the coaching staff is excited about; headlined by two big-bodied 20-year-olds: Prefontaine and Wilson.
“We like our depth on the back end,” Kisio said.
“We think we have a good mix of older and younger guys, with Prefontaine and Wilson coming in as 20-year-olds,” he added. “They’ve done a great job for us their whole career here — and we expect them to have a big year for us… and then we still get Addison back.”
Calen Addison is expected to return shortly from Pittsburgh where he has been skating with the Penguins. The 19-year-old defenceman was drafted by the team in the second round of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft.
If and when he returns, Addison will be expected to anchor the Canes’ blue-line, after posting back-to-back 65-point seasons.
The Hurricanes are also hoping to have forward Dylan Cozens back in short order.
Cozens was drafted seventh overall by the Buffalo Sabres this summer, and if he returns to junior, the Canes will have the expectation that he can build upon last year’s 84-point (34 G, 50 A) season.
In his absence, the team will lean on returning forwards to fill the void on offence; including Logan Barlage, who is eager to take on a bigger role after the disappointing end to last season.
“We take that, learn from that last year, learn how much it sucked going home early in the year and watching other teams keep on playing,” Barlage said.
Barlage believes that team mentality will be the emphasis, as the team tries to build chemistry early in the year.
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