Fill Those Stockings, Fill the Net

The Thunderbirds reach the Christmas break hoping Santa will put a few goals under their tree. Seattle finished the three game weekend scoring just one goal in each game. No surprise then that the T-Birds lost all three games.

With the exception of an ugly seven minute span in the first period Saturday in Everett, the T-Birds didn't give up much either. The Thunderbirds lost 2-1, in overtime, Friday at home to the Vancouver Giants.  They dropped that game to the Silvertip 7-1 before losing 3-1 Sunday to the Giants in Langley with the third goal being an empty netter.

Those three losses came after Seattle had traveled to Spokane last Wednesday and posted a 5-3 win. But four of the goals versus the Chiefs were scored on the power play. The T-birds scored just one even strength goal in their last four games. And since a 10-for-23 stretch with the man advanatge, the Thunderbirds are zero-for-their-last-six.  

You can't rely on your power play for fifty percent of your scoring. Somehow, someway the T-birds have to start generating more even strength goals. Is it a lack of opportunity? Are they spending too much time in their own end? I would say no. Sure, there have been occasions when they struggle to get the puck up ice but that wasn't an issue in any of their last four games.

In those last four pre-Christmas games Seattle averaged 36 shots on goal, twice breaking the 40 shot barrier. What they are missing is some finish.  Sunday's game against Vancouver was a prime example as Seattle created numerous ten bell scoring chances but either flubbed the chance, shot wide or put the puck right in the middle of the goalies jersey. During the first intermission Sunday in Langley, one observer up in the press box said the T-Birds skated themselves out of three goals.

With just 78 the Thunderbirds have scored by far away the fewest goals in the WHL thus far this season. Yes, part of that can be explained by having played a league fewest 29 games at the break but their goals per game average is just 2.6 goals per game and that number drops to 2.1 over their last ten outings.

The injuries to Nico Myatovic and Jordan Gustafson, the month missed by Gracyn Sawchyn, are factors. Not getting Kevin Korchinski back from the Chicago Blackhawks has played into the lack of offensive production as well. It has left Seattle with little margin for error as they skated through the first half with one of the youngest rosters in the WHL.

It's realistic to think that had the Thunderbirds not lost so many games to injuries with their top players, they woud convievably have 4-5 more wins.  But every year teams go through the injury bug. Some more than others, but you know it's coming. Seattle just hasn't had the veteran depth  to survive it, like they did a season ago.

As a result the optimism at the start of the season gave way to the reality of a 12-15-2-0 record heading into the holiday break. The question is, how will they respond when play begins again December 28th?

The T-Birds used fifteen rookies the first half including eight 16 year olds and five 15 year olds.  That's unprecedented. Hopefully it pays off in the future but what does Seattle do in the present? Do they get healthy and stand pat? Or do they break up the gang and trade away valuable veterans? It will be an interesting next month.

My T-Birds Three Stars for the First Half:

Third Star: C Sam Popowich. He has been the most reliable of Seattle's forwards. He plays in all situations and is one gig reason why both of Seattle's special teams, the power play and the penalty kill. have been consistently near the top of the WHL. He needs two more goals to establish a new career high in the WHL. He sticks up for his teammates and provides needed leadership.

Second Star: W Antonio Martorana. On a team full of rookies, he has stood out in the crowd. The 16-year old former 4th round draft pick leads the team in goals at the break with 12. He gets many of them by going to the net. He should only get better as he begins to play more minutes on the power play. A couple goals in the first few games? Maybe you could discount that as flukey, but a dozen goals in 29 games is no fluke.  He's the real deal.

First Star: D Jeremy Hanzel.  The 20 year old defenseman is playing his best hockey right now, building off what was a terrific season a year ago and doing it with a lesser supporting cast around him.  He's taken over the role of quarterbacking the power play that would have been Korchinski's if he were here and he is flourishing. He plays a ton of minutes and he's so often able to skate the T-Birds out of trouble. The Colorado Avalanche have to be happy with the way his season has gone the first three months. They picked him in the sixth round last summer, now let's hope they reward him with a contract. 

Please Bear With Us

The annual Teddy Bear Toss game is a highlight of the season on every team's schedule. Not only do the fans look forward to it, but so do the players. Scoring the Teddy Bear Toss goal is a big deal. Only one player gets to do it. Often times, it comes from an unexpected source. 

That wasn't the case Saturday against Kelowna as Gracyn Sawchyn is one of Seattle's better offensive weapons. I guess the only real intrigue was whether Sawchyn would be in the line up.  He missed over a month with a lower body injury. He did play in last Friday's home game against Saskatoon but wasn't in the lineup last Saturday in Kelowna. Tht's a nice way to announce your return.

Certainly the game was in doubt going into the third period.  The T-Birds were down by one and some quality scoring chances in the second period came up just short.  Head coach Matt O'Dette admitted that led to a little bit of frustation, and understandibly so.  Entering the game the T-Birds had scored just five times in their last four games. They were getting chances and not finishing.  

But they stuck with it and continued to play the T-Birds brand of hockey, the key to which is a strong forecheck. It led to a few power play chances in the final period and they eventually capitalized.  They earned that win. The old saying is you usually get the result you deserve and recently Seattle had been coming up just short.  Small mistakes were adding up and ending up in the back of the T-Birds net.  The Thunderbirds were basically playing  the "close but not quite" game.  It was nice to see them find the necessary finish to close out a win.

Seattle's tying and winning goal came from two players who are noted as prolific goal scorers. Luca Hauf had the tying goal on the power play. In 66 previous games in the WHL he had scored just twelve times. That's one goal about every six games. How long had it been since his last goal? Six games.

Sam Popowich scored the game winner. It was his 23rd career WHL goal, in his 183rd game. That's a goal every eight games.  It was his first goal in sixteen games, after scoring in four straight games to start the season. 

These aren't two players who are going to consistently light the lamp. What they are is a pair of Swiss Army knives.  They bring a little bit of everything in their toolboxes.  They can play up and down the lineup. They play in all situations and they bring grit and they bring energy.  

The goals they do bring seem to be of the timely variety. Four of Hauf's goals this season have been scored on the power play. Three of Popowich's five goals this year have been game winners.  Yes, you win games by scoring more goals than your opponent but you don't win by soley scoring goals.  You claim victory by winning puck battles, killing penalties, blocking shots and getting pucks out of harms way. You win by doing the hard work, the dirty work,  and both Hauf and Popowich excel in those areas. 

After the game Hauf didn't tell me he just wanted to score more goals, he emphasized wanting to score more greasy goals. he's willing to go to the net and take the abuse, getting whacked and hacked, to get to loose pucks and second chances.  Popowich isn't ever going to be the biggest player on the ice but so often we see him standing around the opposing net, looking for deflections and redirects.  To score more than your opponent, you have to keep the puck out of your net as well. That takes some sacrifice and these two players do that.

Seattle and Kelowna played three games in eight days with the T-Birds winning twice.  Goals scored so far in the season series? Seattle 7, Kelowna 6. They're not division opponents but it is one of the T-Birds better rivalries over the past 20 years.  

My Three Stars for Saturday's win:

Third Star: W Luca Hauf. For me, the power play goal was the key goal for Seattle and he fought off a Rockets defender to get to the net and take the pass from Antonio Martorana. he then found a small space to get it through the Rocket's goalie. He followed that up with the prmary assist on Popowich's game winner.

Second Star: G Scott Ratzlaff. After the Rockets tied the game in the first period, they were buzzing around the Seattle net for a lot of the second half of that first period.  Ratzlaff kept them at bay. Then, after Seattle grabbed the lead in the third period, he came with with a few key late stops as Kelowna was looking for the equalizer. As a result his save percentage is now at .900 and his goals against average is just a tick above 3.00 and heading down in the right direction.

First Star: C Sam Popowich.  It just wasn't the game winning goal, though that was the best moment for him, but when the Rockets pulled their goalie for the extra skater in the final two minutes, he won a number of defensive zone face offs, allowing Seattle to get puck possession. He was just nine of 20 in the faceoff circle in the game but I'm guessing two or three came in the final two minutes. He was also part of Seattle's big penalty kill at the end of the second period.  If the T-Birds allow a goal there, they probably don't comeback in the third for the win.

Four Out of Five Dentists Recommend

Playing four games in five nights is taxing. It gets even more so when you are minus players to injuries. It becomes even more difficult when those missing players are your relied upon point producers.  No one recommends playing four games in five nights under any circumstances but it is a fact of life in the WHL that from time to time you go through a few of those. Building availability, travel and a few other itmes factor in.  You play the hand you're dealt.

You could probably have guessed Seattle was going to have a young, rookie filled roster this season. What you could not have predicted were long term injuries to the team's top three returning offensive weapons: Nico Myatovic, Jordan Gustafson and Gracyn Sawchyn.

Gustafson has played just two games in his WHL career against the Saskatoon Blades. He's probably hoping he never has to face them again (It would only happen if he returns next season as a 20 year old). Last January early in a game in Saskatoon he fell awkwardly to the ice, after a check from his brother Blake no less, and suffered an injury that cost him most of the second half of last season and the first 12 games this year.

Finally back in the lineup again this season and the Blades are in town Friday. What happens? He blocks a shot and suffers another injury that puts him back on the shelf. What are those old country song lyrics? If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all.

It's too bad because I believe Gustafson would have received an invite to Team Canada's World Junior team training camp with a chance to earn a spot on the roster. He was involved in their team meetings this past summer.  He could still be invited so let's hope this injury is a quick heal.

Unfortunately the injury suffered by Myatovic in early October won't be healed in time for him to fight for a spot with Team Canada. Literally a tough break because I think he'd have been a perfect third or fourth line player for Canada, similar to Reid Schaefer's role last year.

Will Scott Ratzlaff get an invite? Like Gustafson he was part of Canada's summer meetings. Don't let his numbers fool you. Yes, he had a poor start to the season but he has settled down and looked terrific in goal the last couple of weeks. He's keeping a young, inexperienced team in a lot of games recently.

I counted nearly 140 shots on goal for Seattle in the four games last week. They scored just five times on those shots and one of those was an empty netter. That's a Mendoza line shooting percentage of 2.85 percent. Is there some bad luck involved there? Sure, but the biggest culprit for me is a lack of a net front presence and I think that correlates with the young roster. 

I'm guessing many of these young forwards never had to stand in front of the net very often in their minor days, asked to take a goalies eyes off the puck.  Most were probably one of the better players on their minor team and are used to having the puck on their stick, shooting and having the puck go in. Give them time to acclimate to that role.

I remember Schaefer's first training camp with Seattle back in 2018. He was flying up and down the ice scoring lots of goals in the scrimmages. By the time he left Seattle he had become a reliable player around the front of the net.

The T-Birds went just 1-3 in their four games this past week but there were times in all four games where they controlled the play and in three of the four games they were in a position to get something out of the contest by the third period. It's why I say this young team is both impressive and frustating to watch, all at the same time. 

It's hard, coming off a championship season, to be patient but that's what we're going to have to be as they go through growing pains. I think the same thing happened in the pandemic season of 2021. Remember that was just a 23 game season, not 68, so we tend to forget the similarities to this year. But Seattle went 10-12-1-0 that year and many of those twelve losses were similar in nature to some of the losses the T-Birds have suffered so far this season. A year later Seattle was playing for a WHL title.

Injuries affect every team but they'll have a bigger impact on a younger, rookie laden roster.  A season ago Seattle could survive four players away at Workd Juniors, a Gustafson injury, or waiting for Colton Dach to heal up because they had plenty of experienced depth. They don't have that this season.

What they do have is a deep group of young players that will develop together and while it may not look like it from one game to the next, they are getting better with each shift and every practice. For a young team practice time has immense value and when you play four games in five nights, you don't get that practice. 

Their youth has probably cost them a couple of wins so far, but I actually think the injuries have been the bigger factor. With everyone in the lineup Seattle is probably four or five wins better than their current .500 record. Keep that in mind as we approach the trade deadline. I know there are some out there who want to trade away any player of value but when Seattle gets healthy, keeping this team together might be the better option. I'm not saying they won't deal, but I wouldn't be surprised if the didn't.

My T-Birds Three Stars for the final two games of four in five nights:

Third Star: D Sawyer Mynio. Seattle is relying on Mynio and Jeremy Hanzel to eat up a lot of minutes on the back end. They're handling the workload quite well. Mynio can be both physical and finesse.  I think he gets called on too many borderline penatlies.Some are warranted, other are not.  He's been a very good skater from almost the day he arrived. He wants to be more offensive and we're starting to see him shoot more. His power play goal Saturday in Kelowna was a beauty.

Second Star: W Simon Lovsin.  In one shift Saturday against the Rockets we saw the package Lovsin brings to the table. Physicality, speed and offensive touch. Remember he's still a rookie. He's got more physical maturity to attain.  He can be a Reid Schaefer or Lucas Ciona type player for Seattle.  

First Star:  G Scott Ratzlaff.  Ratzlaff bailed out his team on more than one occasion on the weekend and was the primary reason the T-Birds could hang around into the third period in both games.  It isn't necessarily the amount of rubber he's facing, though he did face quite a lot Saturday. It's the quality of chances he's facing and stopping that makes him stand out. He has a tremendous competitve fire.

A Brief Pause

 Happy Thanksgiving as Seattle catches their breath in the midst of four games in five days.  

Seattle has been a .500 team the last four games. A loss followed by a win, followed by a loss, then a win.  Not all surprising considering the youth of the team and who is out of the lineup.It's all speculation but I believe with a healthy Sawchyn and Myatovic the last month, the T-Birds are probably good for another two to three wins. I doubt they blow third period leads to Victoria and Spokane.  They'll enter Friday's game against Saskatoon at 10-8-1-0 but 13-6-0-0 looks a lot better.  But as they say, it is what it is.

When the Thunderbirds play their brand of hockey, they're a hard out for anyone. The forecheck is their bread and butter. Get pucks in deep and grind down your opponent. When they fall off their game they struggle to keep up, spending too much time in the defensive zone. Usually the culprit is the lack of crisp passing as they try to move up ice. At other times it's not being positionally sound inside their own blue line.

These are the growing pains this team will go through.  One night they'll look like world beaters, the next, not so much. Heck, they went through both those stages in the loss Tuesday in Kennewick. They were all over the Americans in the fist period, outshooting them 19-9. Now, not many of those shots were of the dangerous variety but it still meant they had a good portion of the puck posession.  It was a different story in the second period as they struggled to make tape-to-tape passes and as a result they looked like a completely different team and fell behind, 3-0.

As you know, the T-Birds traded their 2021 first round pick, Tij Iginla to the Kelowna Rockets in the offseason. The player requested the trade and the organization obliged. Iginla is off to a good start with the Rockets with 18 goals in 23 games, though Seattle stifled him Wednesday night in his return to the accesso ShoWare Center.

I sure hope that first round pick Seattle got back is Kelowna's own and not the Regina pick Seattle traded to the Rockets last January in the Colton Dach deal.  There is still a long way to go this season  but right now that Rocket's first rounder is a lottery pick as Kelowna currently sits with the third worst record in the WHL after losing ten of their last 11 games. The last time Seattle was sitting with the third overall pick in the first round of the WHL Draft, they won the draft lottery and moved up to select first overall. They ended up with some guy named Mat Barzal.  

Either way it looks like the T-Birds are in line for a high selection and I trust Bil LaForge and his scouts to find another high end player to add to their stable of young prospects. The T-Birds don't have a lot of picks in the 2024 draft but getting a lottery selection could make up for that.

Seattle has signed nine 2007 born players (current 16 year olds). Six of them are currently on the roster. Another, Caleb Potter, has played in a couple of games for Seattle this season. Jaxson Pawlenchuk skated in two preseason games. The other, defenseman Tai Riley, just recently signed.  I would be shocked if he doesn't make his WHL debut at some point this season, even if he's up for just one game at the end of the season. Along with their 2006s (five on the roster), that's a lot of youth getting some early action in the WHL. It's going to lead to inconsistency but hopefully it speeds up their development.

Watch Seattle's 2022 first round pick Braeden Cootes whenever he's on the ice and tell me he doesn't play a complete 200 foot game. He's not perfect at age 16 and will make the occasional mistake, but he has all the makings of a team leader. He has that "hockey maturity" that reminds me of the way Nico Myatovic has played since he arrived on the scene.

My T-Birds Three Stars for the front half of four games in five days:

Third Star:  W Coster Dunn.  He may have been Seattle's best player in the loss Tuesday in Kennewick.  He's got a sneaky good reach with his stick that has made him fairly adept at stripping pucks.  He still is growing, even after taking a big leap physically this offseason. Already a solid skater, once he gets even stronger in the upper body, he should improve his ability to fight through checks. My comp for him would be Mathew Wedman.

Second Star: C Sam Popowich.  Seems to be the one T-Birds players that goes consistently to the front of the net. It led to an assist on Seattle's power play goal against Kelowna Wednesday night.  He added a second assist on the Simon Lovsin empty-netter.  The T-Birds are one of the best face off teams in the WHL at this juncture of the season. Winning defensive zone faceoffs when shorthanded is a key to a good penalty kill and Popowich is very adept at it. He was 14-of-25 on draws Wednesday night.

First Star: G Scott Ratzlaff. Ratzlaff earned his first shutout of the season Wednesday with a 19 save effort. It was the seventh shutout of his T-Birds career after leading the league last season with five. In his last four games he has turned aside 121 of 125 shots, posting a 1.06 GAA and a .960 SVPCT. After a slow statistical start to the season he is starting to look like the Ratzlaff that won WHL Goalie of the Month honors last December.

Let's Talk Turkey

Definitely a tale of two cities this weekend for the Thunderbirds.  After a good enough first period Friday in Everett that saw them skate off the ice with a 1-0 lead, they struggled to generate any solid puck possession the final two periods. They hung on long enough thanks to goaltender Scott Ratzlaff, but eventually Everett scored three times in the final four minutes to win 4-1.

Saturday in Kent it was more of the level of hockey the T-Birds need to play to be successful.  It started with another good first twenty minutes, as they built up a 3-1 lead enroute to an eventual 4-1 win.  This may surprise you but I thought the last two periods were very good for Seattle. Not INSPITE of having to kill off eight straight Everett power plays, but BECAUSE they had to do that.  

You never want to give an opposing team eight chances with the man advantage, Odds says you're not going to kill them all off all the time.  Strangely though, I think being on the PK that much helped Seattle focus on what makes them a good defensive team: blocking shots, active sticks, physical play along the boards and, of course, supurb goaltending.  As Jordan Gustafson told me after the game, with so many different players going to the penalty box, it gave players not accustomed to it a chance to kill penalties.

Again, not a perfect game but an effective game for the Thunderbirds. They still struggle at time to get clears.  They put pucks in dangerous spots in their own defensive zone. They mishandle the puck around their own net.  This is a young team.  There's lots of learning to do.

Only three other teams in the WHL have a roster with a younger aggregate age than Seattle. But let's compare Seattle's roster to just the rest of the U.S. Division.  We've mentioned before that Seattle is carrying nine rookies on the roster. Six of those are true 16 year olds or 2007 born first year players. Spokane has four 2007s on their roster, Tri-City has three, Portland has two and Everett and Wenatchee are carrying one 2007 born rookie each.

After this past weekend, Seattle's 16 year old rookies have combined to play in 86 games. Spokane's have played a combined 61. For Tri-City their 2007 born players have combined for 39 games. Portland's two have played in a combined 19 while the 16 year old rookies for Everett and Wenatchee have played in 18 and 17 games respectively.  

Remember, of the five teams in the division, Seattle has played the least amount of games.  It's clear the T-Birds rely on their 16 year old rookies more than any other team in the divsion and it's not even close. Heck, the Thunderbirds leading goal scorer is 16 year old Antonio Martorana. Yet, here they are, with so many of their better, older players dealing with injuries, still battling and keeping themselves above water at 9-7-1-0.   

You might be tempted to think that Seattle was in the box a lot Saturday versus Everett because they are a young team and young players are more prone to take penalties. That's understandable right?  Hey, just write this off to youthful exhuberance and inexperienced, undisciplined play by a young team against a more veteran squad. 

Except this seems to happen when Seattle plays against Everett no matter the age of the T-Birds roster. Want an example? just go back one year ago and a game on October 15th, 2022 at Angel of the Winds Arena.  A very much older T-Birds team that would go on to win the WHL title was shorthanded 11 times!  You'll never convince me that Seattle is that undisciplined of a team. Certainly not to that extent.  The same standard must be applied to both teams.  

Penalties in hockey are like holding or pass interference in football. You could probably call one on every shift. All I would ask is that all teams are held to the same standard. By the way, Seatte won that game last October 11-3!

My T-Birds Three Star for the Past Week:

Third Star: W Antonio Martorana.  If you're waiting for the rookie to fall off his scoring pace, you might have a long wait. His game translates to the WHL quite well, no matter his youth. He battles. Many of his goals are of the greasy variety scored from within three or four feet of the net as was the case on Seattle's opening goal Saturday. But he also wins his share of pucks along the wall and below the goal.  He's the complete package with lots of room to grow. He had two goals in three games last week.

Second Star: C Jordan Gustafson. He's still probably shaking off some of the rust after missing the first 12 games of the season but his return has energized a power play that has now scored in four straight games. Seattle also probably doesn't kill off 15 of 16 penatlies the last three games without him in the lineup. He hasn't scored his first goal yet since his return but had a couple of assists and having him back pushed one of those rookies back to a third or fourth line role where they can be more effective.

First Star: G Scott Ratzlaff. Came on in relief Tuesday and stopped 20 of 20 shots before the T-Birds comeback against Prince Albert fell a goal short. With 41 saves Friday in Everett he was the only reason Seattle was still tied 1-1 with four minute left in their eventual 4-1 loss.  he followed it up with a spectacular 42 save performance in the T-Birds 4-1 win Saturday at home.  Eight straight Everett power plays killed and he was their best penalty killer. 106 shots faced in three games and 102 saves made.

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Plant a Tree and Watch it Grow

In all but two of their games so far this season, the Thunderbirds have gone into the third period within striking distance of a win.  In their last three games they had the lead going into the final twenty minutes.  That's remarkable considering the state of the T-Birds roster much of the first six weeks of the season. 

 They've played a league low 14 games but they've already lost nearly 50 man games to injury. They are carrying nine rookies. Thirteen player, with two or fewer games of WHL playing experience under their belts before the season started, have played in at least one game.

Their top five scorers from last season have moved on.  The four highest returning scorers from last year's team have combined to play just 26 games so far and nearly half of those games (12) belong to Jeremy Hanzel. Jordan Gustafson missed the first dozen. Nico Myatovic played in just four games before he went out with a lower body injury and Gracyn Sawchyn played eight games before his own injury. 

Yet here the T-Birds sit, fourteen games in and are three games above .500. You'd like to make the argument that had Seattle been completely healthy since opening night, that record of 8-5-1-0 might include two or three more wins. They certainly lost a few winnable games recently. And this doesn't factor in the loss of Kevin Korchinski to the NHL when many oddsmakers had him returning to the WHL for one more year.

So to be where they are at a month-plus into the season under those circumstances is a win.  They are still a work in progress. But I would also bet you that the players and the coaches are not safisfied.  They feel their record should be better. They know with or without those missing players, they've left points on the table. 

Their last two losses, before Saturday's home win, are prime examples.  The T-birds had the lead going into the third period at home against Spokane back on November 3rd, and again this past Friday up in Victoria.  This new goup is still learning how to play with a lead. They're still learning how to finish a team they have on the ropes.  Mostly, they are learning to play together as a unit.  

Intigrating that many new faces and finding consistency will take some time. It's not just nine first year players but also five players acquired in trades near the start of the season are also learning how to play the Thunderbirds way. And when four or five or your returning players aren't available, the learning curve rises.

One thing we know is, as the T-Birds hunt for one of the eight playoff spots in the Western Conference, the the future is on display. 

Brayden Holberton didn't make the team out of training camp. He did play a couple of games as a call up when Seattle's bench was short.  Those two auditions helped earned him a full-time roster spot. What I think the organization likes about him is his "teachability". He seems eager to be coached up and get better. That's why he is here, because the organization believes by being around the team everyday they can speed up his development.  Like most young players, his skating will need to improve but he's just 16 years old and listed at 6'4", 182.  He'll definitely get bigger and stronger. To think Seattle got him in the tenth round.

While this season plays out, think about the roster Seattle will have in a few years.We've already seen many of them debut this past month.  It's not just a good list, but it is a deep list: Players currently age 17 and under: Davidson, Pickford, Lovsin, Parmar, Michnik, Cootes, Mathies, Hartmann, Martorana, Holberton, Potter, Popil, Gerrior, Bagley, Rudolph and Dikur. Will all those players pan out? Maybe not. Does it guarentee a championship down the road? No, but it's a solid foundation.

After Seattle won in 2017 I was told by an outsider it would be a long while before the Thunderbirds ever sniffed a title again.  They were back at the top in six years.  After they won it all last spring I was told it would be years of misery ahead.  I dunno. I think I'm betting on Seattle to climb back up.  

After playing a league low 14 games over the first six weeks Seattle has started a stretch in which they will play nine times in 16 days. Buckle up!

My T-Birds Three Stars for the Weekend:

Third Star: W Antonio Martorana. In his first fourteen games with the T-Birds, the 2022 4th round draft pick has accumulated eleven points (7g, 4a).   This weekend he picked up a goal and two assists. His goal Saturday stood as the game winner, the first of his WHL career.  No other 2007 born WHL rookie has more goals right now than Marty.

Second Star: W Eric Alarie. Alarie scored a goal in each game against Victoria and finished the weekend with four points (2g, 2a) and was +3.  With their top five scorers from last season gone, Seattle acquired Alarie in early October to help fill the void.  He is starting to deliver with points in three straight games.

First Star: D Jeremy Hanzel.  We saw late last season and into the playoffs that Hanzel is a dangerous offensive weapon when he gets his shot dialed in.  It's taken a month this season but he's getting that one time more and more on target.  It lead to two goals Saturday. He actually got one through the goalie Friday in Victoria but unfortunately it landed in the crease behind the netminder and not in the back of the net. With Korchinski most assuredly not coming back, Hanzel is getting the opportunity to run the power play.  He looks like a natural.

One Hit Wonder

Another one game weekend for the Thunderbirds.  With eleven teams now in the Western Conference, this is going to happen frequently, especially as other US Division teams take their road trips to Alberta.

Since we are nearing the holiday season (some people are already there), what's the old saying "if ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas."  Seattle is winless in their last four games but has been in position to win going into the third period in all but one of those games. IF only they were healthy the might be on a eight or nine game heater.

There have been two overriding themes to the first month of the season, injuries and youth.  In an odd way, you can look at both of them as actual positives.  I know it's counterproductive to say injuries are a positive. Tell that to the injured players and you won't get agreement.  But because of those injuries Seattle's young players, and there are a lot of them, are getting valuable ice time in all situations that is going to speed up their development. There is no substitute for experience.

At the moment the T-Birds are carrying nine full-time rookies on their roster. That's nearly fifty percent of the team.  Occasionally over the first dozen games, they've had to bring in affiliated players just to have enough players each night.  That was the case Friday night against Spokane with 15-year old Colton Gerrior being recalled and making his WHL debut.  

Gerrior is the ninth player to make his T-Birds debut since the season began back in late September.  There are another five players who debuted last season, playing in either just one or two games.  Fifteen year old Jaxson Dikur sat on the bench as the backup goalie opening night. That's 15 rookies in the lineup at some point this season. Yet here the T-Birds sit, with a 7-4-1-0 record. 

They're missing rookie center Braeden Cootes who is away at the U17 World Hockey Challenge. We can lament where they might be record-wise if the likes of Jordan Gustafson, Nico Myatovic, Gracyn Sawchyn and Owen Boucher weren't injured, or if Kevin Korchinski had been returned by the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks. But think about it this way, where would they be if these young players hadn't played to the standard they're playing?  Those rookies have combined for 30 points (16g, 14a). 

Raise your hand if you had a 16-year old Antonio Martorana leading the team in goal scoring through the first twelve games. He's on pace for a 33 goal season. I'm not sure that is sustainable but getting to 20 goals should be reachable.  And he's not doing it on the fourth line. With top players out, he's elevated to the top line, so he's playing against the other teams best players.  

If he can do that at age 16, think what he might be able to accomplish in a few seasons when he's 19. In fact think about what these 15 players combined with two players we haven't mentioned, Bryce Pickford and Hyde Davidson, might do in two-three years.   

Of course, we live in the now.  And right now the T-birds are minus some key players and that is going to affect the results. Does anyone doubt that a healthy Seattle team wins that game Friday against the Chiefs.  I don't.  But because of those injuries we are seeing more of the youth than we anticipated.  As a result we're probably going to see some pronounced ups and downs with this young team. There are times they're going to look like inexperienced rookies, especially against older teams.  But as they say, short term pain for long term gain.

The good news? At some point those injured players will return.  Jordan Gustafson may be as close as a week away from getting into the lineup for the first time this season. In a Western Conference that I believe is filled with parity, Seattle has to weather through the first half, get healthy and get ready to make some noise after Christmas.

My T-Bird Three Stars for Friday Night:

Third Star: C Coster Dunn. Dunn essentially has become the T-Birds number one center in the absence of Gustafson, Cootes and Sawchyn. He assisted on Seattle's first goal and won all his faceoffs.  He's relentless fighting for pucks.  I think he needs to get a little stronger but that will come. He took a big leap physically from last spring to this fall, getting bigger and that trend should continue.    

Second Star: D Jeremey Hanzel. Without Korchinski he's being tasked to do everything Korch would be doing, and he's succeeding.  He's eating up a lot of minutes, quarterbacking a make shift power play and killing penalties. Add on his leadership and his contributions so far this season are immeasurable.

First Star: G Scott Ratzlaff.  It's been a tough start for Rattzy but Friday he looked like the Scott Ratzlaff that won WHL Goaltender of the Month last December.  Through his first 5 or so starts, it appeared he was fighting the puck and had trouble controlling rebounds.  That was not the case Friday against the Chiefs, especially in the third period with the T-Birds back on their heels much of the period.  He gave them a chance and got them a point.  

Welcome Back

 I thought one of the reasons for taking the trip out east so early in the season was to avoid the cold prairie winter that greets us in January.  I mean, two weeks in mid to late October and we should be fine right?  iIt didn't quite work out that way but I survived. 

The first day in Calgary was balmy, no need for a jacket weather. But then boom, some one flipped a switch and just like that snow and freezing temperatures.  It was like a Seattle blizzard! One inch of snow and 25 degrees!  Not sure how we survived, but we did.

Playing six games in nine days and to come home with a 3-3 record sounds like a successful trip, doesn't it?  Just, well, it stings a little bit when the trip started with three wins.  As always, injuries aren't an excuse but they are a fact of life and the injuries and other absences from the lineup definitely affected the T-Birds over the last three games.

Still, the only clunker on the trip through the Central Division was the 5-0 setback in Lethbridge. It was the first time this season Seattle played back-to-back games and that might have taken its toll but that was an effort not up to T-Bird standards.  

It was good to see the response from that with two solid efforts in Swift Current and Medicine Hat to close out the trip.  No one is looking for moral victories, so the losses still sting, but with a depleted and very young roster, the T-Birds battled into the third period both games.

I'm still amazed how disciplined this young team is.  They take very few penalties. In fact, they didn't incur any penalties in the Medicine Hat game. That tells me there is a lot of skill on the team and they skate well and don't got caught often standing around and hooking and tripping their opponents. 

Seattle has a trio of first year, 16-year old rookies in Braeden Cootes (4), Kazden Mathies (4) and Antonio Martorana (5)who have combined for 13 goals through the first 11 games. How encouraging is that?  Well, the last time the T-Birds had three 16 year old rookie forward in the lineup was the 2019-20 season.  That year it took Kai Uchacz, Lucas Ciona and Connor Roulette 25 games to combine for 13 goals and nine of those were from Roulette. That year Uchacz, a future 50-goa scorer would finish with two and Ciona who had 34 goals last season, had just three.

Seattle has a really good crop of 2007 born forwards.  Samuel Charko only has a couple of assists thus far but his goals will come eventually, while recently added-to-the-roster Brayden Holberton, will bring some grit and sandpaper.

Best team I saw on the trip? I'd give that nod to Medicine Hat.  They're not an old team either. Their best players are their 2005s and 2006s born.  Really good depth too. They will be a hard out this year but watch out for them next season.

I'm curious to see how former Tiger Cru hanas develops with the Thunderbirds. There was no ice for him on that deep Medicine Hat team. In the few viewings I've had of him as a T-Bird, I like his compete and once he gets consistent using his size to his advantage he should be a really solid player.

It will be hard being patient going forward with some key pieces to the T-Birds lineup on the shelf for a bit in Nico Myatovic and Gracyn Sawchyn. Seattle should get Jordan Gustafon in the lineup soon.  But when this team is finally whole, watch out.  They're youth will win them some games and it will lose them some games but they will be fun to watch.

My T-Birds Three Star for the Road Trip:

Third Star: C Gracyn Sawchyn. He'd be higher up in my rankings if he didn't get hurt in the Lethbridge game and miss the last two games of the trip.  He single handedly beat Red Deer with two goals and three assists, factoring in on every goal. But where he really stood out was in the defensive zone, especially with his backchecking. Get well soon!

Second Star: G Spencer Michnik. Terrific 31 save game to open the trip in Calgary in a 3-2 OT win over the Hitmen. He followed that up with 35 saves in the Red Deer win.  He may have taken the loss in Medicine Hat but Seattle would have been out of that game in the first period if not for his work between the pipes.  

First Star: W Antonio Martorana.  He is now your team leader, tied with Luca Hauf, with five goals.  His goals seem to come in big moments and he scored on the rush, from the outside and from in close.  He's a bulldog. Listed at 5'8", he battles hard agaisnt bigger players and wins his fair share of 50/50 pucks.  Imagine he Mathies and Cootes when they reach their 19 year old season!

T-Birds Gone Wild

 Another weekend in which the Thunderbirds play just one game.  It was a good one though, as they defeated the Wenatchee Wild for the second time this season, a 4-2 victory behind a three-point game (1g, 2a) from Jeremy Hanzel. 

After just four games over the first three weeks of the season the schedule begins to pick up now.  Seattle is set to play seven game between now and the end of October, or seven games in twelve days. It begins at home Tuesday against Brandon, then the team embarks for a six game road trip through the Central Division.

A few things stood out from last Friday's win over the Wild. First, Seattle played the game with just five healthy defensemen. Braeden Wynne and Sawyer Mynio are both on the shelf with injuries. The T-birds got big minutes from Hanzel, Owen Boucher, Bryce Pickord and Hyde Davidson but don't discount the play of rookie Kaleb Hartmann. I thought he played well in a pressure situation and provided some valuable shifts.

Secondly, the win was the 200th regular season win for Matt O'Dette as T-birds head coach. When the season began, he needed three wins to hit that milestone and with a team featuring a lot of new and young players, there was no telling if he'd hit the milestone early or later on.  The fact he got to the 200th win in the first four games says a lot about how he prepares his team to play, no matter who is on the roster.

O'Dette has been with the organization since the 2013-14 season, when he came on board as an assistant to then head coach Steve Konowalchuk.  In the ten plus seasons he's been on the bench with the franchise, the T-Birds have won 370 regular season games, two U.S. Division banners, four Western Conference Championships and two Ed Chynoweth Cups.  I think it is safe to call his tenure with the team thus far a Decade of Excellence and the best ten year stretch in the 40-plus years the team has been around.

O'Dette said something post game that stuck out. He said when the team is playing the right way, when they are playing T-Birds hockey, they can sense it one the bench. Not just the coaches, but the players too. He said they got that feeling through most of the first two periods Friday and much of the third period as well. There was a bit of a lapse the final two minutes of the second period. But looking back on the game, it did remind me of the formula of so many T-Birds games from last season.

By the way, O'Dette needs three more wins to surpass Don Nachbaur for second all time in coaching wins in franchise history.  Twnety more wins moves him past Konowalchuk. With 38 ore wins behind the bench, he be first in franchise history, surpassing Rob Sumner (237).

It's just four games but it has to be a good sign going forward that the third youngest team in the WHL (only Spokane and Calgary are younger) has done a very good job of staying out of the penalty box. Through four games Seattle has only been shorthanded eleven times. That's under three times per game, right around where the coaches would like it to be.  Better yet, they've killed off 10 of the 11 penalties.

The power play was going to be an asset with Kevin Korchinski quarterbacking it.  But I think it is safe to say that is not going to happen, at least not anytime soon as Korchinski is fitting in quite nicely with the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks.  

But even without him here, the man advantage has looked dangerous.  Hanzel is showing he can handle the puck at the blue line. When healthy Sawyer Mynio will get considerable power play time, as will Jordan Gustafson, but with Sam Popowich, Nico Myatovic, Braeden Cootes, Coster Dunn and Gracyn Sawchyn it looks like the T-Birds power play is going to be okay. They are clicking at 23-percent (3/13) but with players back from NHL camps and getting more time together, they should only improve in that category.

Samuel Charko came oh-so-close to his first WHL goal Friday only to be robbed on the doorstep on a great save by the Wenatchee goalie.  Kazden Mathies earned his first WHL point with a first period assist.  So, that leaves only Charko, Hartmann and Nishaan Parmar as young T-Birds still in search of their first WHL point.  

Owen Boucher goes into that special category of under the radar pick up by GM Bil LaForge.  Obtained just before the start of the season from Price Albert, he seems to be finding his groove with the T-Birds. At 19 years old he was the second oldest of the five defenseman on the ice for Seattle Friday and his experience in the league was so valuable to getting that win. Outside of the the 20 year old Hanzel, the other d-men were two 17 year olds and a 16 year old rookie.  

My T-Birds Three Stars for the Wild Win:

Third Star:  LW Nico Myatovic. Picked up one assist but was so noticeable up and down the ice. A year older and a more physically mature player, he's using his size more now I think, than he did in the past. One of the best penalty killers in the league and that was on display against Wenatchee. I think as the season moves along he will start to drive more of the offense for Seattle.

Second Star: C Sam Popowich.  A career best four game point streak and a career best four game goal scoring streak.  Need a key faceoff win? Call Sam. Need a game winning goal? He's got two. Like Myatovic his penalty killing is top notch.  Maybe Seattle's most versatile player.

First Star: D Jeremy Hanzel. He looked right at home on the first unit power play, quaterbacking it from the blue line. We know his one timer is deadly and he' still dialing that in early this season.  His goal Friday was just a smart play, taking advantage of space and time to skate into the slot and snap one home. Very cerebral player in the d-zone as he rarely makes the wrong decision when moving the puck up ice.  He knew he was going to play a lot of minutes but he seemed as fresh at the end as he did at the beginning.

Piecing it Together

When sixteen of the players who made up your 2023 championship roster are either no longer with you or not currently available, you go into the lab and and start mixing together a new batch of formula.  For the Thunderbirds it isn't creating a new recipe, it's just mixing in new ingredients. 

Now, the T-birds know at some point they'll get a few ingredients from last season's team back.  Jordan Gustafson is about a month away from returning from offseason surgery. Sawyer Mynio was hurt last week but he too will return. The mystery ingredient is Kevin Korchinski.Will he return or will he remain in the NHL with the Chicago Blackhawks? The answer is out of their hands.

So, you go with what you know, the players who are here.  You mix in the returning players with the newcomers and you get baking.  Hopefully, it doesn't take long for the cake to rise. Friday in Spokane, we saw what that work in the kitchen looks like.

The T-Birds added three new players to the fold. Defenseman Braeden Wynne, a 19 year old, came over from Medicine Hat but had perviously played for Edmonton. He played 43-games with the Oil Kings in the 2021-22 season, the year they beat Seattle in the league final. Unfortunatley his debut was cut short when he was injured in the first period and did not return. It's hard to gauge his effectiveness on such a short sample size.

Another acquisition from Medicine Hat is Cru Hanas.  The 18 year old left winger got into a couple of practices last week and then made his debut Friday in Spokane. It was a slow start as he got comfortable with his new linemates. But as the game progressed, he became more effective, more assertive and by the third period he was making a difference on the ice.  

The third player thrown into the mix was Eric Alarie.  Alarie came to the T-Birds in a deal with Moose Jaw. The 20 year old is a former first round pick in the WHL Prospects Draft, taken 22nd overall by the Warriors in 2018. Alarie was brought in for his offense. He scored nineteen goals a season ago and was a 25-goal scorer in 2021-22. With his size and offensive ability, he reminds me of Colton Dach.

Friday in Spokane he showed why Seattle went out and got him.  He was affective from his very first shift, drawing a penalty with his strong, physical play.  In the third period he delivered the goods, scoring the game winning goal.  Not bad for someone who had been driving two days from Moose Jaw to meet the team just in time for puck drop.

To bring in Alarie, Seattle had to release two 20-year olds who were part of last year's Chynowth Cup winning squad.  Both Mekai Sanders and Ashton McNelly were waived to get Seattle down to the limit of three 20 year old players.  That's the business side of the WHL. The ultimate goal is winning and to win you need to score.  

In his four seasons with Seattle, Sanders had scored just 20 goals and over half of those, twelve, came in the 2021-22 season. It was that season where Sanders was injured. A significant knee injury that cost him nearly a season of hockey. Before that injury he had produced twelve goals and fifteen assists in 56-games that season. Since his return from the injury he had accumulated just eleven points (5g, 6a) in 58 games and was a healthy scratch the last few games of the Memorial Cup. Only Mekai knows but I wonder how much that injury affected his game.  

McNelly was never brought in here to be a goal scorer. He was brought in for his grit and physicality.  He was the perfect third/fourth line guy on a deep team. He knew his role and he was a great teammate. You can accept that role from a 19-year old. But on a team lacking in offense, that is a luxury you can't afford.  Seattle lost over 175 goals from last year's team.  They needed an Alarie to pick up some of that offense.

With the addition of those three players, plus 19-year old defenseman Owen Boucher, who was acquired from Prince Albert a week earlier, and Luca Hauf, obtained in the offseason from Edmonton, the T-Birds have some new ingredients to mix into their recipe.  There are also eight rookies new to the WHL this season. Thirteen new faces added to the team in the last three months. You also have four second year players moving into expanded roles this season. 

That leaves just six players who have been with the T-Birds for two-plus seasons and two of them, Gustafson and Mynio are currently on the shelf. This doesn't include Korchinski because we don't know if he's coming back.  So, it might be a slow cook to get the team all on the same page.

My Three T-Birds Stars for Friday's win in Spokane:

Third Star: G Scott Ratzlaff.  The first goal he allowed was an ugly one. No question he was at fault. A minute later a second one gets by him and all of a sudden Seattle is in a 2-0 hole. A fragile psychy could have crumbled.  But Ratzlaff buckled down and shut the door on the Chiefs the rest of the way. He started to look like the Ratzlaff of last December who was named WHL Goaltender of the Month. Many of his saves, especially in the third period, were highlight worthy stops. He finished with 28-saves to earn his first win of the season.

Second Star: LW Eric Alarie. Instant impact for the T-birds newest player. In addition to his offense, he was a physical presence, winning puck battles along the boards.  Just missed scoring a couple more times but his first goal as a T-Birds was memorable as he drove the net and redirected a Gracyn Sawchyn pass up and under the bar for the game winner. In the few minutes I spent talking with him I think you can see he's going to be a part of the leadership group as well.

First Star: C Sam Popowich.  What a start to the season for Poppy with goals in each of the first three games. He added two assists versus Spokane as well. His power play goal late in period one was huge, cutting the T-Birds deficit to 2-1 before the period ended.  He then made a perfect pass to spring Antonio Martorana as he came out of the penalty box early in the second period for the tying goal.  Remember, Popowich was on the ice at that time killing off a penalty, something he excels in.  He added a second assist on the Nico Myatovic empty net goal.  

We're All day to Day

 A .500 record after the first two games of the season with a roster comprised of nearly a dozen new faces? I'll take it. Just not sure I like the way the team got there.

Just like not all wins are created equal, neither are all losses.  Saturday's 6-1 home loss to Portland is something we haven't seen from this team in a while. Seattle was outplayed in all aspects of the game but the one area that stings the most is in the effort department. 

Every loss is disappointing. You go out there for the puck drop and expect to win.  We know that won't happen every night though.  Even last year's team dropped a few along the way to their historic 54-win campaign.  But one thing they did every game last season was put in the effort for sixty minutes, or more if needed.

Unfortunately last night was not the case. A good first half of the first perioed.  It was a fairly evenly played game to that point. But a quick two goals by Portland and the T-Birds didn't handle the resulting adversity very well. Does a having a young roster play into that? It does to a point. But Seattle had enough returning players who've gone through the rigors of two championship type seasons to know how to handle that kind of adversity.

I think that was the second part of the frustation equation. Retuning players now in leadership roles learning how to lead. Returning players being put in position to do what they haven't done yet at this level, lead the younger players through the rough patches. That might have been the most disappointing aspect of the loss.  It wasn't just the new faces, the young rookies, who didn't handle the adversity well.  Neither did the ones entering their second or third year in the league.

So, growing pains all around.  Of course part of the leadership group wasn't on the ice.  Jordan Gustafson was named captain but he's out rehabbing an injury from last season and won't play until November at the earliest. But naming him captain, even though he is in that situation, tells you all you need to know about what the coaching staff thinks of his character.  

Coaches can accept losses if a good effort was put forth. That didn't happen Saturday. There are still 66 games to go and that's plenty of time to respond to what was a hard lesson learned. Let's see how they bounce back beginning next Friday in Spokane. 

How do you pick three T-Birds stars out of that game?  Well, I'm just gonna repeat last week's trio. But first, I think the T-birds have found a player in Antonio Martorana.  The 16-year old rookie forward has shown flashed through the first two games.  He has good speed and can play physical even though he is listed at just 5'8".   He's built a little like Nolan Volcan but maybe a bit thicker.  He's someone who can be part of a core to build around.

Third Star: G Spencer Michnik.  He came in to start the third period.  The game was pretty much over by that point, so you could argue there's no pressure. But he faced some early high leverage shots and made some very athletic saves.  It kept the game from getting uglier than it was. Through four periods of hockey this season he has stopped 35 of 37 shots, has a .946 SVPCT and a 1.50 GAA.  

Second Star: D Bryce Pickford. A couple of bouncing pucks (there were a lot of them Saturday) prevented him from finishing what might have been some good scoring opportunities. He's going to produce some offense this season. He's still young and wasn't perfect Saturday (who was) but effort is not his issue. I saw a scouting report that says he needs to improve his skating and that well may be, but I'll bet money he's going to put in the time to do just that.

First Star: C Sam Popowich.  Poppy came into the season having scored 18 career WHL goals in this first three seasons. He's on pace for 68 this season with two goals through the first two games.  Now, we know that won't happend but I think he can hit the 20-goal plateau and the T-Birds will need that because they lost a lot of offense from last season's team.  

Young at Heart

An interesting question was posed to me after the Thunderbirds opening night, 3-2, win over Wenatchee Saturday.  Was this the youngest lineup the T-Birds have ever iced for a regular season game?  

Twenty players dressed for the game against the Wild and 12 of them were rookies, or sixty percent of the roster. Seven players, or thirty-five percent, were playing their first regular season WHL game.  Fifty percent of the defensemen were 16-years old or younger. Eighty-three percent of the the D corps was aged seventeen or younger. Fifteen year old d-man Vanek Popil made his regular season WHL debut.

Of the twelve forwards dressed, seven were rookies age 17-years old or younger. One third were actual 16-year olds. Fifty percent of the forward group had never played a game for the Thunderbirds prior to Saturday.

And even though Spencer Michnik got two starts last December, he is still classified as a WHL rookie, meaning both of  Seattle's goaltenders against the Wild were rookie netminders.  Backup Jaxson Dikur is fifteen.  

Twenty year old Sam Popowich entered the contest with 162 games of regular season WHL experience. Combined Popil, Dikur, Caleb Potter, Brayden Holberton, Kazden Mathies, Antonio Martorana and Samuel Charko, 35-percent of the lineup, had ZERO WHL regular season games under their belts.

The Thunderbirds did dress three 20-year olds in Popowich, Mekai Sanders and Trey Patterson, but had only two 19-year olds in the lineup (Luke Robson and Luca Hauf). But those two 19-year olds only had played in a combined 105 WHL games prior to Saturday night.

These five players, aged 19 and older, accounted for 573 of the 752 games of WHL regular season experience in the Seattle lineup. The rest of the roster combined had played in 179 games, and of that, 164 of those games belonged to 18-year old Coster Dunn and a pair of 17 year olds in Hyde Davidson and Bryce Pickford.

The only time Seattle may have come remotely close to a lineup this young was in the 23-game pandemic shortened season (spring of 2021) when they dressed just one 20-year old each game (Keltie Jeri Leon). but as I recall, the majority of that roster was age seventeen or eighteen and there was just two 15-year olds (Ratzlaff and Sam Oremba) and they rarely dressed or played.

Now as players away at NHL camps begin to trickle back to Kent, the T-Birds roster will get older.  Goaltender Scott Ratzlaff is already on his way back from Buffalo. Players such as Nico Myatovic, Gracyn Sawchyn and Sawyer Mynio will follow. Jordan Gustafson is in Vegas, but not skating following offseason surgery and won't be available until early November.

We may not know the status of Keven Korchinski and Jeremy Hanzel for a while though.  Trying to read the tea leaves out of Chicago and I wouldn't be surprised if Korchinski hung around with the Blackhawks well into November. Hanzel is getting a lot of positive media attention in Denver. Will the Avalanche sign him and send him to the AHL?

When some of those players return, players such as Dikur and Popil, because they're not eligible to play full time in the WHL this season, will be re-assigned.  The same will probably be true of 16-year old affiliated player Brayden Holberton (tis is why he was wearing a cage). But the return of some of those NHL drafted players won't make the T-Birds demonstrably older.

If Hanzel retruns, he takes up a 20-year old spot so Seattle, which curently has five 20-year olds on the roster (you can only keep three) will have to trade or release two, meaning the Seattle roster actually gets younger. Korchinski, Gustafson and Myatovic are 19-year olds but the other three, Ratzlaff, Mynio and Sawchyn are just 18.  It just seems they're older. Especially Ratzlaff and Mynio who have been around the team for three and two years respectively.  

So the reality is, this is going to be a very young Thunderbirds team this season and there will be a lot of growing pains that go along with it. It's what they call in the military OJT, on-the-job-training. Seattle got the win Saturday against a Wenatchee team going through the same process.  It was a nice win, but because of the young roster there are going to be some bumps along the ways, some big bumps. But that bumpy road won't be because of lack of effort, or not sticking to the systems or deploying good habits. It will be because of that youth and inexperience.

Just enjoy the bumpy ride because the last time the T-Birds went young (2021 pandemic season), it paid off in the end to the tune of one U.S. Division banner, two Western Conference championships and an Ed Chynoweth Cup. Will history repeat itself?

Luca Hauf, Seattle's only import player, missed all of training camp and the preseason because of visa issues, but the Krefeld, Germany native, got a couple of practices in before opening night and then made his presence felt in the lineup. He has a very strong compete level and is strong around the net. I thought he and Coster Dunn showed some good chemistry when they were on the ice together. Another solid, under the radar, offseason acquistion by GM Bil LaForge

My T-Birds Three Stars for Opening Night:

Third Star: D Bryce Pickford. Had one assist, on the Coster Dunn first period power play goal. He logged a ton of minutes but the effort level never fell off.  He was as strong at the end of the game as he was at the start.  Pickford does a terrific job of preparing himself physically, thus he has stamina.  He can play physical but also has a finesse element to his game as was evident on a near end-to-end rush in the third period that saw him carry the puck and weave through the Wild defense.

Second Star: G Spencer Michnik.  Michnik was steady making 28-saves to earn his third WHL win. He's 3-for-3 in starts as a T-Bird going back to last season. His pad control was mostly very good, moving pucks to the corners.  Of course the huge save was stopping a penalty shot late in the first period with Seattle leading 1-0.

First Star: C Sam Popowich. With a young team you need a veteran to lead the way.  That was Popowich all night Saturday and it culminated with the winning goal with 33-seconds remaining.  He won key faceoffs and was stellar in blocking shots, especially on the penalty kill. Watching him Saturday I was reminded some of Henrik Rybinski, who, as an older player on a young T-birds team a few years ago, would instinctively know to step up in the moment and deliver a key goal or play. 

The Page is Turned

Yes, there will be quite the celebration at the Thunderbirds home opener when they raise three banners to commemorate their record setting 2022-23 championship winning season, but with training camp upon us, for all intents and purposes, we have turned the page to a new year. The 2023-24 campaign has begun.

It was another short offseason, thanks to the long postseason run and Memorial Cup.  So, it's been just a few months since we were all out on the ShoWare Center Plaza honoring last season's team.  With training camp undeway, it is a bit strange not see the familiar faces of Jared Davidson, Lucas Ciona and Reid Schaefer taping up a stick or getting treatment back in Phil Varney's training room.  

Davidson was a Thunderbird for five years, Ciona and Schaefer for four years each.  It seems like just yesterday they were putting on the T-Birds colors for the first time. But, like so many before them they've moved on, making room for new, young faces to take their place.

So what should we expect from the 2023-24 team?  A lot of offense has moved out with the departure of the three just mentioned plus players like Kyle Crnkovic, Dylan Guenther and Brad Lambert. Those six players contributed 154 goals last season. The T-birds are going to have to find ways to manufacture offense.

They do have 30-goal scorer Nico Myatovic returning along with 18-goal scorer Gracyn Sawchyn.  But they're going to have to make do, at least for the first month of the season without another returning offensive weapon, Jordan Gustafson.  As you know Gus missed a good chunk of the second half of last season with an upper body injury.  He got back into the lineup late in the playoffs but was nowhere near 100-percent.  

The good news is that almost as soon as the team arrived back from the Memorial Cup, he had surgery, so he's already three months into his rehab.  The bad news is he still has at least two more months to go so we're probably not going to see him on the ice until early November.

Where can Seattle make up some of that lost offense? Well they can get some of it from their back end.  The T-birds boast some very good offensive defenseman and Kevin Korchinski, Jeremy Hanzel and Sawyer Mynio can all improve their offensive output. Bryce Pickford showed flashes from the backend last season as well and that has continued in training camp.  

But there are also young forwards who will see increased roles on this season's team that can pick up some of the slack too. From watching the early camp scrimmages it looks like players such as Coster Dunn, Nishaan Parmar and Simon Lovsin are primed to contibute full time.

The reality though is that the T-birds will not be the offensive juggernaut they were on their run to the Chynoweth Cup. Good team defense and strong goaltending are going to have to be their hallmarks this season. The good news is those elements have been part of their arsenal for the last decade.

On one of the T-Birds off days at the Memorial Cup in Kamloops I happened to bump into Nico Myatovic's dad, Marco, out near the merchandise tent.  We talked for about 15 minutes. Just as our conversation up in Prince George during the regular season, he was nothing but positive. It was such a shock then, to hear of his sudden passing a few weeks ago.  Condolences to Nico and his family on such a big loss.

I hope Hockey Canada gives Nico an opportunity to earn a spot on Team Canada for the upcoming IIHF World Junior Championships this winter.  We're talking about a 30-goal scorer from last season who was drafted 33rd overall into the NHL this summer by the Anaheim Ducks.  He's a terrific 200-foot player who can play in all situations. And as his playoff performance each of the past two seasons has shown, he shines under the bright lights. As a 19 year old, this is his last chance to be invited to the World Juniors, I think he's earned that chance. 

The Thunderbirds have used a lot of third round draft picks over the last decade as parts of a number of trades. So that haven't made a lot of picks in the third round of the WHL Prospects Draft.  But when they have had a third round pick, they've hit home runs with them. 

Remember Shea Theodore? Yeah, he was a third round pick. And while he chose the NCAA route and never played for the T-Birds, Layton Ahac was a third rounder by Seattle in 2016. He got drafted into the NHL by Las Vegas.  Seattle didn't have a third round pick in 2017 but in 2018 they chose some guy named Thomas Milic in Round Three of the draft. There was no third rounder in 2019 but in 2020 the Thunderbirds used their third round selection on Sawyer Mynio. 

The Mynio pick was the last time Seattle had a third round draft pick to spend. No third round selection in 2021 or 2022 and no third round pick this past spring. Until, that is, they made a deal to move up into the third round in order to pick defenseman Vanek Popil.  Watching Popil in his first training camp this week, he has a chance to continute that Thunderbird third round of the draft success.  He plays physical, he skates well and he looks to shoot the puck. He reminds me a little bit of Mynio. I had a scout tell me he has a little git of Tyrel Bauer in his game as well. 

Popil won't be eligible to be a full time T-Bird until the 2024-25 season but it will be interesting if he carries on the tradition of third round draft pick success. The potential is certainly there.  

Will Milic Magic Disappear?

Scott Billeck is a sports writer for the Winnipeg Sun. He covers a lot of the action in Winnipeg, from the NHL Jets to the Manitoba Moose of the AHL and, until his month, the Winnipeg ICE of the WHL. I had the chance to meet Scott in person when the T-Birds were in Winnipeg back in  May, playing the ICE in the WHL Championship Series.  

He came to interview the T-Birds Brad Lambert, The Jets 2022 first round draft pick who had played the first half of last season in Winnipeg with the Moose. Scott came across as a friendly matter-of-fact reporter. A straight shooter as they say. 

So when he posted a tweet yesterday, after the 2023 NHL Draft concluded in Nashville, regarding what the Jets plans could be for Thomas Milic, I took notice.

Of course, as we all know by now, Winnipeg selected Milic in the fifth round of the draft.  Billeck posted the following:  "G Thomas Milic (5th round pick) will turn pro next season, Mark Hillier, #NHLJets director of scouting, told reporters in Nashville."

I have no reason to do anything but take Hillier seriously. So, if that's the case, Milic has played his last game as a Thunderbird. Now, there is always the possibility that, after NHL free agency and training camp Hillier and the Jets change their minds and send Milic back to the Junior ranks. As a 20-year old, he has one more year of eligibility left at this level. The reality is, Milic has nothing left to prove at this level.

Maybe the only question then is where does Milic begin his pro career? Do the Jets put him in Winnipeg on the roster of the AHL Moose? Do they stick him somewhere in the ECHL? I don't believe the Jets have an ECHL affiliate but they can always make arrangements to find him a spot with an ECHL team.

Personally, I'd prefer if he could avoid the ECHL. It can be a graveyard for players trying to push their way up through the pro ranks towards the NHL. If he can't stick with the AHL Moose, he might be better served back in the WHL, whether that's with Seattle or another team. But there is another part of me that says I'd rather not see him in another WHL jersey. That his first and last game in the WHL and every game in between was as a T-Bird.

Which brings up another question. Where does Milic rank among goalies in franchise history? Let's start by saying as far as Thunderbirds playoff goalies, there is no one better.  He has nearly double the postseason wins (30) as the next guy on the list, Carl Stankowski (16), the only other goalie in T-bird history to backstop the franchise to a WHL Championship. 

His postseason goals against average of 2.14 is second only to Landon Bow (1.96) among goalies who played in a minimum of 15 playoff games (Bow played in 18 postseason games with the Thunderbirds). His .927 playoff save percentage is also second only to Bow and his .929. And no one has more postseason shutouts in T-Birds history than Milic and his three.

But what about regular season goalies? Where does Milic stack up against them in franchise history?  It's hard to compare because of different eras.  Back in the 1980s and '90s things were a little more wide open and there was much more offense. Back then, goalies with GAA well above 3.00 were considered elite. Danny Lorenz won 99 games in goal for Seattle with a career GAA of 4.78

Meanwhile, in his T-Birds tenure, Milic also shared the crease with another pretty good netminder in his own right, Scott Ratzlaff. That, along with World Juniors participation and the Covid pandemic limited Milic to just 91 regular season games over his four year career in Kent. As a result Milic was in goal for 5,376 regular season minutes as a Thunderbird.

By comparison, Calvin Pickard played 241 games in net for Seattle and is the all-time franchise leader in minutes played with 14,025. Lorenz got into 224 games and Doug Bonner was between the pipes in 176 games for the Thunderbirds. Cory Rudkowsky and Ken Hodges all played well over 100 regulars season games in goal for Seattle.

So here is where Milic ranks in franchise history in a number of categories among Thunderbirds goalies:

Wins

1.    Lorenz         99     (224 games)

2.    Pickard        91     (241 games)

3.    Bridges        74     (138 games)

4.    Rudkowsky  73    (159 games)

5.    Milic             66    (91 games)

Goals Against Average (Minimum 40 games)

1.    Yeomans            2.12 (55 games)

2.    Bridges              2.35 (138 games)                    

2.    Milic                 2.35 (91 games)

4.    Kozun               2.40 (84 games)     

5.    Helenius            2.43 (41 games)

Save Percentage (Minimum 40 Games)

1.    Kozun            .922 (84 games)

2.    Milic             .917 (91 games)

3.    Yeomans        .917 (55 games)

4.    Helenius        .915 (41 games)

5.    Bridges            .914 (138 games)

Shutouts

1. Bridges         20

2. Pickard         12

3. Kozun          8

4. Milic            8

5. DeSerres      7

So, if indeed, Milic's Thunderbirds career is over, I think it is safe to rank him as one of the best, if not the best goalie in franchise history. I think it's close between he and Bryan Bridges. Both are at or near the top of so many goaltending categories. But I would give the edge to Milic who has a World Junior Gold Medal, a WHL Playoff MVP award as well as an Ed Chynoweth Cup. Additionally, he has three of the franchise's four wins in Memorial Cup play.  

The Pick is in

 How do you top off a record setting season that saw you win your second Ed Chynoweth Cup? Why you have six of your players selected in the NHL Entry Draft.  Six for six as all six T-Birds rated by NHL Central Scouting were picked in the draft held in Nashville.

Technically, Seattle had six of ten players eligible for the 2023 draft chosen. This was Ashton McNelly's last year of eligibility.  Same for Mekai Sanders and Sam Popowich. It was the first year of eligibility for Coster Dunn.  The first three were never listed by Central Scouting. The pandemic, injuries, size, limited number of games, those are all factors for them. I'll be curious to see if any of that trio of older players gets an invite to an NHL development camp this summer. They are now free agents and while not drafted, they will, if they want to, find opportunities to play professional hockey, whether in North America or overseas, at some point in the future.

As for Dunn, to me he falls into that "limited viewing" category you often see on player rankings. He just played on a very, very deep team, which limited his opportunities to showcase his game.  I consider him an unofficial "late birthday" type player. His 18-year old season will be more important than his 17-year old season.  He's similar in that way to Reid Schaefer and Nico Myatovic. LIke thos two, Dunn was not a high WHL draft pick, taken in the 7th round of 2020. Dunn is going to get plenty of ice time though next season to see if he can grab the attention of the scouts the way Schaefer did in 2021-22 and Myatovic did this past season.

I'm buying Dunn as someone who will make enought noise to get noticed, if not next year, then the year after.  Why? Because the same guy who told me Schaefer would get selected high in his draft (one season removed from a zero goal campaign), the same guy who  told me Jared Davidson was going to be one of the best twenty-year olds in the WHL (When Davey was still an unknown sixteen year old camp invite), the same guy who told me in February that Myatovic and Sawyer Mynio wouldn't last past the third round of the NHL Draft this year, that guy told me Dunn has all the tools to join the list of recent T-Birds NHL draft picks.

Who is that guy who told me all those things? T-Birds GM Bil LaForge.  And if I'm an NHL scout I'm trusting LaForge's track record enough to pay attention to Dunn and how he develops over the next two years. Look at the number of players the T-Birds have had drafted recently, not in their first year of draft eligibility but in their second or third go 'round: Matthew Wedman, Henrik Rybinski, Davidson, Thomas Milic and Jeremy Hanzel.  All of that happening after LaForge arrived on the scene.  

It's amazing to think that when we look back on the T-Birds 2023 WHL Championship team four or five years from now, we could be looking at a roster that, in the end was comprised of between sixteen and twenty-one NHL draft picks.  I'd be shocked if defensemen Bryce Pickford and Hyde Davidson aren't somewhere on NHL Central Scoutings "One to Watch" list for the 2024 NHL Draft that will come out next September. Former T-Bird, now Kelowna Rocket, Tij Iginla will most assuredly be on that list as well.  Seattle's hockey staff is unbelievabely high on Braeden Cootes who isn't draft eligible until 2025.

So, while the 2023 season may be over, the last chapter of this team's exploits has not yet been written.

Strange similarities to the draft stories of Reid Schaefer and Nico Myatovic.  Both are mid to late round draft picks by the Thunderbirds.  Schaefer was an eighth round pick by Seattle in the 2018 WHL Prospects Draft.  His first "full" season with the T-birds was the pandemic shortened 2020-21 campaign, playing in just 18 of the 23 games. A late birthday, he wasn't eligible for the NHL Draft until 2022.    He gets selected 32nd overall by Edmonton, the last pick of the first round.

Myatovic was a sixth round pick of the T-Birds in the 2019 WHL Prospects Draft. His first "full" season was the pandemic shortened 2020-21 campaign, although he wasn't orginally on the roster, he was called up and played 12 of the 23 games. He too was a late birthday so he wasn't eligible for the NHL Draft until 2023.  This week he was selected 33rd overall, the first pick of the second round, by the Anaheim Ducks. 

There were lots of feel good stories involving the Thunderbirds players at the NHL Draft this week in Nashville.  Myatovic being the top pick of the second round and going ahead of a slew of WHL  players that most pundits had rated ahead of him is one. Sawyer Mynio going from unranked by Central Scouting when the season began to a third round pick of Vancouver is right up there.  Of course Jeremy Hanzel getting his name called by Colorado in the sixth rounds is shades of Jared Davidson last year when he was taken in the fifth round by Montreal.

But no story is better than the Thomas Milic story. Overlooked in the previous two NHL Drafts despite doing nothing but winning. Backstopping Canada to Gold at the World Juniors this winter.  Being the WHL Playoff MVP as Seattle claimed the Chynoweth Cup. A 30-14 playoff record the past two seasons.  Yet all it seemed anyone could see was his height, or lack thereof.

I almost felt it would be better for him to go undrafted, become a free agent, That way he'd be in charge and get to pick what team he wanted to go to.  But there's nothing like hearing your mane called from that stage on draft day. He deserved it. I can only imagine the excitement within him on hearing the Winnipeg Jets make that selection!  Milic Magic! 

Setting the Standard

The 2022-23 Seattle Thunderbirds may have come one win shy of their ultimate goal, but make no mistake, this is the best team in franchise history, the gold standard by which all other T-Birds teams will be measured. They set records, both individually and as a team.  They got further than any previous team in club annals.  

No disrespect, but the Memorial Cup can be a huge buzz kill if you get there but don't win it. No team that wins it's league championship should be made to feel like failures by not winning that storied trophy. The Thunderbirds are WHL Champions, the Peterborough Petes are OHL Champions. Losing at the Memorial Cup unnecessarily rubs too much of the luster off of that accomplishment for both teams. 

Opinions on this will vary but the Memorial Cup isn't the hardest trophy to win in Junior hockey. It might in fact, be the easiest.  It takes sixteen wins over the course of two months of gruelling playoffs, with lots of travel, to win the Chynoweth Cup. You have to beat four very good opponents four times.  It can take as few as three wins over ten days while playing at the same venue to win the Memorial Cup. You could lose to a team 5-0 in the round robin and then beat them 2-1 in overtime in the final and be a Memorial Cup winner. You can win three games and win the tournament. You can win three games and lose the tournament. 

The Memorial Cup is prestigious. It has over one hundred years of history, but to me the Memorial Cup tournament is more of a celebration than a coronation. It's a ten day hockey festival with concerts and other events around the games. It's a chance to gather with fans of the three CHL leagues and share your common interest. It's a way to honor three CHL champions while showcasing a CHL city. Do you want to win it? Of course you do. But not winning it shouldn't be a gut punch.  

Does this seem like sour grapes because the Thunderbirds came up short of hoisting that trophy? Maybe it does.  But I've now been to two Memorial Cups, attending or watching every game, and I've never felt like it's a playoff to determine a CHL Champion.  It just doesn't have the same intensity as a best of seven playoff series.  It just feels more like a reward for winning your league title. Like, "Hey, you just won the Ed Chynoweth Cup, what are you going to do next?" And you respond, "I'm going to Kamloops!" or "I'm going to Saginaw to meet up with a couple of thousand friends!"

Having said all that, I still want the Thunderbirds to win the damn thing!  

I saw a Thunderbirds fan tweet out that Jared Davidson should be remembered as an all-time T-Birds great. A lot of times we say things in the moment, then we give it some time to offer a better analysis and reassess our original thought.  

Here's what I think. After the game Sunday against Quebec, Davidson sat for the longest time outside the T-Birds room. His ankle was heavily taped. he had suffered a high ankle sprain earlier in the WHL playoffs. He literally played most of the postseason on one good leg.  

Eventually he went inside the room and showered.  When he came back out he grabbed his jersey and pulled it back on.  He got on the bus and rode the six hours back to the accesso ShoWare Center with that #29 jersey on his back. When he left the rink in the wee hours of Monday morning, he was still wearing it. He just didn't want to take it off, knowing that when he did, it would be for the last time. 

Being a Thunderbird meant something to him. It was five years of his life. He was an undrafted training camp invite who got better and better with each passing season, even the two shortened Covid years. He lost at least 50 games due to the pandemic.  His career numbers would be so much more if not for that. But it isn't just the goals and the assists, it was the face off wins, the penalty kills. It was the puck battles won. It was the leadership and the dedication.  

When you talk about all-time greats in franchise history, you start with the Marleau's, the Barzal's and the Goodall's, but there is definitely room on that list for Jared Davidson.

The Thunderbirds will say goodbye to, at a minimum, eight players from this record-setting roster. They'll also say goodbye to their Director of Player Personnel. Cal Filson has basically been the Thunderbids top scout for the past decade.  His fingerprints are all over the rosters of Seattle's two WHL Championship teams.  In late May he accepted a position as a scout with the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks.  

What I appreciate about Cal is his enthusiasm for his job.  He loves to talk about the young players he helped bring into the organization. He's honest in his assessment but he'll be their number one booster.  We'll continue to cross paths but he will be sorely missed.  I hope he gives the Blackhawks a good scouting report on that Bedard kid!  

Thunderbirds, Let's Fly!

For the second time in franchise history, and the second time in the past seven years, the Seattle Thunderbirds are Western Hockey League Champions!  And just like they did in 2017, the T-Birds win the Ed Chynoweth Cup one season after tasting bitter defeat in the league final. Seattle won the Cup in 2017, one year after falling to the Brandon Wheat Kings. This year they win after being knocked out by Edmonton 11 months ago.

Losing can be the biggest motivating factor to winning.  I don't know what it's like to be on the ice after losing a championship, down on a knee with sweat dripping down your face, knowing your dream has fallen oh so short.

But Lucas Ciona, Seattle's captain, knows that feeling. "Last spring, coming up short, was the biggest motivator I've ever had in my life," he said after after the Game Five win secured the championship. "The guys who were here last year, to come back, it's just an amazing feeling. A bitter taste last year but the best taste this year."

Head coach Matt O'Dette said the loss to the Edmonton Oil Kings last June was definitely a driving force to return this spring and get another crack at the Cup. In fact, he said he leaned on the last time Seattle was in a similar situation, when he was an assistant coach seven years ago.

"There's a reason why it says history repeats on our shirts," he explained. "That was the goal. We fell short last year. It was our goal from day one. We wanted to mimic what happened in 2016, 2017, coming back and getting the job done."

We've all heard of the "it" factor. The term is used to describe the undescribable, when someone has an inate ability to rise to the top and stand out in a crowd, whether through personality or performance.  Thunderbirds goalie Thomas Milic has the "it" factor.  

He's now gone undrafted by the NHL for two years.  Yet all he does is win. All he does is come up with key saves at key moments, whether in the World Juniors or the WHL Playoffs.  Thirty playoff wins the last two seasons.

"I don't know," he tried to explain when asked about his big game ability. "It's always something I've been fortunate at, handling stress. I've been pretty fortunate to have some pretty good teams in front of me in both those situations." He then paused for a moment as if searching for the magic that makes him so magical. "There are no words to describe it." he said, as he shook his head.

Seattle has ten NHL drafted players on their championship roster and they all came through at various times in big moments through this playoff run.  But, as they say, it takes a village and three of the T-Birds undrafted players stepped up in key moments in Game Five, the aforementioned Milic was one.  Jeremy Hanzel and Sam Popowich were two others.  

That pair teamed up on Game Five's first goal as Popowich deflected Hanzel's point shot in the second period.  "Just trying to get pucks on net," said Hanzel in the most humble of fashions. "Poppy did a great job of getting to the front of the net and getting a stick on it and put it away."

On a team with those ten NHL draftees, including five first round picks, it was Hanzel who led the team in scoring in the five games agaisnt the ICE with seven points (3g, 4a). It was Popowich with the goal and so many key faceoff wins when Seattle was shorthanded. It takes a village.

He has no league accolades, no U.S. Division Coach of the Year honor. No Western Conference Coach of the Year award. No WHL Coach of the Year title.  Yet all Matt O'Dette does behind the T-Birds bench is win.  The one common denominator among Seattle's four appearances the last eight years in the WHL Championship Series is Matt O'Dette. First as an assistant coach and now as head coach.

You can argue he had a "stacked team" this season. Please. Explain last year then?  No one had Seattle playing for the Cup last spring. The T-Birds were given up for dead when they fell behind last May to Portland and then Kamloops.  He performed the CPR that brought them back to life. O'Dette may not have the honorifics, but he has the rings. Give the man his due!  

Finally, for those who say GM Bil LaForge mortgaged the future for one Cup, just you wait.  Reid Schaefer, eighth round pick, Nico Myatovic, sixth round pick, Sam Popowich, fifth round pick, Mekai Sanders ninth round pick, Jared Davidson and Jeremy Hanzel undrafted signees.  The man and his scouts know talent. He's already at working, building back for the future. 

My T-Birds Three Stars of the 2023 Playoff run:

Third Star: D Jeremy Hanzel.  Finished third among all WHL defenseman in playoff scoring. Led the T-birds in point production in the Championship Series. On a team with three NHL drafted d-men, including two first rounders, he was the one who scored the timely goals.  After leading the WHL regular season with a +70. He was tops in the playoffs as well at +26. 

Second Star:  W Dylan Guenther. The last piece of the puzzle. The last player General Manager Bil LaForge acquired at the trade deadline and there was no guarentee he would be sent to Seattle.  But like Mat Barzal in 2017, he came through when needed the most. He led the WHL postseason with sixteen goals. He scored the Game winner in Game Four.

First Star: G Thomas Milic.  When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Maybe that's the best way to describe Seattle's award winning netminder.  He faced fewer shots in the playoffs then his opposite numbers but it was the quality of his saves, more than the quantity, that earned him MVP status.  He has started and played every minute of the Thunderbirds last 44 playoff games.  Allowing just one goal Friday night allowed him to finish the 2023 WHL playoffs with a 1.95 GAA. His career playoff stats with the T-Birds? 30-14, a 2.14 GAA and a save percentage of .929 with three shutouts. He has set a standard that will be hard to beat.