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.
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