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.