We are more than one week into January and the Vancouver Giants have only been able to play one game in the new year. The team skated into 2022 with a record of 14-16-1-0 for a total of twenty-nine points in thirty-one games played. Without being with star players like Justin Sourdif (F), Fabian Lysell (F), and Jesper Vikman (G) who left their club for the World Junior Tournament which lasted no more than a few days, the Giants couldn’t find ways to win and dropped their last four games, three against the Victoria Royals, before the end of the year. The team now has a record of 15-16-1-0, and sits sixth in the Western Conference and third in the B.C. Division. With just over half a season to go, take a look at five of the key players who have and will continue to be counted on for the Vancouver Giants to find success.
Justin Sourdif
The Captain of the Giants is also the leader on his team when it comes to points too. Sourdif, a native of Surrey, BC, has suited up in twenty-two games up to this point of the season and has scored eight goals while recording twenty-three assists which is good for thirty-one points and a +/- rating of +17. Sourdif was allowed to play for Canada at the World Juniors, but the tournament was cut short. The Florida Panthers selected Sourdif near the end of the third round (87th overall) in last year’s draft and both Panthers and Giants fans have to be impressed with what they are seeing from this 2002 born forward.
Ty Thorpe
To say that Ty Thorpe is having himself a great year is a bit of an understatement. Thorpe is 2002 born forward who is in his first season with the Giants and fourth in the WHL. Originally selected by the Victoria Royals in the 2017 WHL Draft, Thorpe spent his last three seasons with the Brandon Wheat Kings. Thorpe was able to play 136 games in Brandon while registering thirty points (10G-20A) in that time. The right-handed centreman hasn’t played a quarter of his WHL career with the G-men but has the same number of points (10G-20A-30P) with the Giants this season as he had over the three seasons he played with the Wheat Kings. Despite Thorpe not hearing his name called in the NHL Draft, he is still having a remarkable year and a year that he hopes many NHL clubs will take notice of.
Fabian Lysell
The Teddy Bear Hero and first round, twenty-first overall, draft pick of the Boston Bruins sits third in team scoring on the Giants. Lysell who is eighteen years of age and who will be celebrating his birthday in just over a week has found the back of the net eleven times and has picked up seventeen assists for a total of twenty-eight points in twenty-three games that he has played in. With the exception of this season, Lysell has only ever played hockey in his home country of Sweden, but the adjustments to the North American game haven’t seemed to phase him so far. The Giants selected him in the first round of the 2020 WHL Import Draft. Fabian has managed to record three or more points in four of the twenty-three games that he has played in and three of those four games were played against BC Division teams: once against the Kamloops Blazers, and twice against the Kelowna Rockets.
Alex Cotton
No other defenceman on the Vancouver Giants has more points than Alex Cotton who is in his first season with the Giants and fifth and final season in the WHL. Cotton, one of three twenty-year-old players and one of two twenty-year-old defencemen on the Giants, makes his way to BC after playing his last four seasons a province over in Alberta with the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Since making his Giants debut on November ninth against the Prince George Cougars, Cotton has contributed seven goals and fourteen assists offensively for a total of twenty-one points and a +/- rating of -8 in that same number of games. Drafted in the fifth round in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Detroit Red Wings, the Langley, BC, native led all WHL defensemen in scoring (20G-47A) in 2019-2020. Cotton has seven games of WHL playoff hockey under his belt as his teams have only been able to play past the regular season once, but Cotton will be a player that the Giants will need to rely on come April.
Jesper Vikman
Vikman has received lots of attention from fans and the media alike but has earned every second of it. Selected eighth overall by the Vancouver Giants in the first round of the 2021 WHL Import Draft is the 2002 born Swedish netminder from Stockholm. Like Lysell, Vikman has only ever played hockey in Sweden but has had no problem adjusting to CHL hockey. Vikman has not only impressed the Vancouver Giants who selected him early on in the WHL Import Draft he has also impressed the Vegas Golden Knights who called his name in the fifth round in the 2020 NHL Draft. Vikman has a 3.16GAA, 0.902SV%, and 2 shutouts in eighteen games so far. Vikman has manned the crease the most of the two other Giants goaltenders (Gurski and Martin) and many expect that to stay the same especially as the team continues to push for the playoffs.
2022
The G-men got 2022 started on the right foot by defeating the Kelowna Rockets 4-3 in overtime. Four different Vancouver Giants scored goals, Justin Sourdif was credited with an assist on the team’s third goal of the game and was later named the first star of the hockey game, while Jesper Vikman stopped 20 of the 23 shots that came his way.
Conclusion
Thirty-six games remain in the Giants’ regular season schedule and the team will need to win a significant number of those games before they can clinch a playoff spot as the Prince George Cougars (13-17-1-1) and Victoria Royals (12-14-4-0) are only three points behind them.
