Led by Mark Lamb who is heading into his fourth season as the general manager of the Prince George Cougars and head coach for the last three, the Cougars have lots of enthusiastic and confident youth that are ready to take on big roles with this team.
For a number of Cougars players’ the 2021-2022 season will be one to get used to as this will be a full 68-game season, where fans will be present, and in which the team will be able to travel to different places in the B.C. and U.S. Divisions. Prince George comes into this campaign as a young and exciting team, but rest assured that they are hungry and ready to compete in what can be considered the toughest division in the WHL.
Here are six storylines to watch this season:
Jonny ‘C’ and his Leadership Group
The Prince George Cougars proudly announced forward Jonny Hooker has been named the 27th captain in franchise history. Hooker, 20, is now in his fifth season in the Western Hockey League (WHL) and third with the Cougars. Hooker was an alternate captain during the 2020-21 BC Division Hub season and had 11 points (6G, 5A) in 18 games. With 176 career regular-season games under his belt, the product of Winnipeg, MB will have high expectations placed on him this season as he will be looked upon to guide the younger players while putting points up on the board.
“Jonny is a veteran player who is widely respected by teammates and his coaches. He sets a great example for our younger players and is more than deserving of being our Captain,” Lams said in the press release regarding Hooker being named captin.
Making up the rest of the Cougars leadership group is 20-year-old forward Connor Bowie and two first-time alternate captains in defensemen Ethan Samson and Hudson Thornton.
Roster Moves: Tuesday, October 12
On Tuesday, October 12, the Prince George Cougars traded away one of their four 20-year old players in Majid Kaddoura. In the two games that he played for Prince George this season, Kaddoura had four penalty minutes. During his time with the Cougars the Chestermere, AB product had 13 points (5G, 8A) in 48 regular-season games over the span of three seasons. The defenseman has tallied 25 points (8g-17a) in 125 career regular-season games in the WHL with the Cougars and Saskatoon Blades. As per WHL rules, teams are only allowed to carry three 20-year old players on their roster. Kaddoura was acquired by the Moose Jaw Warriors in exchange for a seventh-round draft pick in the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft. The three 20-year-olds still on the team are Connor Bowie (C), Taylor Gauthier (G), and Jonny Hooker (LW).
The Cougars made another roster move on Tuesday when 2003-born forward Mike Svenson returned to the Winkler Flyers in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League.
Cubs Look to Pounce
The early investments made by Mark Lamb at the WHL draft table over the years are starting to mature. Prince George knew they had a young team before this season started and hoped that the team’s youth would be able to take charge and win the team lots of games, but this has not been the case so far. The season is still quite young and there remains lots more opportunity for the youth on this team to rise to the occasion should that be the case. Look to 2004-born forwards like Koehn Zeimer and Kyren Gronick as well as 2005-born forward Riley Heidt to step up and lead the charge in a big way as the Cougars try to turn this young season around. The Prince George Cougars will go as far as their youth takes them this season, and the sky’s the limit.
Strength in the Crease
Led by a strong goaltending tandem of Taylor Gauthier and Tyler Brennan the Cougars will rely on both goalies to have a successful and consistent season to help out the young players up front. Drafted ninth overall by the Cougars in the 2016 WHL Draft is 20-year-old goaltender Taylor Gauthier. Gauthier is currently in his fifth season with Prince George and for the last four seasons (152 regular-season games) he has posted a 3.22 GAA, 0.904 save percentage, to go along with six shutouts.
Counterpart Tyler Brennan has been with the team since 2018-19 when he was first drafted by the Cougars 21st overall in the 2018 WHL draft. Brennan has played the role of the backup goaltender to Taylor Gauthier over the years, but with Brennan being eligible for the 2022 NHL Draft that will be held in the beautiful city of Montreal, he will very likely see a significant increase in playing time. Sportsnet currently has Tyler Brennan to go 32nd overall in the NHL Draft and how the Cougars do this season may play a factor in regards to how high or how late Brennan will be drafted, should he be fortunate enough. If Brennan is drafted he will be the second Prince George Cougars player currently on the roster, to have been selected in the NHL Draft, as 2003 born defenseman Ethan Samson was selected in the 2021 NHL Draft by the Philadelphia Flyers in the sixth round.
2021-2022 Scheule: What you need to know
The Prince George Cougars are like any other team in the B.C. Division in that they will only be able to play teams in their own division as well as teams in the U.S. Division. Fans will have the weekends to experience Cougars hockey as 24 of the 34 home games this season occur on either Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.
The Cougars opened their season on October 2 with a 5-4 home loss to the Kamloops Blazers and will conclude their regular season on Sunday, April 3 against that same Kamloops Blazers team in Prince George. Right before that April 3rd game, the Cougars will head out on a seven-game road trip from Friday, March 18 to Friday, April 1. The Cougars will play their final 12 games of the season against BC Division teams.
BC Division Prediction:
The B.C. division is hard to predict. It looks like Kamloops will finish first, and Victoria will finish at the bottom, but with the season being so young anything is possible. If Kamloops were to finish first and Victoria ended up finishing last in the B.C. Division then the other two playoff spots would be between the Vancouver Giants, Kelowna Rockets, and the Prince George Cougars. With a rather young team, it is up to the veterans to lead by example and to help guide the younger players who will soon become the future of the Cougars organization. The Cougars have not been in the Playoffs since 2017, but have every intention of making that happen this year.
