It took 17-year-old Cole Shepard longer than he would have liked to don the hometown Vancouver Giants sweater.
But it was sure worth the wait.
Shepard, a native of West Vancouver, made his anticipated WHL debut during Saturday night’s 4-3 shootout win over the Swift Current Broncos.
“The surgeon said the recovery was 4-6 months and I think I took it slow, didn’t wanna get back too early and have the risk of anything happening. Took the time I needed and I think its turned out well for me.”
The 2020 NHL Draft eligible underwent hip surgery last May and had not seen any game action since the Penticton Vees were eliminated from the BCHL’s playoffs on March 11th.
“It was a long six months for me,” said Shepard postgame on Saturday. “It was a huge relief to get back and it was awesome to get the win in my return.”
The offseason acquisition did not look a bit out of place this past weekend, exceeding the expectations of his coaches and playing on a line with Milos Roman and his older brother Jackson.
Something that wasn’t necessarily the plan for coach Michael Dyck.
“That was a put together thing in an awful hurry,” Dyck said about the trio.
The Giants had lost leading scorer Justin Sourdif the night prior with an apparent leg injury and had been playing on a line with Roman. Sourdif missed both Saturday and Sunday’s contests and there is no timeline on his return.
“For Cole playing his first game, we wanted to make sure we put him with somebody that makes the people around him better and that’s obviously Milos. Outside of Milos, who knows him better than his brother.”
The three Giants seemed to have quick chemistry right from the get-go, with the younger Shepard making the jump to the WHL look easy.
It took the former Harvard commit just over half a game to notch his first goal in the league on what was a skilled play.
Welcome to @TheWHL @ColeShepard_. First of many! Add that puck to your collection! pic.twitter.com/ASLL8D3AaB
— Vancouver Giants (@WHLGiants) October 20, 2019
“The puck kind of squirted out to me in our zone and picked it up on a 2-on-1 with Bowen and was able to find a corner.” Shepard said explaining how his goal transpired.
The five-foot-ten, 152 pounder also went on to add another silky goal in the shootout.
Both his speed and prowess around the net could not be ignored all night and it was a nice jolt for a forward core that is in need of that secondary scoring with such a young group on offense. Coach Dyck just wants to keep seeing what he saw against Swift Current translate to a full rookie season.
“He’s got that skill that we need in order to finish around the net. From the ringette line down, he’s deadly. We need that from him moving forward.”
GIANT STEPS FORWARD
Vancouver is coming into their two games this upcoming weekend with a 7-7 record and will host the Western Conference leading Everett Silvertips on Friday night then a divisional game on Sunday afternoon when they face the visiting Prince George Cougars.
The Giants need to stay out of the penalty box, leading the entire WHL in penalty minutes with 192 through 14 games. The penalty kill sits at 10th in the league, having been shorthanded 15 more times than the next team.
Seven of the Giants’ next 10 games will be at Langley Events Centre, allowing the team to get back into a routine after their long, grueling East Division trip that kept them away from the LEC for close to a month.
