WHL training camp roster notes

We have already done deep dives on the training camp rosters for the Regina Pats, Moose Jaw Warriors, Tri-City Americans and the Portland Winterhawks.

Lets continues that trend with a look at 11 more WHL teams training camp rosters. There are some notable names missing and there are a few older players getting some invites.

Medicine Hat Tigers

-The Tigers camp got going yesterday and the roster was released on Monday. 

There are three teams – Orange, Black and White.

Absences: James Hamblin – broke a bone near his wrist last March and is still recovering. Linus Nassen, Mason Shaw and David Quenneville are all 1998-born players. Shaw and Quenneville are signed to professional contracts. Nassen would take up both an import and overage spot if he returns.

Also, their top import selection Vasili Pokdkolzin is not at camp. he is being talked about as a possible top-10 NHL Draft selection.

Overage players in camp: Forward Ryan Jevne and defensemen Dalton Gally and Dylan MacPherson are the only 1998-born players present.

2018 Draft: Of their 10 WHL Bantam picks, eight are in camp. Defensemen Dru Krebs, Rhett Parsons and Devin Benson are present along with forwards Cole Sillinger (their first round pick), Ashton Ferster and Alex Wallicki and goalie Liam Vanderkooi.

Garland, Texas native Hayden Cox is not at camp, and either is American goalie Owen Millward.

2017 Draft: Of their 13 draft picks, six are in camp. Goalie Garin Bjorklund (their first round pick), defensemen Ryan Watson, Austin Dycer and Brayden Kapty and forwards Noah Danielson and Stephen Rosier.

Left winger Scout Truman was taken in the second round, has not signed and is not at camp. He played at the Yale Hockey Academy last season. Also absent is fifth round pick Brett Meerman, 11th round pick Tyler Batyes, 12th round pick Samuel Deckhut, 13th round pick Talon Zakall and 14th round selection Davis Chorney.

Invites: 12 – 2003-born players, five 2002-born players. They have a couple 2001-born, undrafted players invited as well. They only have four signed 1999-born players in camp.

Saskatoon Blades

Training camp begins on August 25th.

The 71 players have been spread across four teams named after Blades greats – Wendell Clark, Braden Holtby, Glen Gulutzan and Todd McLellan. The teams will compete for the Kirkness Cup.

Absences: 1999-born forward Alec Zawatsky is not listed on the camp roster and has been released. He played 43 games with the Blades last season, totaling eight points. Import defenseman Mark Rubinchik has also been released. The 1999-born blue liner from Russia is currently playing for his home country at the U20 Four Nations Cup. He signed in the KHL in the off-season.

The Blades drafted two imports in the CHL Import Draft. So far they have signed just Kristian Roythas Marthisen. Their other pick, Emil Malysjev is not in camp.

Overage players: Bradly Goethals, Max Gerlach and Dawson Davidson are the only ones in camp.

2018 Draft: Colton Dach, Marek Schneider and Charlie Wright are the 2003s signed so far. Of their other eight picks, all but Garin Scherr and Brodie Guenther are in camp. I was told Scherr and Guenther are at baseball nationals.

2017 Draft: Aidan De La Gorgendiere, Kyle Crnkovic, Braden Plaschewsky and Koen MacInnes are 2017 draftees that have been signed by the Blades. There are five others in camp.

Kurtis Smythe (rights traded to Portland), Kalen Szeto (committed to Yale) and Davis Frank (with Nanaimo of the BCHL) are the three not in camp from this draft.

Everett Silvertips

Camp started on August 23rd.

Absence: Riley Bruce is the only surprise as he was released and is in camp with the Tri-City Americans.

Overage players: Everett only has two in camp as it stands now. Forward Sean Richards and defenseman Sahvan Khaira. Both are locks to take two of the three spots, but there is room to add another player.

2018 Draft: All 11 draft picks are in camp, including the three American players they chose with their last three picks in the draft.

2017 Draft: Of their 13 picks, six are in camp. Ronan Seeley (1st round – signed), Jackson Berezowski (2nd round – signed), Blake Lyda and Dylan Anderson (4th round – signed) and Brayden Morrison (5th round) and Ryley Morgan (7th round) are all in camp.

Nathaneal Hinds (3rd round) and Kalen Ukrainetz (9th round) were part of the trade with Kamloops at the trade deadline. Caleb Brownell, Kent Johnson, Nicolas Porchetta, Maxwell Goldade and Austin Spiridakis (committed to Quinnipiac) are all later round picks that have not signed and were not listed as at camp.

2001-born notable invites: Nico DeVita from Bellevue. Miles Seguin and Cole Dubicki from Seattle.

Nine, 1999-born players are on the roster as it stands now, so Everett is actually a much older team at the start of this year than they were last season.

Andrew Clark (1999) is the oldest invitee at the camp. He played with the Everett Jr. Silvertips 16U team in 2014-15 and played in the KIJHL with the Spokane Braves for the last three years.

Kamloops Blazers

Camp started on August 23rd.

Absences:

No real absences from camp that are surprising but 2016 first round pick Massimo Rizzo’s absence is a pretty big blow, Rizzo committed to the University of North Dakota and will be playing for the Penticon Vees of the BCHL this season.

Overage players:

Just the three in goalie Dylan Ferguson and forwards Jermaine Loewen and Luc Smith. That is a trio that if they all come back, would be tough to beat by any other WHL team. Ferguson is signed by Vegas but it looks like after NHL camp, he will play his overage year in the WHL.

2018 Draft: Of their 10 Bantam picks, the top four are signed already. The other six are shown to be in camp as well.

2017 Draft: Seven of their 11 picks are signed. All but Josh Doan from that draft are in camp.

In total the Blazers have 34 players signed to WHL contracts.

Caige Sterzer (00) is their oldest not-drafted invitee in camp. He is from Kimberley, B.C. His cousin Aspen Sterzer, played parts of four seasons with the Blazers (2011-2014).

Kootenay ICE

Camp began on August 24th.

Overage players:

Five in camp. They are goalie Matt Berlin, defensemen Martin Bodak and Dallas Hines and forwards Jaegar White and Gunnar Wegleitner, Hines and Bodak were the only players drafted by Kootenay of the quintet. The other three were acquired via trade. Bodak would take two spots as an import and overage player.

2018 Draft: Their top three picks are signed and all nine picks are in camp.

2017 Draft: Seven of their 10 picks from this draft are signed and only defenseman Jake Sanderson from Whitefish, Montana is not in camp.

Eric Delaire (2001) is the oldest invitee in camp.

In total the ICE have an impressive 39 signed players in camp.

Lethbridge Hurricanes

Rookie camp started on August 21st and main camp begins on the 24th.

Only the rookie camp roster was announced.

2018 Draft: The only 2003-born player they have signed is first round pick Zack Stringer. All 10 picked players are in camp.

2017 Draft: Noah Boyko, Bryan Thomson, Drew Englot and Jacob Boucher are all signed. Sixth round pick Daniel O’Neill and ninth round selection Ben Mosher are not in camp.

Red Deer Rebels

Main camp started on the 22nd. Rookie camp goes on the 26th.

Absences: Riley Lamb is not in camp with the team. He would have been heading into his overage season but was released by the team. 2nd Round Import draft pick Ivan Drozdov has not been signed and has not reported to camp.

Overage players: Four are in camp. Forwards Jeff de Wit, Brandon Hagel and Reese Johnson are there along with defenseman Colin Paradis.

They only have three 1999-born players in main camp with Ethan Sakowich, Carson Sass and Alexander Alexeyev.

They have 31 players listed as having signed WHL contracts.

Only four others are at camp but not signed. They are 2001-born forward Jayden McCarthy, 2002-born forwards Jaxsen Wiebe and Garrett Valk and 2002-born goalie Carter Serhyenko. The latter two are the only ones not signed that were also not drafted by Red Deer. Valk is the son of Garry Valk, who played in the NHL for Vancouver, Anaheim, Pittsburgh, Toronto and Chicago.

At rookie camp, there are six listed players, 24 invited players as well as players from the 2017 and 2018 WHL bantam drafts. Of the players drafted by the Rebels in those two drafts, the only absences are Kyler Kovich (4th round 2017) and Chase Bertholet (5th round 2018).

 

Seattle Thunderbirds

Rookie camp began on the 22nd and main camp on the 24th.

Absences:

As noted already here, third round 2015 pick Connor Pyne is attending Moose Jaw camp and so must have been released at some point.

Reporter Andy Eide also discovered that defenseman Tyson Terreta who was a seventh round pick in 2015 by Seattle has retired from hockey. Terretta played 42 games last year for the T-birds.

Dillon Hamaliuk, Noah Philp, Reece Harsch and Jake Lee are all apparently given the day off with minor injuries.

Seattle has 27 signed players including these four. Only seven of those signed players are defensemen.

Overage players:

Nolan Volcan, Zack Andrusiak, Noah Philp and Mike MacLean are the only overage players in camp currently. Andrusiak,  Volcan and Philp seem to be locks as the team’s returning leading scorers. MacLean was a late add to the roster last season and mostly played a depth role.

2018 Draft: First round pick Kai Uchacz has signed, as has second round picks Conner Roulette and Lucas Ciona. Local product Mekai Sanders has also signed with Seattle.

All of their other five picks are in camp.

2017 Draft: Three of their eight picks have signed (Payton Mount, Luke Bateman and Tyrel Bauer). Four of the other five are in camp with Cameron Berg being the only one absent. He has committed to play at the University of Nebraska Omaha.

 

Spokane Chiefs

Camp for the Chiefs got going on the 23rd.

Absences:

The big noticeable one is Czech defenseman Filip Kral. The import blue liner had a big year last season with 35 points in his first WHL season and was drafted in the fifth round by Toronto. He is reportedly out with a minor injury.

Overage players:

Five listed on the camp rosters with possible Edmonton Oilers winger Kailer Yamamoto listed. The other four are forwards Riley Woods and Jeff Faith (he played some defense and some forward last season) and defensemen Dalton Hamaliuk and Nolan Reid.

2018 Draft: Only d-man Graham Sward has been signed of the 12 selections. The only drafted player not at camp, is fourth round pick Logan Cox. Grady Lane is reportedly nursing an injury.

2017 Draft: Jack Finley and Campbell Arnold are signed, but no other players are of the 11 picks. Seven of the nine unsigned players are in camp however. Forwards Ryan Popowich and Hunter Hastings are the two players not at camp. Hastings has committed to the Wenatchee wild of the BCHL.

Goalie Baily Huber (2001) is the oldest invitee to camp.

Vancouver Giants

Absences:

The Popowich loss is a big blow. The former first round pick had shown glimpses of great play.

1999-born blue liner Marcus Kichton is also not listed on the roster for the camp. I am hearing that he has left the Giants to go to school.

Overage players:

They seem set with their three in camp. Those three are forwards Jared Dmytriw and Davis Koch and d-man Matt Barberis.

Even without Kichton, they have a large group of 1999-born players (eight).

2018 Draft: Zack Ostapchuk and Drew Sim are the only ones signed. The other eight picks are all in camp.

2017 Draft: Justin Sourdif, Tanner Brown, Krz Plummer, Braedy Euerby and Jacob Gendron are all signed. Three of their picks were not in attendance – John Little, Cole Shapard and Ryan Mulrenin. They all have other commitments for this coming season.

Victoria Royals

Rookie camp roster is the only one out there so far.

2018 Draft: Only Matthew Hodson and Nolan Bentham have signed so far. Eighth round picks Karsten Senden and Roux Bazin are the only picks not in camp.

2017 Draft: They are missing some key draftees. Third round pick Ty Thorpe is playing in 2018-19 with the Rink Academy in the CSSHL. Michael Benning and Nathan Morgan are playing in the AJHL this season. Andrew Ramsey is staying down in Arizona and Mark Gordon is also not in camp. That is five of their 12 draft picks in 2017. Ty Yoder, Alex Bolshakov, Kaden Reinders and Noah Lamb are all signed from the draft. The other three unsigned players are in camp.