Canes trim roster

The Lethbridge Hurricanes Main Camp round robin of games, came to an end Sunday with the last three games being cancelled for various reasons. There were parents who had to get back home, the general manager and scouts wanted to reduce the number of players in camp, and coach Brent Kisio was eager to have the remaining players divided into two teams for Tuesday’s Red and White game.

The trimming of players leaves 42 players for the game, with goaltender Stuart Skinner, overage players Giorgio Estephan, Alec Baer, Brennen Menell are not dressing for the game, along with Brennan Riddle and Ryan Bowen, both nursing injuries.

Those remaining include nine 2002-born players and nine 2001-born players which will certainly be reduced in short order. Included among those are Austin Wong (00) and Carson Dyck (01), both of whom are not yet signed.

Two players did sign WHL Standard Player Agreements Sunday though. General manager Peter Anholt was happy to sign 15-year old forwards Jacob Boucher and Drew Englot. Boucher, who is five-foot-seven and 136 pounds, played for the Fort Saskatchewan Bantam AAA Rangers in 2016-17 and was the Canes’ 9th round pick in the 2017 bantam draft. Drew Englot raised a lot of attention with his gritty play. The Notre Dame Hound is six-foot-thee and 180 pounds and is very tough to play against.

This brings the total to five of the Hurricanes’ 2017 draft picks who have now signed contracts.

There are four goaltenders left in camp (not including Skinner).  There is a battle that could occur between Manitoba native Adam Swan (00) six-foot-three and 188 pounds, who played a few games last season for Lethbridge, and Carter Wickson (01) of Calgary’s Edge Hockey School. Wickson is six-foot-four and 205 pounds.  Both will be trying to grab the backup position behind Stuart Skinner.

The defensive battle for a 16-year-old spot still comes down to Nolan Jones and Alex Cotton. Interestingly, both have been placed on the same team for Tuesday’s game. Which begs the question; is it better to see them play against each other or evaluate each of them based on their play on the same team?

Several players will try and unseat a veteran group of forwards. One of these is Gino Astrouski (99). Gino has dual citizenship (Canada & Belarus). Gino, who is a six-foot-two 187 pounds left wing, has performed very well through the mini camp and his play has kept him on the roster. Gino was drafted by Prince Albert in 2015 and saw limited action for the Raiders. He most recently played with the AJHL’s Drumheller Dragons (side note: his real first name is “Yauheni” which is pronounced Yev-Gen-nee).

There should be player shuffles after the Red & White game as the Canes’ brass trim the roster in preparation for their first home exhibition game on Friday, September 1st vs Medicine Hat.