It has been a few weeks now since the Lethbridge Hurricanes season disappointingly came to an end in Game 7 of their opening round series against the Calgary Hitmen. Of course, this was not the way anyone pictured the end of the season. As the team saluted the home faithful after the final game one couldn’t help but think what is next for the local hockey club.
General manager Peter Anholt definitely has his work cut out for him this offseason after going “all in” this season. His team went to back-to-back Eastern Conference finals, losing both those series in six games, so going all in seemed liked it was a good move for the organization. Although they failed to get out of the first round this time around, the season wasn’t a total loss for the team who made the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season under Anholt.
The first business of the offseason was May’s WHL Bantam draft. Anholt took full advantage of the draft to stockpile future talent. In total, the Hurricanes selected nine players and added two more via trades.
Because of previous trades, Lethbridge waited until round three to make their first pick. With the team’s first pick at 65th overall Anholt selected defencemen Logan McCutcheon out of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. McCutcheon’s skill set has been compared to that of current Hurricanes defencemen Calen Addison.
Hurricanes also traded for another third round pick and with it selected forward Reid MacKay, who played with Lloydminster Bobcats bantam team collecting 38 points in 33 regular season games. MacKay is touted as a player with good hands and a strong skill set.
Anholt continued the trend of adding smaller, puck moving defencemen with the team’s fourth round section. Camden Shasby, a USA born defencemen who hails from Anchorage, Alaska. He too was compared to Addison and is a strong skater.
Hurricanes pulled the trigger on a trade with the Victoria Royals to make a selection. With that pick, they took from the West Central Wheat Kings Bantam AA; Jakin Lawrence. Lawrence put up Respectable numbers with 35 points in 31 games.
There were five more selections added to the fold in Lethbridge before the end of the bantam draft. They included two eighth round picks, Defenseman Kaden Dyck (159 overall) from Plum Coulee, Manitoba and forward Chase LaPinta (164 overall) from Frisco, Texas. Forward, Ayden Peters from Calgary, in the ninth round before taking Lethbridge native goaltender Erick Roest with their 10th round pick. With their final pick of the Bantam Draft, the Hurricanes selected Rockwall, Texas product Evan Raines in the 11th round. In total the team adds five forwards, three defencemen and a goalie to their protected list.
That wasn’t all the work the windy city did on draft day. The team also pulled the trigger on a couple of trades. First, they acquired 2002-born forward Alex Thacker from the Swift Current Broncos for 2003-born defencemen Wyatt Wilson. The second trade of the day saw the Hurricanes send prospect Fischer O’Brien to Prince George and receive 2002 born forward Tyson Phare from the Cougars. Thacker has yet to play in the WHL and was a sixth round pick in 2017 by the Broncos, while Phare was an 18th overall selection by the Cougars in 2017 and has appeared in 16 WHL games going pointless in those contests.
The trade front got a little more of a workout in the days following the draft. The Hurricanes re-acquired their fourth round pick in 2022 that they had shipped to Regina in the Jake Leschyshyn and Nick Henry deal. In return, the Pats received Drew Englot, a 2017 bantam pick. The Hurricanes then shipped Jackson Shepard back to his home area in a deal with the Vancouver Giants. A third round 2021 draft pick comes the other way.
The work will continue this offseason for Anholt as the roster is shaping up to look a lot different come September. It is looking increasingly likely that the 2019-20 Hurricanes team will look quite different from the team that finished the 2018-19 season with a lot more youth taking the ice.
