Friday night before the Lethbridge Hurricanes took to the ice against the Red Deer Rebel,s they took care of some off-ice business. In a release, the team announced that defencemen Ty Prefontaine and forward Dylan Cozens would serve as co-captains for the remainder of the 2019-20 season.
The duo will become the 27th and 28th captains in the club’s history, succeeding former captain Jordy Bellerive who is now with the Penguins of the AHL.
Prefontaine is in his overage season — his fourth with the Hurricanes. The product of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, has skated in 236 career games as a Hurricane, collecting 58 points with nine goals along with 183 penalty minutes. Know that, as a stay at home blueliner, Prefontaine leads by example with his play. Before being named captain, he was an alternate captain for the team the last three seasons. He is the winner of the hardest working Hurricane award in the 2017-18 season.
When asked about the honor of being named to this leadership role, Prefontaine humbly answered, “It feels pretty awesome.” He went on to express his thoughts on his co-captain. “Yeah, it feels awesome to be sharing that with Cozens. He’s gonna get it tomorrow (in Medicine Hat). It’s a pretty big honor I wouldn’t share with anybody else. Yeah it’s very exciting.”
Cozens is coming off a great last few months. Not only does he lead the Hurricanes in scoring this season, he comes back to the team after a successful gold medal-winning World Juniors performance where he collected two goals and seven assists in seven games. The Yukon native served as an assistant captain up to this point in the season. The seventh overall pick in last year’s NHL draft by the Buffalo Sabers has compiled 187 points in 160 WHL career games, which includes 78 goals.
Cozens was very bold when asked his thoughts. “A huge honor to know that the coaches see me as a guy who can lead like that and to get to be a co-captain with Prefontaine, who’s such a good leader. You know, it’s special, and you know to be co-captains — that doesn’t happen too often. But you know it’s something that we’re really happy about and, you know, we’re going to lead this team, hopefully to a championship.”
Lethbridge played two games this past weekend, giving each player a game with the “C” on his sweater. Prefontaine wore it in a 4-3 OT battle against the Red Deer Rebels on Friday night while Cozens sported it Saturday in Medicine Hat where the team dropped a 6-2 game to the Tigers.
Teammate Calen Addison was complimentary of both guys when asked his thoughts and what it means to the Hurricanes room. “They are two good guys, two good leaders around the room. It’s going to be good with them.”
With that game in Medicine Hat, the Hurricanes have kicked off a seven-game road trip giving both captains a good chance to show their leadership and help the team as they drive for success and a playoff berth down the stretch.
