Seattle Thunderbirds defenseman Jake Lee is transitioning from being a young defenseman studying under some of the best blue liners in the league to now being one of the top defenders on his team.
The six-foot-two, 216 pound blue liner was taken by Seattle in the first round, 18th overall in 2016. He got into four regular season games as a 15-year-old in 2016-17 and then two playoff games.
That team would go on to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL champions.
Despite losing so much off the 2016-17 team, Seattle still returned two impressive overage d-men in Austin Strand and Turner Ottenbreit. Both have since turned professional.
As the 2017-18 season wore on, Lee found himself playing more and being given a larger role on the team. He played in the top pairing with Ottenbreit both at five-on-five and while killing penalties.
That year – plus of learning under d-men like Ottenbreit is now paying dividends for Lee.
“Ottenbreit is a really good guy. I learned a lot from him leadership wise off the ice. And then on the ice, how well he does everything and really leads the back end. I definitely picked up a few things with how he taught everyone else like me last year,” Lee said.
Lee’s partner this year is first-year import Simon Kubicek who is learning the English language while learning the North American game. Lee has found himself in a role as the mentor now.
Language is not too much of a barrier for the defensive pairing.
“We work things out quite a bit. I talk to him a lot at practices and lining up at the draw. I try to help him out and make sure he knows what we are both doing. Obviously there is a language barrier but we’ve worked out really well. It’s going really well.”
Lee potted three assists in a game against Kelowna back on October 10th and then followed that up with a four-assist outing the following game.
Lee has two goals and 10 assists for 12 points, which is tied for fifth in the WHL among defensemen.
“We are starting to bond together, get some chemistry together and you know it’s a confidence thing as well. It helps with getting our pucks to the net, that is something we have worked on.”
Lee and the Thunderbirds have had to overcome some injuries to their more experienced blue liners as Jarret Tyszka suffered an injury in preseason NHL action and Reece Harsch has been in and out of the lineup.
Without those two, Lee has been leaned on heavily as one of the more experienced d-men, despite only being 17-years-old.
“It’s definitely nice for our younger guys. (Tyrel) Bauer is doing awesome filling in for Harschy and Tyszka and the guys who hadn’t played very much are stepping up and doing well with their increased minutes.”
Another role Lee has earned this year is that of power play quarterback. Seattle is operating at a 25 percent rate with 13 goals on 52 opportunities.
“We have a few plays that we have been running and they have worked really well. We’ve also got a lot of confidence on the power play out there. Everyone knows where each other is going to be and that helps a lot out there.”
While his hockey career has a lot of wins, including his team winning the WHL when he was 15, he was dealt something to overcome this last summer.
Lee was invited to Hockey Canada’s U18 Hlinka Gretzky camp but did not make the final roster. That team would go on to win the gold medal.
Lee still found a way to get a lot out of the experience.
“I took a lot from it actually. There is a ton of skill at that camp. You can never go in expecting anything. It helped me a lot because it is a huge drive for me to want to do that much better this year.”
That drive has him leading the way on the blue line for Seattle as they continue to compete in the U.S. Division. Lee’s mentoring of the younger blue liners on the team is his way of paying it forward as the Thunderbirds continue to enjoy a group of talented defensemen.
