It’s that time of year again! We at the DubNetwork always try to come up with a new order for previews each year and this season we are going with least recent to most recent Ed Chynoweth Cups for our order of previews. They will run 2-to-3 a day until September 20th. Then on September 21st – the day the season opens – we will have our predictions.
Six teams have not won a WHL title, so we went with least recent to most recent rips to the WHL final.
Only two teams have never been to the WHL final and they are the Prince George Cougars and Victoria Royals.
So that is where we will start today…with the Prince George Cougars going first.
Prince George has been around as a WHL franchise since 1994-95. Their best finish was in 2016-17 when they went 45-21-3-3 for 96 points. The farthest they have been in the playoffs is the West Final, where they have been three times.
2017-18: The Cougars felt the brunt of all the trades they made during the 2016-17 season last year. They missed the playoffs for the first time in four seasons with a 24-38-5-5 record (58 points).
They did restock the cupboards a bit by trading defenseman Dennis Cholowski to the Portland Winterhawks, defenseman Josh Anderson to the Swift Current Broncos, forward Jesse Gabrielle to the Regina Pats and forward Kody McDonald to the Prince Albert Raiders.
Both Cholowski and Gabrielle were not expected to come to the WHL as Cholowski – a first round pick by the Detroit Red Wings – did not commit to the Cougars until he was signed by Detroit and Gabrielle played the first part of the year in the AHL for the Boston Bruins’ system.
After trading away those four key players, the team tumbled in the standings and after hanging around a bit in the wild card race, fell well short.
Where they struggled the most was keeping the puck out of their own net. They gave up 295 goals which was the second most in the WHL. Despite seeing some promising play from then 16-year-old netminder Taylor Gauthier, the Cougars had quite a few games where they were trying to play catch up on the scoreboard.
Off-season departures:
-Forwards Jared Bethune (69 points, led the team), Brogan O’Brien (41 points) and Aaron Boyd (38 points) aged out of the WHL, taking their 53 goals with them. That is 24.4 percent of their goals from 2017-18. When you include their other losses in import forward Pavel Azhgirei and the players they traded away during the 2017-18 season, there is 94 of their 217 goals gone.
Also not returning to the Cougars was 1998-born goalie Tavin Grant, who was released.
The Cougars also saw their general manager Todd Harkins step down. He was replaced by Mark Lamb, who has a Stanley cup and over 30 years of experience, including some with the Swift Current Broncos.
Richard Matvichuk returns for a third year behind the Cougars bench and he brings back Assistant Coach Steve O’Rourke.
Newcomers:
-The Cougars chose to let Azhgirei go and used their CHL Import pick on 2001-born forward Matej Toman from the Czech Republic.
They also had an open overage spot and made a deal this Monday for big forward Mike MacLean from the Seattle Thunderbird. The 6-foot-7, 234 pound MacLean had two goals and two assists for four points in 38 games- his first in the WHL. He also had a goal and an assist in Seattle’s opening round series loss to Everett.
Prince George also has some young players technically listed as rookies who got their first action in the WHL. 2001-born Connor Bowie, a center brought over in the Cholowski trade had three points in 10 games with the Cougars and will be vying for a bigger role this year. That also goes for 16-year-old rookie defenseman Tyson Phare – their 2017 WHL Bantam first round pick. He had four assists in four preseason games and could see quite a bit of ice time in his first year.
Tyson Upper, a listed player and late-2001-born forward actually led the Cougars in preseason scoring and could come out of nowhere to give them an unexpected offensive boost.
Overage situation:
-The Cougars seem pretty settled at the overage spot since they gave up a couple assets for MacLean. He joins forward Josh Curtis and defenseman Joel Lauksta to give them the limit of 1998-born players.
Import situation:
-The Cougars add Toman to forward Vladislav Mikhalchuk to give them the limit of two. Mikhalchuk, a 1999-born playmaker from Belarus put up 33 points in his rookie season.
Returning scorers:
| Pts rank | Player | GP | G | A | Pts |
| 99 | Josh Maser | 71 | 28 | 21 | 49 |
| 129 | Joel Lakusta | 70 | 9 | 33 | 42 |
| 160 | Jackson Leppard | 68 | 15 | 21 | 36 |
| 162 | Josh Curtis | 72 | 9 | 27 | 36 |
Returning goalies
| Player | GP | GAA | Sv % | Record |
| Taylor Gauthier | 32 | 3.96 | 0.885 | 8-18-1-2 |
| Isaiah DiLaura | 14 | 3.94 | 0.888 | 3-3-0-2 |
Forwards:
-The Cougars know they are feeling the brunt of the loss of their three overage forwards from a year ago. That is why they used both their extra overage spot and their other import spot on forwards.
Maser went from four points in 23 games in 2016-17 to 49 a season ago. He has the ability to be a game-breaking scorer as he showed with both a hat trick and a four-goal game a season ago. He will need to have performances like that a little more regularly for the Cougars this year.
Prince George will also be relying upon Jackson Leppard who despite not getting drafted, did get some interest and got an invitation to both development and rookie camp with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He never shies away from the front of the net and will be looking to have more success there this year.
Curtis will be a go-to two-way player again this year and he should find a home in the top-six. Also looking for a spot there with increased time is their other overage forward, Mike MacLean. The rangy forward was beloved in Seattle and will try to impact the game by bringing his physical style up north to P.G.
Colina and Browne have shown glimpses of elite play-making ability and they will be given way more opportunity to showcase their strengths with the Cougars then they did for their previous teams. Browne was a first round pick by Everett but has yet to put it all together in the WHL.
The Cougars have other forwards that came over in trades last year in Bowie and Kjemhus and how they develop will have a pretty big impact on the Cougars depth scoring.
Mikhalchuk and Toman will also need to grow as players for the Cougars to be deep up front. Mikhalchuk was a key player for Belarus at the 2018 World Juniors and he seemed to relish being in that larger role. He should get a similar opportunity with the Cougars.
Overall, this group does not have the elite skill that some of their Western Conference rivals have, but there are quite a few promising prospects who – if they put it all together – could make this a potent unit.
Defense:
Lakusta will be the work horse back here for the Cougars. He got some NHL interest and could very well end up earning a contract with all of the ice time he will be getting this season. Schoettler, Crossley and MacPhee are a trio of 19-year-olds who will be counted upon. Crossley is a tough-as-nails defender who never shied from dropping the gloves.
Schoettler is the second returning scorer on the blue line for the Cougars. His numbers took a big jump in 2017-18 as he went from 10 to 23 points. He should take another jump in 2018-19.
The younger d-men are pretty inexperienced in the WHL. Rhinehart is another former first round pick they have and he has the size and skill to drive offense for them and create issues around his own net for smaller opponents. Look for him to either start or end up in the top-four as his talent actualizes.
Another first rounder in Tyson Phare could end up on the opening night roster. He has had a strong preseason and looks far beyond his 16 years of age.
Moberg and Sander took on bigger roles after the trades of Cholowski and Anderson last year and showed some good moments on both sides. they should round out the defensive corps.
Goalies:
Gauthier had some good moments last year as a 16-year-old a season ago and the net is now his to lose. He was in net for Hockey Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and performed well in that big tournament. The former first round Bantam pick will be leaned upon heavily as he Cougars defense on paper looks like it will take some time to develop into a strong unit.
If the Cougars do make a run to the playoffs, it will likely be because Gauthier had a Carter Hart-like 17-year-old season and is drawing many scouts to the CN Centre.
He’s an athletic goalie who makes some highlight reel saves on a regular basis.
DiLaura won the backup spot out of camp and should be looking at 20-25 starts.
Outlook:
There are only five players left who played on the 2017 Prince George playoff team. That pennant winning team was a fun one for the Cougars fans to watch but the franchise is still hurting from all that was given up and the trading away of most of the assets they had left a season ago.
The attention has to turn towards the youth this year as how their 2001 and 2002-born players develop will be key to turning around this downwards spiral.
There is a recipe somewhere in this roster for a team that is hard to play against every night and wins a lot of 2-1 and 3-2 games where Gauthier is the first star. If they can get enough scoring from throughout the lineup and their defense improves drastically upon what it was in the last half of last year, the rebuild could be fast-tracked a bit for the furthest Northern WHL team in the B.C. Division.
They will be helped by there not being a dominant looking B.C. Division team after Victoria and Kelowna lost a whole lot off of last year’s rosters but they still do not seem to stack up to the likes of Vancouver, Kamloops and Kelowna.
Playoffs could be in their gasp for much of the year but they still might be another season away.
