On Tuesday afternoon I attended Portland Winterhawks practice as the team prepares for their first three preseason games this weekend. The Winterhawks will travel north to play in Everett on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday against three different opponents.
After having 84 players in training camp last week, Portland’s roster has been trimmed down to 36. There are 19 forwards, 13 defensemen, and four goalies.
In speaking with head coach and general manager Mike Johnston, something to keep in mind is “there are certain players that you can’t keep because they have school starting and all those things. So, you can’t read into it and say we kept all the best players, because there are other good players that had to get home for school reasons and other things.”
“You might say, ‘Oh, this guy is not here, or he wasn’t here,’ but some guys had schooling commitments that we would have loved to have had here for a little bit longer. We weren’t going to sign them, and they weren’t going to play here right now. Either they were too young, or they couldn’t play here right now, so we wanted to get them home.”
Included on the list are a combination of 2003- and 2004-born players. “We try to keep a couple of young 2004’s that we are looking at potentially signing or playing,” Johnston said. “Then we want to keep some 2003’s from last year’s draft to get a better evaluation of them, because I feel last week is a good evaluation, but it is way better when you’re going against our regular group.”
Portland’s head coach continued, “The 2003’s that stayed are a lot of the guys that we haven’t signed, and we are trying to figure out should we sign or shouldn’t we, because that’s a big decision if you’re going to sign and play. If we sign somebody, they’re going to be playing for us the next three or four years at one point over the next year. It is a big decision. We want to make sure we have a spot for them and there is an opportunity there for him.”
Last week’s practices were not 100% focused on teaching Portland’s systems, power play, penalty kill, etc. They included more small-area games, line rushes, net-front battles, etc.
Johnston explained the structure of practice since the conclusion of the Neely Cup on Saturday, “What we’ve done is kind of broken it down. Sunday we did breakouts, Monday we did attack, today (Tuesday) we did power play and penalty kill, tomorrow (Wednesday) we do forecheck and backcheck, then Thursday we do defensive zone coverage. So, basically kind of a checklist of everything that we need to kind of build on. So that’s only kind of a (quick) look at each one of those systems and key points within it.”
In addition to the afternoon practices, the players are working on skills. “Every morning we do skills with the guys, not a lot of strategy in the mornings, but more skills types of things,” Johnston articulated. “The only other thing about this camp here is it gives you a chance before the pro guys go away (to NHL camps) to get them integrated into some drills and some other things as well.”
Portland will send five players to NHL camps starting next Tuesday or Wednesday. Jake Gricius will go to San Jose, Joel Hofer to St. Louis, Reece Newkirk heads east to the New York Islanders, Johnny Ludvig to Florida, and Clay Hanus is going to attend Ottawa’s camp.
Before then, Portland plays a preseason three-in-three this weekend. The Winterhawks take on Spokane on Friday, Vancouver on Saturday, and close out with the Tri-City Americans on Sunday.
“We are not going to play anybody that is unsigned this weekend,” Johnston said. “If you want to sign (a player), then I have to have a spot for them in the next year to play for our team. If we did sign a player, then you pretty well know that he is going to be with us within the next year.”
Below is an updated list, in alphabetical order, of players attending this week of practice:
Forwards:
Hunter Andrew – 2002 – Unsigned
Jonah Bevington – 2003
Kyle Chyzowski – 2004 – Unsigned
Jaydon Dureau – 2001
Robbie Fromm-Delorme – 2002
Kishaun Gervais – 2001
Lane Gilliss – 1999
Jake Gricius – 1999
Cross Hanas – 2002
Seth Jarvis – 2002
Gabe Klassen – 2003
Simon Knak – 2002
Tyson Kozak – 2002
Aidan Litke – 2003 – Unsigned
Mason Mannek – 2000
Reece Newkirk – 2001
Jack O’Brien – 2003
Dawson Pasternak – 2003
James Stefan – 2003
Defensemen:
Devin Benson – 2003 – Unsigned
Jonas Brøndberg – 2001
Shai Buium – 2003 – Unsigned
Nick Cicek – 2000
Clay Hanus – 2001
Jonny Ludvig – 2000
Ryan McCleary – 2003 – Unsigned
Kade Nolan – 2001
Nick Perna – 2001
Matthew Quigley – 1999
Kurtis Smythe – 2002
Brody Tallman – 2003 – Unsigned
Ryder Thompson – 2004 – Unsigned
Goalies:
Dante Giannuzzi – 2002
Lochlan Gordon – 2003
Joel Hofer – 2000
Jack Stark – 2003 – Unsigned
