Portland Winterhawks practice report – Introducing Isaiah DiLaura

On Wednesday, I went to the Portland Winterhawks practice in advance of their first two games of the regular season this weekend. The Winterhawks host the Tri-City Americans on Saturday before the Kamloops Blazers visit the Rose City. 

Unfortunately, due to being involved in a bad car accident on Wednesday evening, this will not be like my normal practice reports. However, I wanted to get the information to fans I gathered from practice. 

I hope to be at the games on the weekend, but in case I’m not, make sure you are following DUBNetwork on twitter for all the latest. 

Below is my conversation with vice president, general manager, and head coach Mike Johnston.

Can you talk a little about the time you’ve had with the team since preseason?

It’s been really good. I think every team in our league, when you talk to the other coaches, they really enjoy this time of the year because you get to spend a lot more time with the young guys. You get to spend quite a bit of time coaching and working on things as you saw today in practice. I think we’ve gotten a lot out of this last two weeks. We don’t have any games, some teams do. We prefer not to play and spend a little bit more time at practice and getting our team ready. Now, pretty well all our guys are back from pro camps.  It gives us a chance now to take a look at lines, power play, and penalty kill and start to get some team-play things done.

Reece Newkirk (Portland Winterhawks/Keith Dwiggins)

Reece (Newkirk) is returning from camp?

He is coming back (Wednesday).

(This was confirmed Thursday afternoon when the Islanders announced the reassigning of Reece back to Portland.) 

With two games on the weekend, what are you looking for out of your team to start the season?

I think like any other season, you’re looking to get out of the gate with some positive things happening. I like the way we have been practicing, but it’s still practice, and you want it to translate into games. I know with a young group, it’s not going to happen immediately, but I’m looking for some good signs this weekend as far as our identity and starting to play with our identity. The quality practices we’ve had have been very, very good. I’m excited, as I’m sure the players are, to get started. We play (Tri-City) and then Kamloops has had a great preseason. They look pretty hot, so it’ll be interesting to see how they are.

The team made a trade acquiring Isaiah DiLaura, can you expand on the trade? 

So, Isaiah gives us an older goaltender option and we want to take a look at them. They had three goaltenders in PG, so he was available. I liked him last year when I saw him, and liked him the previous year when I heard about him in Minnesota.

What does this mean for Dante Giannuzzi or Joel Hofer? 

It’s like anything else, we have extra forwards on the ice and extra D’s too.

There are a lot of questions about bringing in another 19-year-old goalie. Is there something about Isaiah that you saw and liked, or maybe something you didn’t see out of Dante or Joel you’re looking for?

Well, it’s like anything else, as I said. We have depth at defense, we have eight good defenseman out here, so it’s not like I don’t see good things in the other D. That’s why we have eight, it’s a competition. It’s this time of the year, it’s about competition and identifying what’s best for your team. We have a very young team, so we’ve got to make some decisions, what we’re doing on defense, up front, and now in goal.

I thought rosters needed to be trimmed down by the weekend. Do you have to be at 23 by the Tri-City game? If so, when do you anticipate final roster cuts or selections? 

Yeah, we don’t have to, we just have to have our roster available. We don’t have to be down to 23 by then. If Reece gets back tonight (Wednesday) and is ready to practice (Thursday), and everything’s good, and everybody’s healthy, then probably after the weekend we might make a move and reduce our roster.


Anytime a new player or face is in Portland I like to have a quick conversation introducing them to the Portland fan base. Apologies to Isaiah and his family as this is normally not just a cut and paste from our conversation. 

Isaiah DiLaura (Photo: James Doyle)

Introducing yourself to Portland fans, first, how would you describe your goaltending style? 

I am more of a relaxed kind of goalie, just watch the play, and then react to it. I’m not really too flashy or anything, I just make the saves I need to.  

What would you say is maybe the best attribute to your game right now?

I like to talk to a lot of the teammates. I’m a good talker out on the ice and especially in the locker room as well. I’m a good team guy.

You’re from Minnesota originally, how does playing high-level Minnesota hockey compare to the WHL? You played in the state tournament which is huge there.

It was crazy, totally different experience. Especially growing up when you’re 16 and 17, and you play in the state tournament like I did. You’re playing in front of 18,000 fans, and is just an incredible experience and something I’ll never forget.

Describe that experience of having so many fans who are either cheering or booing you? How does that experience compare to what you’ve seen in the WHL? 

It’s kind of crazy, because it’s not like you have a home crowd and then an away crowd. It’s like a mixture of both, and then a lot of other people that are from all over (the state) so they’re cheering for goals and then saves as well. Compared to the WHL where it is just a home team and an away team cheering or yelling at you.

How does a high-school student section prepare you for maybe some of the away rinks in the WHL? 

Students are obviously going to be way more into yelling at you, and making fun of you and what not. Where fans (in the WHL) are just kind of cheering on the other team, their home team. So other than that, it’s pretty much the same. 

How did you find out about the trade to Portland?

I was walking into the arena, and I got pulled into the general manager and head coach’s, Mark Lamb’s, office. He practically just asked me how I was doing today. I said, ‘Good.’ He was like, ‘Well, we traded you to Portland.’ I just ended up packing up my stuff in the locker room and then had to head home and start packing all my clothes and stuff.

Being from the United States and now playing in Portland, does that make the transition to the Winterhawks easier?

Well, I obviously played here when we played Portland, so I’ve been in Portland before. I’ve been here quite a few times and honestly, I don’t see any differences already. It has been nice.

Does it make it easier for your family, and maybe friends, to watch you play? 

Yeah, exactly. My parents already have been texting me and saying they are coming down and planning a big trip. So, I will have a whole bunch of family and friends coming in.

Isaiah DiLaura (Photo: James Doyle)

What have you picked up so far from your short time in Portland? How does it compare to Prince George? 

They are really hard workers here. They seem to like to compete in practice, and everything’s a battle and a game compared to Prince George where it was just more flow practices. So it’s going to be a good change and I’m excited for it. 

Help fans get to know you off the ice, when you are not playing hockey, what is something you like to do? 

When I’m not playing hockey, especially in summer, I like to go up to the cabin. Hang out there going on the boat, do some tubing, ride a jet ski and what not. So, I just like to have fun. Maybe some video games in the winter.

What is your music choice?

More of a rap and hip hop kinda guy, maybe a couple few country songs in there. If I’m just chilling on a normal day, it is mostly country. 

Any favorite artists?

No, not really. I’m not too picky on my music. I listen to everything mostly.

One last hockey question, any goals for yourself this year? 

Especially coming to a new team, first just make friends, make good teammates. Then from an on the ice standpoint, hopefully become a starter and stop the puck and get wins.


Hope to see everyone around the rink here soon, hockey is officially back!