2010-11 preview: newcomers
Published 9:34 am Saturday, April 10, 2010
Who is next season’s Ryan Murray?
The quick answer? No one. Murray is an anomaly, that rare 16-year-old who comes into the WHL and immediately becomes one of the team’s top performers. While teams would like to come up with a Murray every season, it just doesn’t happen. And among Everett’s prospects there’s no one who’s projected to make a Murray-like splash.
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t players who can come in and contribute. The Tips are going to be looking for a certain type of player, though. Under Craig Hartsburg Everett became a pressuring, forechecking team, and that means Everett will be looking for players who fit that mould. The Tips want players who work hard, can skate and have the grit to win battles along the boards and in the corners.
Let’s take each position in turn:
– Forwards: This is where most of Everett’s openings are, and Everett has plenty of candidates lined up. Two of those are 17-year-olds familiar to blog readers. Tyler Giebel, who put up good numbers in the SMAAAHL, spent the final weeks of the season with the team and got into a few games. Manraj Hayer, who had an injury-abbreviated season in the BCHL, was impressive at each of Everett’s past two training camps. But a pair of players listed by the Tips during the season are also in the mix. Cody Fowlie is a late birthdate 92 who finished among the scoring leaders in the AMHL, and he spent a weekend checking out the team late in the season. Taylor Cote, a late birthdate 93 who played in the AJHL, is considered a tough customer. A pair of 16-year-olds also may break through as Jari Erricson and Jordyn Boyd have already signed WHL education contracts.
– Defensemen: Everett has two strong contenders to make next season’s team. Seventeen-year-old Evan Morden had a solid season playing in the MJHL and played for Team West at the U-17 World Hockey Challenge. Sixteen-year-old Nicholas Walters (information not available online) was the eighth-overall pick in last year’s bantam draft. Seth Jones, the team’s other first rounder last year, has committed to play for the U.S. National Team Develop Program’s U-17 team. The Tips still believe he’s going to play in Everett eventually, just not next season. And the Tips would have been hard-pressed to work two 16-year-old defensemen in at once.
– Goaltending: Everett has an opening for a backup. Kent Simpson will take over the No. 1 position on his own, while Thomas Heemskerk will either be in the pros or moved to another team. The Tips have three candidates for the backup spot. Luke Siemens, who will be an 18-year-old, is the top contender. He played junior A this season and showed well in a mini WHL tryout when he made an emergency start for Prince George. Sixteen-year-olds Andy Desautels, who’s already signed, and Alec Rounds will also compete for the position. Desautels was a backup in the SMAAAHL, while Rounds played minor midget in the U.S., so they’ll have to prove themselves at training camp to win the job. Whoever earns the job probably won’t play a lot as Simpson will be a horse next season.
The wild card in all this is the import draft. Everett isn’t expecting defenseman Radko Gudas back, but will hold a spot for him just in case he doesn’t end up playing pro. Since Gudas now has overager status, he’s exempt from the protected list until October and the Tips will be able to make a selection in the import draft without dropping either Gudas or Rasmus Rissanen. Everett will pick late in the first round — somewhere in the mid-50s — and the Tips don’t anticipate drafting an impact player. But historically Everett’s done pretty well in the import draft, so you never know. The Tips probably will select a forward.
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That concludes the season-ending blog series. Thanks for checking in throughout the season. Players start reporting back in late August, but don’t stray too far. The rest of April will be busy as I’ll be posting updates on Everett’s players at the U-18 World Championships, and I’ll have plenty about the awards selections and bantam draft. And as we’ve seen in previous offseasons, there’s often more that happens than expected.
