Everett may have come away from its road trip to Prince George last weekend with two wins, but Silvertips may have suffered a major loss in the process as one of their best players was lost to injury.
Chad Bassen, one of the team’s leading scorers, suffered a knee injury during Everett’s 3-0 victory over the Cougars on Saturday and he may be out until the end of the regular season.
“It’s going to be an extended period of time,” Everett coach Kevin Constantine said about the length of time Bassen will miss. “It could take till the playoffs before he’s back. Then again he might be back in three-to-four weeks.”
Bassen, a 20-year-old forward who was acquired in October in the Overager Draft after being released by Medicine Hat, was hit on the side of his left leg, causing damage to the medial collateral ligament. The full extent of the injury is expected to be known later this week.
“It’s a big loss,” Constantine said. “He’s on our power play, he’s on our penalty kill and he’s just an energy guy. If you remember back when we didn’t have Chad on the team, we weren’t winning many games. Then he showed up and we started winning and I think he was a big reason for that, which means his loss is critically bad for us.”
Bassen is tied for the team lead in scoring with 31 points (12 goals, 19 assists).
Pickup: The Silvertips made something of a silent splash late last week when they acquired the rights to goaltender Brandon Heatherington.
Everett added Heatherington to its 50-man Protected Player List after he was released by Regina. The 18-year-old Heatherington began the season as Seattle’s No. 1 goalie before the T-Birds traded him to Regina.
“We were slightly surprised,” Everett general manager Doug Soetaert said of Heatherington’s availability. “With the year he was having, I guess they didn’t have room for him in Regina.”
Last season as Seattle’s No. 2 goalie, Heatherington was 14-4-1 with a 2.99 goals against average and a .898 save percentage.
This season Heatherington played in six of Seattle’s first nine games, going 1-2-3 with a 2.24 goals against average. However, he then fell out of favor as Seattle traded for Bryan Bridges and Josh Lepp, and Heatherington was himself dealt to Regina for a fifth-round pick in the 2004 Bantam Draft.
Heatherington’s time in Regina was disastrous as he was 1-6 with a 5.09 goals against average. He was then deemed expendable after the Pats acquired 17-year-old goalie Dustin Slade from Kamloops in the Josh Harding trade.
But Heatherington’s struggles this season didn’t deter the Silvertips.
“We liked him when we saw him in training camp, and when he played against us I thought he played well,” Soetaert said. “He has a lot of talent and a lot of ability. Next season he’s going to have to create a good work ethic and come to camp in good shape to compete for a job.”
Because the Silvertips are strong in goal with Jeff Harvey and Michael Wall, Heatherington, a native of Red Deer, Alberta, who’s currently playing for South Surrey of the British Columbia Junior League, will not play for Everett this season. He will be invited to training camp next season to compete with 1987-born Curt Jory and 88s Leland Irving and Joe Rodwell for the backup spot behind Wall.
“There will be a lot of competition for the No. 2 spot next year, which is what we want,” Soetaert said. “This year we had no competition for the No. 2 spot until we traded for Wall. So we’re trying to build a little depth at that position.”
Miracle: The Silvertips will be attending the Seattle premier of “Miracle,” a movie based on the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team, on Thursday.
The movie is being shown at 7 p.m. the Pacific Place Theater in downtown Seattle. The Silvertips will be there signing autographs beginning at 5:30 p.m.
“Miracle” is scheduled to be released nationwide on Feb. 6.
Scouting report: The T-birds appear to be on their last wings, so to speak.
Seattle (14-24-8-3) is mired in last place in the U.S. Division and has drifted 12 points out of a playoff spot. The T-birds are 3-6-1 in their last 10, have lost their last three, and their most recent game, a 4-0 loss at home against Vancouver on Sunday, was described by coach Dean Chynoweth as the team’s worst game of the season. In addition, Seattle is plagued by injuries to defenseman Zach FitzGerald (ankle) and forwards Ryan Gibbons (shoulder) and David Svagrovsky (shoulder).
In addition, Everett (23-17-7-1) has lost just once in seven meetings with Seattle so far this season. going 3-1-3.
With the injuries, Seattle becomes even more dependent on its top forwards, 20-year-old Dustin Johner (17 goals, 19 assists) and 19-year-old Tyler Metcalfe (16 goals, 23 assists). Eighteen-year-olds Bryan Bridges (9-12-2, 2.60 goals against average, .896 save percentage) and Josh Lepp (4-9-3, 3.20 goals against average, .875 save percentage) continue to share the load in goal.
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