Kia CHL Top-10 Spotlight: Tigers roaring back
The Medicine Hat Tigers are on the prowl.
With the Western Hockey League’s Alberta-based clubs set to Return to Play on February 26, the Tigers will begin their 24-game interprovincial slate with a home-and-home set against Red Deer.
The long-awaited season debut comes on the heels of a successful 2019-20 campaign in which the club sat second in the Central Division with 85 points when play paused, and with much of the same winning squad set to return, save for a trio of overage graduates headlined by longtime captain and last season’s leading scorer in James Hamblin whose 92-point finish ranked third league-wide.
“We’re coming in with a set team and right from the get-go we are learning systems and everything,” right-wing Corson Hopwo, who finished fifth in team scoring last season with 41 points, told Ryan McCracken of the Medicine Hat News. “It is not easing our way in like we are used to. I am excited.”
In the absence of Hamblin, the Tigers’ offensive ranks will be reinforced by a pair of 20-year-old centres in Brett Kemp and Ryan Chyzowski, who finished second and third in team scoring last season, respectively, and the latter who spent his offseason training alongside former Tigers head coach Shaun Clouston.
“It has been fun,” Chyzowski told McCracken. “It has been good to have some high-paced tempo and actual game-like practices with him.”
The WHL has announced the first two weeks of the Central Division schedule for the 2020-21 Regular Season!
DETAILS 🗓️ | https://t.co/bNvcNWLcgt pic.twitter.com/1WFR6R593C
— The WHL (@TheWHL) February 12, 2021
Joining Kemp and Chyzowski at the forward ranks is Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Lukas Svejkovsky, who upon arriving in Medicine Hat midseason last year found a new offensive gear to the tune of 28 points through 34 games with the Tigers, putting him on the draft radar as he was ultimately chosen in the fourth round of the 2020 class.
A speedy winger with good puck skills, Svejkovsky is the son of Tri-City Americans alumnus Jaroslav Svejkovsky, but he is not the only member of the Tigers with hockey bloodlines. There is also defenceman Dru Krebs, whose brother Peyton Krebs, a first-round selection of the Vegas Golden Knights, captained Winnipeg last season.
For the younger Krebs, the 2020-21 campaign comes with added emphasis as he is eligible for the NHL Draft. A diminutive defender, Krebs had a modest rookie showing with the Tigers last season, posting 13 points through 55 games while he will now look to build on that effort in the coming campaign as part of a solid blue line anchored by key veterans including Daniel Baker and Cole Clayton.
“I am just coming in prepared and I have the knowledge I need to work and keep on pursuing my dream,” Krebs told McCracken. “I have been really working on my strength and speed, all the key fundamentals to my game.
“I was really happy with how much work I have been able to put in to stay in shape this entire time. For the most part, I just kept a really optimistic mindset that this was going to happen and we were going to play a season. I didn’t want to be coming into the season unprepared so I think having that mindset and the goal that something is going to happen was huge for me and my motivation to keep going to the gym and keep working hard on the ice.”
Congratulations Garin Bjorklund on being drafted in the 6th round by the Washington @Capitals pic.twitter.com/r1V8BaL34Y
— Medicine Hat Tigers (@tigershockey) October 7, 2020
The hockey pedigree then continue with rookie Oasiz Wiesblatt, the 12th overall selection from the 2019 WHL Draft whose brother Ozzy, a forward with Prince Albert, recently heard his name called in the first round of the 2020 NHL Draft by the San Jose Sharks. The younger will use familial advice along with an early introduction – Wiesblatt made a one-game appearance with the Tigers last November – to help him prepare for his first junior season.
“Walking into the room was so surreal, seeing how it is a first-class organization, (and) then putting on my gear and getting to see what the WHL is really about was amazing,” recalled Wiesblatt per Tigers team reporter Erin Schwab. “I still remember every part of the game in the back of my head, it was truly an honour, and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity I got.”
Of course, no contending team is complete without strength between the pipes, an area where the Tigers are sure to excel with 18-year-old netminder Garin Bjorklund, a Washington Capitals draftee who assumes the top duties this season with former starter Mads Sogaard competing in his native Denmark.
Bjorklund impressed last season, putting together an incredible 20-5-1-0 showing through 28 games to offer an early glimpse of a renewed Tigers squad that is solid in its own end and brings plenty of scoring options up front and that will be ready to pounce when the puck drops in Alberta later this month.