Congrats To The Oil Kings

The Edmonton Oil Kings took out the Portland Winterhawks in the 7th game by a score of 4-1.
Link to Game Highlights: http://www.whl.ca/video/index/id/b41c2b50d41f3fbad89e33bc59367d57

This was Portland Second Straight Loss in the WHL Finals.

The Oil Kings will now head over to Shawinigan to face off against: Shawinigan Cataractes, London Knights , and Saint John Sea Dogs for the 2012 memorial cup.

Congrats to the Oil Kings! and Good Luck @ the Memorial Cup!

Tigers Deal for Heavyweight Forward

Medicine Hat, AB - Medicine Hat Tigers General Manager Brad McEwen announced this afternoon the Tigers have traded 17-year-old forward Riley Sheen to the Seattle Thunderbirds in exchange for soon to be 19-year-old forward Jacob Doty.

Doty, who calls Billings, MT home, has spent the past two seasons on a full time basis with the T-Birds. The 6’ 3”, 223 lbs right-winger played five games for Seattle in the 2009-10 season as a 16-year-old. In fifty-five games last season, Jake scored two goals and added five assists for seven points while picking up 107 penalty minutes.



“We acquired a 19-year-old forward in Jake who will give us a bigger forward up front,” said Tigers’ general manager Brad McEwen.  “Jake will give us some good fore checking presence and will compete hard on the puck. We are looking forward to Jake joining our team.”



“We thank Riley and his family for his time and effort while with the Tigers and wish him all the best in his future endeavours,” stated McEwen.
http://tigershockey.com/

----------
Last season Doty was involved in 15 fights, and 24 the year before. He is a fan favorite in Seattle.
Here is his hockeyfights.com profile http://www.hockeyfights.com/players/12825
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A move to add toughness. I thought Sheen was playing well at the end of the season but was a victim to the depth charts....He will have a big opportunity to earn some prime time minutes in Seattle.

The Tigers forward group is already pretty packed, even moreso if Kessy does indeed return....A couple new prospects will likely force their way into the roster, and you gotta think room will need to eventually be made.



Updated Depth Charts (just a quick setup)

Shinkaruk(18) Bredo(19)  Dieno(19)
Leier(19) Valk(19) Koules(18)
Labelle(17) Hart(18) Cox(17)
Kessy(20) Doty(19) Hurley (19)

Broadhead(17)
xxx
+ Prospects

Defence
Parkkonen(19)? Lewington(18)
Becker(18) Busenius(19)
Jenson(17)  xxx
xxx

Mckay(school)
Alex Theriau (pro??)
Prospects

+Euro

2012 WHL BANTAM DRAFT

Will update every 30 mins or so

1st Round
- 16th - Ty Schultz – D, Burnaby Winter Club 5’11” 160 lbs

Scouting report on him says he is a very good puck mover, a strong skater, and anticipates the play very well
-----------------------------------------------------------------

2nd Round
 38th - Matthew Bradley - C miahmoo Bantam A1-T1 5'9 150 lbs

- found a scouting video of him here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE2Hot3q1_Y

---------------------------------------------------------------

3rd Round
- No Picks

4th Round
- No Pick
---------------------------------------------------------------

5th Round
104th Jordan Xavier C 5'8 134 lbs - Calgary Northstars Bantam AAA
Jordan's Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/JordanXavier18
- scouting reports say he is very speedy
---------------------------------------------------------------

6th Round
125th - Mendell Dubuisson - RW - 6'0' 150lbs - Phoenix Firebirds U14 - Surprise Arizona
      - Power Forward type player
126th - Mitchell Dyck - D - 6'0 184 lbs - Pembina Valley AAA Bantam - Winkler Manitoba
---------------------------------------------------------------

7th Round
143rd - Riley Morris - G 5'10 154 lbs -  Calgary Bronks Bantam AAA - Calgary
     - Athletic, Catches Left

148th -  Justin Young - C 5'11 152 lbs -  Leduc Bantam AAA - Leduc
----------------------------------------------------------------

8th Round
170th -  Brad Forrest D 5'9 135 lbs Calgary Bisons Bantam AAA - Calgary
   - Some scouts had him pegged to go much higher..
---------------------------------------------------------------------

9th Round
192nd - Jake Fletcher LW 5'9 155 lbs Semiahmoo Bantam A1-T1 Surrey B.C.
----------------------------------------------------------------

10th Round
214th -  Todd Bredo D 6'2 170lbs  - Prince George Bantam Tier 1

-------------------------------

11th Round
236 Brayden Uhrich RW 5'9 151 lbs Notre Dame Bantam AAA -  Rosetown Sask,

Tigers are Done.

http://tigershockey.com/article/tigers-2012-bantam-draft-selections

4 Defenseman
6 Forwards
1 Goalie
Avg Height: 5'10.5
Avg Weight: 153.2 lbs

2012 WHL Bantam Draft Preveiw

 The Tigers Picks by round

1st Round(1)
2nd Round(1)  
3rd Round(0) 
4th Round(0)
5th Round(1)
6th Round(2)
7th Round(2)
8th Round(1)
9th Round(1)
10th Round (1)
 and so on.... until they stop selecting players. They have traditionally passed in the 10th round and later but it largely depends on how full their 50 player protected list is.



You can Watch the WHL Bantam Draft live here:
http://yyz.neulion.com/static/hockey/whl/awards-draft-2012/

Draft Lists
http://www.whl.ca/draft/fullDraft

Tyler Bunz named WHL Goalie of the Year
Congrats to Tyler Bunz.

Emerson Etem was a runner up for WHL player of the year.

http://www.whl.ca/article/whl-announces-2011-12-award-winners

Miles Koules Decides to Join the Tigers

From his twitter feed
 - https://twitter.com/#%21/mileskoules
"Made my decision to play for the Medicine Hat Tigers next season."

http://thepipelineshow.blogspot.ca/2012/04/koules-picks-medicine-hat.html#more
http://futureconsiderations.ca/quick-hits-koules-bulking-up/
http://atraditionofexcellence.blogspot.ca/2012/01/recruit-profile-miles-koules.html
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/235452/group/homepage/

Edit
MH News Article

At the Trade Deadline the Tigers traded Reid Petryk and a conditional 4th round pick  to Everett for the Rights to Miles Koules and a conditional 4th round pick.

Koules is eligible for this years NHL draft.

NHL central scouting had Koules ranked as the 151st North American Skater during mid-term reports, but fell to 201 overall for the year end rankings. This coming season will be his 18 year old year. He put up 15 points in 28 games for the US national Team Development Program which plays games in the ushl.

WHL Bantam Draft
Is coming up this week on May 3rd (Thursday)

Emerson Etem Update
Etem's Team the Syracuse Crunch were eliminated from the AHL playoffs 3 games to 1 against the St. John's IceCaps

 Etem scored 2 goals in 4 playoff games, and added 1 goal in 2 regular season games.

Shinkaruk Impresses At Under 18's

Team Canada was playing in the Bronze Medal game this afternoon. They previously lost to the U.S.A 2-1 in the semifinals. Team U.S.A dominated almost every team they played outscoring the opposition 26-4..including a 7-0 win over Sweden in the Gold Medal game.

 Hunter Shinkaruk scored a hat-trick including the game winning goal in overtime against Finland to win the game for Team Canada.

The game winner was a highlight real goal, as he drove wide past the Finnish Defender cut to the net and put the puck past an outstretched Finnish goaltender.

Shinkaruk finished the Tournament with 8 points in 6 games(4 goals, 4 assists). Which was tied for 2nd in scoring on Team Canada behind Red Deer Rebel Mathew Dumba who potted 12 assist in 7 games.

Keep your eyes on TSN for the game highlights..


Emerson Etem Update
Etem has played 2 regular season games, and 2 playoff games with Syracuse. He has 1 goal, 6 shots on net and 2 penalty minutes.  The crunch are tied 1-1 in their series against St. Johns Ice Caps

Next Season Outlook

Players not Coming Back
Cole Grbavac (overage)
Emerson Etem ( NHL Contract)
James Bettauer (overage)
Matt Konan (overage)


Very Unlikely to Return

Tyler Bunz (NHL Contract) - The oilers 2 'tenders in the AHL(Yann Danis, and David Leneveu had very strong years. Oliver Roy had a very strong season in the echl last year and will likely be moved up to the AHL. Where Bunz plays will depend on what the Oilers do with their goalies. It could be likely that Bunz starts in the ECHL next season taking a similar path to Oliver Roy. But the Oilers would likely have to dump someone to make room.


Uncertain
Kale Kessy - Kale Kessy has a contract but I don't believe he is quite ready to make the jump yet. It would be beneficial for him to work on his game for another year in the whl. That being said its up to the coyotes to decide where he plays.

Alex Theriau - Will be having off-season Hip surgery for a torn labrum. This injury was known as the beginning of the season, and he played through the whole year with it. Recovery time could potentially be as long as 6 months..if that's the case I think it would be likely that we would see him back for another season. If he recovers faster he may move on to the pro leagues.

Patrik Parkkonen - 18 year old Finnish Males are conscripted into the military...could play havoc on if he is here for a whole year.


Next Years Overager's
Scott Mckay
Kale Kessy
Alex Theriau

If Kessy and Theriau return it would appear as if the overage situation is set. Mckay is eligible to come back next year. It might be possible that the Tigers look for a younger movement, or put him back on the blue-line if Theriau/Parkkonen doesn't come back. I think at least one of Kessy/Theriau will return...they could be in the market for another overager.

Edit: It was mentioned that Mckay may be looking to go the college route next season. If that's the case the Tigers are definitely in the market for an overager.

Long-Term

Next season will be an experience building year, but that does not mean they will not dress a good team. In 2 years the Tigers have the potential to Dress incredibly strong group of players. A lot of guys are in their draft season this coming year.

.....Their could be some tough decisions with 1 or 2 older players. If your building for 2 years down the road..a couple of next years 19's might possibly be trade bait. (Leier,Valk,Bredo,Hurley,Busenius,Parkkonen,Cameron,Dieno) ..there's always a chance one of them earns a contract and doesn't come back for their 20 yr old year....but I doubt that whole group are still Tigers by the end of next season.


Forwards

Tigers could potentially only loose Emerson Etem and Cole Grbavac. I think Kessy is a good candidate to be back for another year.

The Tigers will be able to roll 3 solid lines, perhaps all 4 depending on what level the talent coming in has to bring. Pretty much the same depth but a year older..which hopefully means a little more scoring by committee.

(depth purposes only)..includes Kessy...puts Mckay back on defence.

Shinkaruk(18) Valk(19) Leier(19)
Kessy(20) Bredo(19) Dieno (19)
Labelle(17) Hart(18) Cox(17)
Sheen(18) Broadhead(17) Hurley(19)
xxx
xxx

Prospects
Steve Owre
Blake Penner
Chad Butcher
Alex Mobray
+ other prospects

I'm really liking the skill of the forward group, this group should remain fairly intact for the season after next as well. They have a very strong group of centerman. If Kessy doesn't come back they will certainly need someone who can throw his weight around.

Defence
Parkkonen(19) Lewington(18)
Becker(18) Busenius(19)
Jenson(17) xxx
xxx

Alex Theriau ??
Mckay (20) school??
Ty Stanton(17)
+prospects

A little uncertain. If Theriau doesn't come back, and Parkkonen gets conscripted it will be a very young group.

Goalies
Kenny Cameron(19)
Dawson MacAuley(18)
Zac Robidoux (16)
+ other prospects

The goalies are in a bit of an awkward position. I wish Cameron was 1 year younger... With the strong 20 year old group for the season after next he would have to play lights out to push someone out of a spot. However this season It will be another battle royal for the #1 spot.

After looking at the depth charts I think Hurley, and Mckay will be in tough to keep spots, just because of the young guys coming back...and more of a youth movement for next season. If Theriau doesn't come back depending on the up and coming prospects Mckay could be very helpful on the blue-line for next season. I could see a guy like Busenius bringing in good value in a trade if depth allows for it.


Next year will be very exciting Hunter Shinkaruk, Jayden Hart, Riley Sheen, Tyler Lewington, Gavin Broadhead,Chad Labelle, Trevor Cox,Spenser Jensen are all draft eligible, which means they will be working hard in the off-season and looking to come back with a vengeance for next season. It will be exciting to see how their game improves over the course of next season, and see how many players get drafted. If these guys all show up next season the Tigers could be a dark horse in the second half of the season.

Late Edit
Their is also a possiblity of an nhl lockout to consider. I really hope that doesnt happen as the nhl has grown a lot in the last couple seasons. However if the NHL were to lockout it could be likely that Emerson Etem, and Tyler Bunz would return for thier overager year.

Emerson Etem UPDATE
Emerson played in his first two AHL games this weekend. In the Second game he scored the Game winner and was named 2nd star!! Go ETEM!!

http://blog.syracuse.com/crunch/2012/04/syracuse_crunch_playoff-bound.html

(Re:Edit) Warriors Sweep the Tigers

Moose Jaw Defeats Tigers 4-3 OT

Pre-Game
Alex Theriau was out with a hip injury. Kyle Becker dressed in his place and looked really good in doing so.

Short Summary
It was the Tigers best game of the series, unfortunately it wasn't enough. The tigers were able to get a few more pucks out of their end however, Moose Jaw still fired 47 shots on net. Moose Jaw came out a little flat in the first period despite getting the first goal of the game 1:43 in.

Power-Play Success
The Tigers made Moose Jaw pay taking penalties as they scored 3 powerplay goals in the first period to take a 3-1 Lead (Bettauer x2, Boston Leier were the goal scorers).

Momentum Changer
Like the previous game the warriors took the momentum over in the second period with a powerplay goal of their own. The Warriors then tied the game up with about 4 minutes left in the third period as Sam Fioretti managed to handcuff Bunz on a wrist shot just inside the blueline.

So Close
The Tigers had quite a few scoring chances in the third period and overtime. Another post hit and a dozen or so chances that squeaked inches wide of the net. They had 2 incredible chances to win the game in overtime, but it just wasn't meant to be as 15 year old standout Brayden Point snapped a rebound over-top a fallen Tyler Bunz to win them the game.


Congrats to Moose Jaw, they are going to give Edmonton a real good run for their money in the conference final. I don't think I've ever seen a 15 year old callup play first line minutes in the playoffs. The warriors have an absolute gem in their hands.

Closing Thoughts
It was a fun treat to Watch Emerson Etem, Tyler Bunz, Cole Grbavac, and Matt Konan play the last couple seasons, and a pleasant surprise to see newcomer James Bettauer lead the league in Defensive scoring. ALL 5 players will be missed next season.

We weren't exactly sure what type of season the Tigers were going to have this year, and the coach Darren Kruger said the same thing on the radio after the game ended.

I think making it to the second round should be considered a successful season. Its too bad that injuries down the stretch made life a little difficult, but it could also be a blessing in disguise as the Tigers found out that Chad Labelle, and Kyle Becker look more than whl ready, As well as the Emergence of Rhyse Dieno before he got injured.

Initial thoughts for next season is that it will be an experience building year. The Tigers will be younger and could still have a good shot at making the playoffs. They have a lot of young talent that when it matures in 2 years they could be making deep playoff runs, but if they are building for 2 years they might have some tough 19 year old decisions to make for next year, but I'll get more into that in a couple days.


Looking Back to last July (Season predictions for this year)
----------------------------
http://tigerturf.blogspot.ca/2011/07/next-season.html
I'm not sure what to think. If certain combos can gel, they will be the dark horse of the league and surprise, especially with the loss of guys like Pitlick, Vey, and Hamilton. However theirs also the possibility of having the supporting players/ depth not up to par if the 18 year olds don't step up their game.


They have a combo of smart, physical, fast and skilled forwards, They should maintain an average offense at worst. The Question will be on how the secondary offense and defense gels together.


It seems like they have the ingredients of where their not expected to be a power house yet could surprise if things mix together well. Yet they could also cook up a rotten batch of cookies. A safe bet would put them in the middle of the pack 5th-6th. However I wont be surprised to see them fall or rise in either direction.
----------------------------
It was a little general, but the Tigers finished 4th and made it to round two. I think they did slightly better than expectations considering the losses of the previous season.

Whats Next
Sometime over the next couple days I'll do an outlook for next season, and then my annual NHL Arm Chair GM scouting report I do for kicks soon after. As well as a look at how former Tigers of the previous years have been doing.

Radio
I just missed it but I thought I heard Kruger on the radio say that Kessy was coming back next season. Anyone else catch or confirm that?

Articles
http://www.mjtimes.sk.ca/Sports/Hockey/2012-04-12/article-2952734/Point-scores-OT-winner-to-give-Warriors-a-series-sweep-over-the-Tigers/1

http://www.medicinehatnews.com/local-sports/braes-appreciates-playoffs-more-with-age-04112012.html

Overtime Heartbreak

Warriors Defeat Tigers 4-2

Warriors Take a commanding 3-0 Series Lead.

Well we saw it live on TV but once you watch this warriors team on the ice you realize that they are the real deal.

I thought the Tigers skated real well with them in the first period, However the second period was a little ugly as the warriors took the game over outshooting the Tigers 23 to 8. The warriors strong fore-check wore the Tigers out and in the third period mistakes were being made.

Tigers are having trouble getting out of their zone, and when they do, its usually time for a dump in and change. The warriors are doing a hell of a job shadowing players looking for breakout passes, and putting lots of pressure on the Defenceman. Tigers gotta try and find some way to get past that.

The warriors defenceman play very big..I thought the Tigers second efforts could have been improved a little as legs would stop moving when they get in close. Keep their feet moving and they might get a few more calls go their way tomorrow.

A couple incidents that happened during the game. Curtis Valk ran over Luke Siemens as he scored the first goal of the game. It was a fight for a loose puck, and Valk poked the puck overtop of the goalie as Siemens dove for it. He was down for a bit but remained in the game.

Trevor Cox took a huge hit to the head, and I don't remember seeing him back on the ice after. Brendan Hurley hit Dallas Ehrhardt from behind. Ehrhardt would leave the game temporarily but was back on the ice during the last 5 minutes.

Game Four Tomorrow Night. Will it be the last time we get to watch Emerson Etem in a Tiger's Jersey?

Etem Back For Game Three

Just checked the whl discipline page, and his suspensions is listed as 1 game.


04/07/12 - Emerson Etem - Medicine Hat
One game for knee major and g.m. at Moose Jaw on April 6

http://www.whl.ca/page/WHL-discipline
---------------------
EDIT
NHL Central Scouting

NHL Central Scouting Released their Final Year End Rankings. No Tigers made the list, however the only Tigers that are first year eligible are Kyle Becker and Dawson MacAulay, both late season callups.

Most of the Tigers '94's have late birthdays. Some Player eligible for next years draft include: Hunter Shinkaruk, Jayden Hart, Riley Sheen, Tyler Lewington, Gavin Broadhead,Chad Labelle, Trevor Cox,Spenser Jensen......The Arena may be a scouting haven next season, moreso If one or more of those players mentioned aside from Shinkaruk has a breakout season