No holding back

By Ryan McCracken on September 8, 2017.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

Entering his first season of Western Hockey League eligibility as the highest Medicine Hat Tigers draft pick in more than a decade, Josh Williams made a promise to himself.

No holding back.

“I just wanted to prove myself. I wanted to show everyone they drafted me for a reason. I didn’t want to come in here and just be happy with getting drafted. I want to be an every day guy here and make an impact on the team.”

The 16-year-old Burnaby product enters the weekend sitting first in the WHL for pre-season points-per-game and second in overall points with four goals and two assists through two wins over the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

The 6-foot-1, 185-pound forward spent the majority of his first pre-season game on a line with Tyler Preziuso and Mick Kohler before head coach Shaun Clouston swapped Preziuso for Rassell the following night — which resulted in two goals and two assists from both Rassell and Williams.

With Rassell in Calgary for Flames training camp, Clouston says Ryan Jevne will likely step in alongside Williams and Kohler in Moose Jaw. Jevne is coming off a 28-point campaign with the Tigers last season, and after a strong summer, Clouston says he expects big things from the 5-foot-7, 175-pound right winger.

“He’s one of the guys we believe can have a breakout year,” Clouston said of Jevne, adding he’s liked what he has seen from Kohler so far. “He hasn’t been as flashy, but we’ve really liked what we’ve seen out of him so far. He’s got to make some adjustments to the way we play but there’s some real positive signs there.”

Williams was able to check off his first career goal last season. But the goal came in a 6-3 loss all the way back in February — fittingly enough against the Moose Jaw Warriors.

“I have a lot of friends on Moose Jaw too so I think that will be a good game,” he said. “Hopefully we can come out with the win.”

Williams spent the majority of last season with the Canadian Sport School Hockey League’s Yale Hockey Academy, where he posted 18 goals and 37 assists in just 27 games before adding four points in three playoff contests. He says the jump to midget allowed him to greatly develop his (awareness and skating) in preparation of making the jump to major junior.

“It was definitely different, bigger and stronger guys so I just tried to get my body ready for the bigger league,” said Williams, adding the training hasn’t’ stopped. “I just tried to get ready the best I could during the summer and come in with a good attitude.”

Clouston added he hopes the team’s new talent — both in the form of import Kohler and newly eligible draft picks like Williams and Henry Rybinski — will allow the Tigers to enter the season with three scoring lines.

“It was such a strength last year — at the start of the year it appeared that (James) Hamblin, Rassell and (Max) Gerlach were a third line but they all put up huge numbers and scored a ton of goals,” said Clouston. “It’s kind of a work in progress. We’d love to be able to have three lines, but only time will tell if we can get to that point.”

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