Tigers get two overagers back

By Sean Rooney on October 2, 2018.

srooney@medicinehatnews.com @MHNRooney

The Medicine Hat Tigers can have three 20-year-old players in the lineup Wednesday when the Prince Albert Raiders come to Canalta Centre.

Which three? With Dylan MacPherson and Linus Nassen on their way back to the club, that’s a question not only for Wednesday, but a bigger one that will have to be answered soon.

MacPherson and Nassen were returned to the WHL Monday by the Florida Panthers after a week at AHL camp with the Panthers’ affiliate in Springfield, Mass. They couldn’t be reached for an interview by press time.

With Ryan Jevne and Dalton Gally already on the roster, Medicine Hat has to pick three to keep by Oct. 10 and can only dress three per game in the interim.

“We’ve got some time, so we haven’t made any decisions,” said Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston. “As to how we work through that, when we get to that point where there’s final decisions made, we’ll announce those.”

MacPherson, Nassen and Gally all play defence, an area Clouston suggested has been slim depth-wise for the Tigers in their first five regular season games. Nassen, from Sweden, also takes up an import spot, but with goalie Mads S¿gaard of Denmark the only other import, they’re not over the two-player limit anyways.

“Right now we’ve got some guys playing a little bit higher than probably they’re comfortable at right now,” said Clouston of his blueliners. “We’re asking a lot of some younger defencemen with not near as much experience.”

Nassen scored a goal for the Springfield Thunderbirds in their 3-2 pre-season loss at Providence, R.I. Saturday. The Thunderbirds also lost 3-2 at home to Providence on Sunday.

The Tigers had a good feeling both 20-year-olds would be returned, but as Clouston noted, it’s not like they had any say in the matter.

“I believed that both of them have some improvement that they can get with game action here, so I thought there was a good chance that we’d see them back for those reasons,” he said. “But those are just my personal opinions.”

The overage situation could yet become more complicated if either David Quenneville (New York Islanders) or Mason Shaw (Minnesota Wild) get sent down, though that would be a bigger surprise than what happened Monday.

Clouston was careful not to suggest getting MacPherson and Nassen back would be some sort of automatic fix, either.

“It can go different ways,” he said. “There’s a potential trap there because this is a really good league. Sometimes what happens is guys come back and they think it’s going to be easier, and it’s just never easy. So if you prepare that it’s going to be easier, you lose every advantage you potentially had. If you take what you learned and prepare for a tough game… (they) have to be totally prepared to handle that.”

That said, there’s no doubt having two returnees from pro camps will be a welcome scenario for all but the one player who will become the victim of the annual overager crunch.

“I think it’s a big boost,” said Clouston. “They’re very good players, they’ve spent a long period of time at a higher level, they’re both excellent skaters.”

With the Raiders matching Edmonton’s surprising 5-0 start and Medicine Hat 1-3-0-1 thus far, Wednesday’s home date looks to be a good test.

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