Tigers have lots to decide as camp opens

By Ryan McCracken on August 24, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Tigers are set to kick off training camp today at the Canalta Centre with scrimmages at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., and plenty of questions left to be answered.

The Tigers parted ways with overagers Mark Rassell, Kristians Rubins and Michael Bullion in the off-season, traded away forward Jaeger White last week and could be without Mason Shaw, David Quenneville and Linus Nassen if they find a place on their respective professional rosters. While it’s undeniably a blow to the back-to-back Central Division champions, it opens the door for plenty young hopefuls to step up.

“There’s lots of different things that can happen,” said Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston, whose team took an annual trip to Elkwater to kick off training camp Wednesday. “You always prepare for what you feel is most likely but there are things that happen every year that are unexpected. That’s part of the game. There’s always challenges and sometimes surprises. Sometimes they’re good surprises and sometimes they’re challenging surprises, but we’re prepared for lots of different scenarios and we’ll just kind of take it day-by-day.”

The Tigers saw plenty of surprises last pre-season, when Nassen showed up just before the team’s first game — prompting them to release German import Mick Kohler in order to keep the Swedish defenceman — while forward Zach Fischer demanded a trade just before the overage cutdown, allowing Bullion to keep his place between the pipes.

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Nassen, Shaw and Quenneville are all entering their overage seasons, along with winger Ryan Jevne and defencemen Dylan MacPherson and Dalton Gally — a group that will need to be narrowed to three by the overage cutdown.

MacPherson, who will be attending Florida Panthers camp alongside Nassen in September, says he’s just aiming to prove himself this weekend, and with any luck the Redcliff product will be playing from home for a third season.

“Right now I’m just coming in to have a good camp and keep pushing the envelope. Hopefully I’ll play my overage season here,” he said, adding he expects many of the team’s younger players to do the same with a handful of open slots and plenty of added responsibility up for grabs. “We have a lot of young guys who can definitely fill those roles. They’ll definitely have to adjust to the minutes, for sure, but I definitely think they’re capable of playing those minutes.”

The roster will be split up into three teams for the first two days of training camp — Black, led by Jevne, Ryan Chyzowski and Tyler Preziuso;White,featuring Gary Haden, Hayden Ostir and first round bantam draft pick Cole Sillinger; and White, which includes MacPherson, Josh Williams and Elijah Brown.

White and Orange face off at the Canalta Centre in a full scrimmage this morning at 11 a.m., followed by Black against Orange at 7 p.m. Camp continues Saturday with a full scrimmage between Black and White at 11 a.m. and mini scrimmages from 6-8:45 p.m.

The camp will be regrouped into two teams for the annual intra-squad game Sunday at 10 a.m.

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