NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Medicine Hat Tigers rookie Cole Sillinger listens to coaching staff during a media break in his team’s Western Hockey League game against the Swift Current Broncos on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2019 at the Canalta Centre.
It has been an honour for Cole Sillinger the two times he’s pulled the Blue Jackets jersey on this preseason.
He says there are still some staff members with Columbus who worked with the club when his dad Mike was playing.
“They’re giving me a little yap about how they’re getting old,” he said.” It’s truly an honour to put on that Blue Jackets jersey every time.”
Sillinger took part in Columbus’s rookie camp before being promoted to the main training camp. He has made it past a couple rounds of cuts and has found himself on a line with Patrik Laine and Jakub Voracek, two NHL regulars. He says they’ve allowed him to play his game and feel relaxed.
“They’re two NHL veterans and really elite players, it just makes it that much easier to play with them because they’re always in the right spot and you know what you’re going to get from them every night. They’re super consistent.” Sillinger said.
He has dressed in two preseason games, notching an assist in game one against the Pittsburgh Penguins. His goal is to make the NHL club right out of camp and he says he’s gotten better every day with the big-league club.
“It’s been a real good experience and I feel like every day I have gotten better as a player and as a person since day one,” he said.
If he makes the NHL club and doesn’t return to Medicine Hat, Sillinger says he will miss the culture within the organization.
“The culture is unbelievable there, it’s second to none. I don’t think I have been a part of a team that has been closer than our Medicine Hat group.
Sillinger is one of four Tigers who donned NHL jerseys this fall but is the only one still with their big club. Forward Lukas Svejkovsky took part in Pittsburgh’s camp before being sent back to Medicine Hat earlier this week. Defensemen Dru Krebs and goalie Garin Bjorklund attended the Washington Capitals training camp and were released back to the Tigers on Tuesday.
The plan for those three is still unknown but they will draw into the Tigers lineup in likely for the first couple of weeks.
As for Sillinger, his future in Medicine Hat and as a junior hockey player lives and breathes in Ohio.
