Desjardins excited for Tigers spring camp

By JAMES TUBB on June 9, 2022.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

It’s a weekend that Willie Desjardins looks forward to come summer time.

The Medicine Hat Tigers are hosting their prospect orientation camp this weekend. Desjardins, the Tigers general manager and head coach, is excited to see the team’s prospect pool that includes the 2021 and 2022 WHL drafts on the ice together for the first time.

“We think we had a great draft. That’s one of the basis of becoming a championship team again, is this draft,” Desjardins said. “There will be some high-end guys who will turn out to be really high-end players and there’s going to be some guys that maybe weren’t drafted quite as high that are going to turn to be high-end players as well. You don’t really know which ones are going to do it. There’s a lot of hockey ahead of everybody but it’s exciting for us, we’ve got some really good young players.”

After their difficult 2021-22 season, the Tigers selected 14-year-old Gavin McKenna first overall in the WHL prospect draft. McKenna was the consensus No. 1 pick at the time and quickly became the Tigers’ top prospect after putting up 23 goals and 65 points in 36 games at the CSSHL U18 level with Rink Kelowna Hockey Academy.

Desjardins said he could go on about every player in the Tigers draft class, but said they have a lot of work ahead of them if they want to be players in the WHL.

“They all have a lot of work, if they just quit proving themselves, they’re not going to turn out to be players, they all have to keep improving if they’re going to become the players they want,” Desjardins said. “Do we think we have some good guys? Yeah, we do. Every one of them has the ability to be a really good Western League player.”

McKenna won’t be in attendance this weekend for the orientation camp, but the rest of the Tigers prospect pool will be there learning about the Tigers organization and where their development path fits into the team’s plan. Desjardins used this year’s 89th overall pick, Jack Kachkowski, as an example of a player who hasn’t decided which route he wants to take and how this weekend can be a pitch to don the orange and black.

“To have guys like that coming in, it’s really exciting. It gives them a chance to say, here’s what this team is about, maybe this is a good way to go, or this is something I’d like to do,” Desjardins said. “That’s the first part, is for us to introduce all the players into who we are and what we’re doing. The second thing is for us to get to know them better. Where we get to see them on the ice and learn what their skills are and what they’re about and find out their personalities a little bit. It basically is a two-way street, where we get to learn about each other and that’s exciting.”

Desjardins said there’s not one guy he’s looking forward to seeing the most, he’s just excited for the group to be together.

“Just see who’s where, who’s doing what. All of these guys are young, there’s so much development ahead, there’s so much,” Desjardins said. “I remember when we had Kris Russell and Tyler Ennis come in, these guys were getting young players. When we saw them, it’s like, they have some talent, but we had no idea what they were going turn into. This is the same, Derek Dorsett. There’s so many guys that come in that are just young with potential and it’s exciting to be able to be part of seeing them grow.”

There’s no set scrimmage for Tigers fans to come watch the prospects in action at the Big Marble Go Centre, but they will be on the ice for periods of time throughout the weekend working on skill development.

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