NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Hunter St. Martin celebrates his first goal of the pre season Saturday in the Tigers 5-4 overtime win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Medicine Hat Tigers practice Monday featured fewer bodies than the week prior following the club’s roster cuts after their first two preseason games.
The roster is down to 31 players, 18 forwards, eight defencemen and five goalies, all trying out for a role on the WHL club. Medicine Hat is coming off a split weekend of preseason action, as they lost 7-3 Friday night in Lethbridge before bouncing back with a 5-4 overtime win against the Hurricanes on Saturday at Co-op Place.
Tigers top prospect Gavin McKenna played in both games, picking up an assist in Friday’s loss and a goal and an assist on Oren Shtrom’s game winner Saturday. He said the WHL is high paced but has been fun to play in so far. He was happy to get his first goal, even if it’s in the preseason.
“It’s pretty hard to knock the smile off my face, it’s pretty, pretty nice,” McKenna said. “Just getting the monkey off my back pretty early, I felt good.”
Defenceman Bogdans Hodass and forward Hunter St. Martin also scored in the Tigers win Saturday.
Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins said he was encouraged to see how his younger players did and how the team made the come back effort in Saturday’s win.
“Every game matters, every game you want to win,” Desjardins said. “If you lose easy it’s probably a sign you’re always going to lose easy. It was certainly better that we stayed with them and we played hard.”
After Saturday’s game, the Tigers reassigned some of their prospects and also removed returning forwards 20-year-old Noah Danielson and 19-year-old Ashton Ferster from the preseason roster. Desjardins said both were hard moves as they are “exceptional people,” but cited having to do what’s best for the Tigers’ future.
“When we’re coming to a decisions it’s, what is going to make us better. We feel we have to play quicker and that really hurt Ferster,” Desjardins said. “I wanted to see him over the summer to see if there was a chance because I didn’t want to lose him, he’s such a good person but you know I didn’t think he got quicker and I think we have some younger guys coming in that can play. Danielson it’s a little different … at a time we were short 20s now we have a few extra and we just felt it was best for him to give him a chance to try to find a team.”
The Tigers still have four 20-year-olds trying out for their three overage slots. Dallon Melin, Oskari Kuntonen and Brendan Lee all suited up in games last weekend and contributed offensively. Melin had two goals, Kuntonen an assist and Lee knocked in a goal and two assists.
The fourth 20-year-old is forward Alex Drover, who joins the Tigers from the QMJHL’s Rimouksi Oceanic, where he had 14 goals and 37 points in 44 games last season with the Oceanic before a shoulder injury put an end to his year. Drover was a 10th overall pick by the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in 2018 QMJHL draft before he was moved to the Saint John Sea Dogs and three years later, the Oceanic.
“He’s an offensive player, he’s good on the power play, a right handed shot; we don’t have many right handed shots,” Desjardins said. “He ticked a few of the boxes and he’s a smart player, too. He’s come in and his career didn’t go the way he thought it would at one time. He’s looking, this is his chance to come get back in and show him what he can do.”
After practice Monday the Tigers announced the signing of defenceman Blake Ekren-Bratton. The 17-year-old was selected by the Tigers 61st overall in the 2020 WHL prospects draft and is one of the eight defenders remaining on the Tabbies pre season roster.
“Blake is a big, hard defender that likes to play physical,” said Tigers associate coach Joe Frazer in a team release. “He also possesses a heavy shot and a great first pass.”
