PHOTO COURTESY OF MEDICINE HAT TIGERS
The Medicine Hat Tigers leadership group for the 2022-23 WHL season poses after the announcement on Wednesday. Assistant captains Dru Krebs, Rhett Parsons, Tyler MacKenzie and Dallon Melin flank captain Owen MacNeil in the middle.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers broke out the sewing machine Wednesday as a few players’ jerseys received a leadership letter.
After starting the season with a rotating group of alternate captaincies, the WHL club officially announced its leadership group headlined by Owen MacNeil being named the 39th captain in franchise history. He says it’s a pretty special privilege to be named captain.
“It’s an honour to be able to share that with the guys in the past, a lot of cool names through here who were able to be a leader in this organization, and to be able to share this with them is pretty flattering to me,” MacNeil said. “I’m really looking forward to the year and I’m excited to get going.”
Joining the 19-year-old forward in the leadership group are assistant captains Rhett Parsons, Dru Krebs, Tyler MacKenzie and Dallon Melin.
MacNeil says the five of them are a pretty special group and all are looking forward to helping lead the team.
“We always say you’re either born a leader or you’re not, you don’t need a letter on your on your jersey. Obviously, the guys who got them are huge leaders but there are some guys who didn’t that are massive leaders as well,” MacNeil said. “But for the guys who did they’ve been awesome, every single one of them could have worn the ‘C’ as well.”
The Tigers made the announcement Wednesday morning after practice, with legendary broadcaster Bob Ridley getting the honours of informing the team who would be captain.
Head coach Willie Desjardins said they had the players vote for their leadership group and while the coaches had the final say, they were happy with who the team chose.
“We have a group of guys that all received votes for the captaincy which I think is a great thing for our team,” Desjardins said. “Gone are the days where one guy is the leader and does everything. We have other guys that can step up and help, and I think that’s important.”
Krebs, who has worn an ‘A’ on his chest before, says being chosen by his teammates and it being announced by Ridley was all special.
“It’s great to be known as a leader on this team, and to get the focus of the guys who voted and see me as a leader as well is a really big honour. “Rids is such a big part of this organization, (he’s) been here for 52 years, that’s insane. So to know the entire organization, and he labelled off all of the captains in history and all the memorable guys, it’s really special being able to be called by him.”
Melin joined the Tigers ahead of training camp with the goal of making the team and being a leader every night. Being named an assistant captain is something he appreciated, but it does not change his approach to being a leader as one of the 20-year-olds in the room.
“Being an assistant captain in the Western Hockey League is a huge honour for me and I just want to keep doing my thing and just be myself,” Melin said. “There’s a reason you’re part of that group and I just think there’s nothing to change.”
The Tigers and their newly named leadership group are in action tonight when they host the Saskatoon Blades, who were ranked ninth in the CHL’s top-10 rankings. The Blades will be the fifth team the Tigers have played early in the year who have ranked in the top-10.
Desjardins says playing those high-calibre teams early has provided the Tigers challenges to work through every night.
“You have to find ways to get points and we have found ways in different games, which has been good for us,” Desjardins said. “It’s a challenge because every night is a hard night and that hopefully that does make us better but we’ll see as we go down the road.”
Saturday night the Tigers host the Victoria Royals, marking the first Western conference team to play in Co-op Place since the 2019-20 season. Both games get underway at 7 p.m.
