NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers prospect Hayden Harsanyi keeps his eye on the puck in the Tigers 5-4 pre season win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Hayden Harsanyi doesn’t know where his friends and family will be sitting tonight in the Saddledome but he’s already looking forward to finding them.
The 16-year-old Medicine Hat Tigers prospect is making his WHL debut in Calgary against the Hitmen. Harsanyi was selected 16th overall in May and is the second of the Tigers draft class to make his WHL debut, following top prospect Gavin McKenna who had four assists in the season’s home opener.
Harsanyi wouldn’t say if he will match McKenna’s debut but the Calgary product is just excited for the experience and opportuntiy ahead.
“Since it’s in my hometown I’ve watched a lot of my games there and it’s also going to be fun seeing the speed and size of the game and how it’s going to be different,” Harsanyi said. “It’ll just be super exciting playing in front of my family and friends in my hometown.
“I didn’t really think I’d ever be playing at the Saddledome.”
Harsanyi was one of the last rookies at Tigers training camp before he joined Edge Hockey school in the CSSHL, where he’s put up eight goals and 16 points at the U18 level. He’s been practising in Medicine Hat all week and has noticed how much faster and more organized the flow is since September.
How he handles that difference from training camp until now is what associate coach Joe Frazer says they look for from their rookies.
“He’s going to be excited, probably a little nervous, we just want him to go out there and see what it’s all about,” Frazer said. “He gets to play a great team, the Hitmen are a really good team and he gets to see what a real Western league team looks like. There’s a big difference between training camp and now in December when teams are really firing on all cylinders.
“For him to get that experience and go, ‘How much faster, how much stronger do I need to get over the next eight to nine months so I make this team next year.'”
Frazer says there are a lot of factors that dictate when a prospect would make their way into the WHL lineup. The Tigers always look to give their young players an extended chance to practise beforehand, which Harsanyi had spending the week in the Hat.
“It’s always tough just to play a random game on a night where you don’t practise with the team for a while. So with this week off it allowed him some practices with us, some video sessions, just to get back on the same page because he hasn’t been down here since training the camp.”
Harsanyi will be wearing No. 6 for his debut after having No. 21 in training camp. He says 6 has been his number since he was in novice hockey.
He’s enjoyed the season at Edge after making the jump from U15, where he played last year and had 31 goals and 67 points in 25 games, to the U18 level. Harsanyi has made it a focus to not play down to the U18 level but keep his game at the pace of the WHL like he was playing at training camp. He says there’s also a big difference from U15 to U18.
“Just the physicality, more hitting, more finishing checks, a lot more than that in bantam.”
Making his WHL debut will cap off an exciting week for Harsanyi who, alongside four other Tigers prospects, was named to Team Alberta’s U16 roster for the Canada Winter Games in P.E.I. from Feb. 18 to Mar. 5.
” I’m super excited to play there, that’s a huge tournament, lots of big names and I think it’ll be a good experienced playing against players from around the country,” Harsanyi said.
