Forward Dayton Reschny stick handles a puck during Medicine Hat Tigers training camp this weekend at Co-op Place. Reschny is one of 16 free agent invitees who attended the four-day camp.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Four days of hockey left a lot of impressions for the Medicine Hat Tigers staff.
The WHL champions wrapped up their training camp Sunday after four days of scrimmages at Co-op Place between 86 players, from overagers to freshly drafted 2010-born players.
Training camps have gotten more difficult to assess, head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins says, with the talent pool rising year over year.
“They’re all so talented now, they’re so close because they’re so talented,” Desjardins said. “It’s good to see lots of guys that worked hard over the summer looking for this chance. So it’s always exciting when you see the young guys come in.”
This year’s camp featured more draft-year skaters as the Tigers did not hold a rookie camp in June due to the short summer after capturing the franchise’s sixth Ed Chynoweth Cup.
Nearly half of the camp’s participants were 2010-born, with 34 players looking to simply leave their mark, ineligible to make the full-time roster this season. That was the first part of this season’s process, Desjardins says – get a look at the future.
“We had lots of good players, Bobby (Fox) does a good job in the draft, he’s got a good eye, so we had lots of good players here,” Desjardins said.
The next step will be identifying the current talent and who can help the Tigers make a push to be the first repeat WHL champs since the 1994 and 1995 Kamloops Blazers.
To start, they’ll look to be the first WHL champions since 2020 to make the playoffs the following season, when the Prince Albert Raiders clinched a spot in the postseason cancelled due to COVID-19.
Desjardins says it will be a process, one that could take longer than other years.
“We haven’t played any real games, we’ll get on the ice a little bit (Monday) with our group to practice, which will be nice,” Desjardins said. “We’ll know in a couple weeks where we’re at.”
One skater looking to be part of that current group is 19-year-old forward Dayton Reschny. The free-agent skater from Macklin, Sask. was a camp invite, piling up goals on the weekend on a line with Markus and Liam Ruck.
There is no better line to make an impression with, he joked.
“They’re the Rucks, it was good, it was fun and they’re great players, easy to play with,” Reschny said. “I just try to get open for them and they find me.”
Reschny scored eight goals in five games over the weekend, winning the mini tournament with Team Orange, also winning the top-40 game on Sunday with the same team. He wasn’t lined up with the Rucks in that game, but was still able to find the back of the net.
“It felt good, I had to prove I could try to drive my own line,” Reschny said. “I just tried to work hard every shift and force turnovers, do what I’m good at and put the puck in the net.”
Reschny, a first cousin of Calgary Flames prospect Cole Reschny, played 24 games in the AJHL last season with the Bonnyville Pontiacs, scoring seven goals and 21 points. He’s tabbed to play in the BCHL this season with the Salmonarm Silverbacks, if he doesn’t make the Tigers.
There are forward spots available and too many options to fill them. Reschny knows how unlikely it is for 19-year-olds to get random camp invites, and he looks to make good on the phone call from associate coach Joe Frazer.
“Coming in as a 19-year-old, early in the summer you don’t think that opportunity is going to come,” Reschny said. “To to get the call from Joe, it was huge. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up and I just came here to try and make the best of it.”
Since taking over as head coach and GM in his second stint in Medicine Hat, Desjardins hasn’t signed many free agents at training camp, or into the season.
He picked up overage forward Carter Chorney in 2021, and claimed forward Alex Drover off QMJHL waivers the next season. It’s something Desjardins says will be an optioned explored more going forward.
“We’ve done that a lot in the past, maybe not so much the last 10 years, but prior to that we had a few really good 18-, 19-year-olds come out of Junior A who played great for us,” Desjardins said. “So I think we’re back to that a little bit. We’ll be looking maybe at ‘Junior A’ little bit more, a little more young or older guys in Junior A, and there’s a few (teams) from around the league who brought guys out of either Alberta Jr., Saskatchewan Jr. or wherever, looking at making rosters.”
The Tigers preseason begins tonight in Lethbridge against the Hurricanes. Desjardins expects it will be a younger lineup for both teams, looking to narrow rosters efficiently as the regular season gets underway the third week of September.
