Leading the way Veterans to play huge role with Tigers this season
No shortage of leadership on Tigers roster
The Medicine Hat Tigers may be entering the 2017-18 season without a handful of key veterans, but there’s still no shortage of leadership on the roster.
After losing 129 goals with the offseason departures of Chad Butcher, Steven Owre, Clayton Kirichenko, John Dahlstrom and Matt Bradley, Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston says he will be leaning on his leaders to develop the team’s large crop of rookie talent while shouldering the load this season.
“I think that’ll be a challenge but they believe they're up for the challenge,” Clouston said of losing five key players in the off-season. “I really like the conversations and the feedback and the focus these guys are showing early. Time will tell but it's an exciting start for sure.”
Mason Shaw, Mark Rassell, Zach Fischer, Ryan Jevne, Max Gerlach, James Hamblin, Kristians Rubins and David Quenneville were all flagged as future leaders on the roster after helping the team secure its first Central Division banner in 10 seasons while battling all the way into overtime of Game 7 in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The group met up just before training camp got underway in Medicine Hat for what Clouston says is an important part of planning for the upcoming year on the ice.
“We got a lot of input from them. I think it's really important that they have a say,” said Clouston. “I think it’s really important they believe that it’s their team. Obviously we have a job and we have to hold them accountable, but it went real well and the guys are excited.”
Six of Medicine Hat’s eight leaders went on to compete at various NHL training camps this season. Rassell and Fischer competed at camp with the Calgary Flames, Shaw skated with the Minnesota Wild, Hamblin earned an invitation to try out with the Boston Bruins, Max Gerlach continued his push to enter the Arizona Coyotes system and David Quenneville returned to New York for another pre-season stint with the Islanders. The opportunities came with their share of drawbacks however, as Shaw suffered a torn ACL and Fischer sustained a concussion — throwing the original plan into disarray. Shaw was in line to lead Medicine Hat into the season as the first non-overage captain since Hunter Shinkaruk, but with a timeline of roughly six months recovering from the ligament tear, that responsibility has fallen to Mark Rassell.
While Clouston says there’s simply no replacing a player like Shaw, he’s happy to have a leader like Rassell ready to take the reins.
“He’s got lots of great qualities. First of all he’s been a Tiger for a long time. That doesn’t necessarily make it the right choice — Clay Kirichenko came in and was a great leader — but Mark is a very mature person. He’s dedicated, he’s committed and he’s really improved tremendously through that hard work and commitment,” Clouston said of Rassell.
“He’s got a lot of great qualities. He’s a real good person and we feel real lucky that, in Mason’s absence, we’ve got a guy who we believe will do an outstanding job.”
Shinkaruk coincidentally also gave up the C, to Curtis Valk, after suffering a hip injury in the 2013-14 season.
Even before suffering the injury in a Traverse City Prospects Tournament game against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Shaw iterated his belief that Medicine Hat’s core of eight leaders are the true captains of the team, and that doesn’t change with his presence or his absence.
“There are a lot of guys who are part of our leadership. It doesn’t matter who wears the letter, I think it goes even farther than the eight guys who were there,” said Shaw, who will undergo surgery on his right knee on Monday. “We’ve got a lot of support and guys care for each other so that’s really important.”
Rassell says the team’s off-season leadership meeting served as an important tool, especially when considering the change in captaincy. In the same vein as Shaw’s sentiment that leadership isn’t an individual attribute, Rassell says he and his teammates used the meeting to form a framework of what a leader should be on the Medicine Hat Tigers.
“We really want to set a game plan for how we want to be as leaders,” said Rassell, who led Medicine Hat with 36 goals, seven of which came shorthanded, and added 25 assists last season. “We know the young guys look up to us and are going to follow our lead so we just wanted to get on the same page of how we’re going to act, what we’re going to do on the ice and off the ice.”
Fischer agreed, adding the creation of a leadership framework gives the team a foundation to fall back on when they find themselves thrown into the fires of adversity.
“I think it’s going to help us in the long run with staying focused and making sure everyone is doing the right thing and being held accountable,” said Fischer, who recorded 34 goals and 20 assists while racking up a staggering 145 penalty minutes last season. “If we stick to the game plan, come the dog days of January and February it’s going to be a grind, but I think this team with our leadership group is going to take this a long way.”
Rassell added leaders won’t be the only players leaned on to make a difference. A handful of highly talented rookies will enter the WHL with Medicine Hat this season — like 2016 fifth overall bantam draft pick Josh Williams, who is slated to start the season on a line with Rassell and Hamblin after scoring seven goals in four preseason games — and Rassell says there will be no shortage of opportunities for the youngsters to make their mark with the team.
“There are so many players who are right there and could step in this year to make an impact for us,” said Rassell. “It’ll be really exciting to see what’s going to happen.”
The captaincy will ultimately fall back to Shaw when he is ready to make a return to the ice — and Shaw says he plans on doing everything in his power to ensure that happens this season.
While Fischer is still recovering from concussion symptoms, the 20year-old Lloydminster product was cleared to skate Thursday. The Tigers will also be without overage defenceman Kristians Rubins to start the year. The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Latvian is still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery but is likely to return within the next few weeks.