McDonald finding friends quickly in Prince Albert
Kody McDonald shuffled off to Prince Albert on an early-morning flight this past Saturday and despite being sleep-deprived was wide awake when asked to work a little overtime in his first day on the job for his new team.
His one-timed strike, 1:08 into overtime, lifted the Prince Albert Raiders to a 2-1 victory over the visiting Red Deer Rebels.
It was the 19-year-old McDonald’s first game since getting traded to Prince Albert from the Prince George Cougars for 16-year-old defenceman Rhett Rhinehart, 18-year-old defenceman Austin Crossley and a first-round pick in the 2018 WHL bantam draft. The Raiders also picked up a conditional fourth-round pick in 2018 in the deal completed Friday night.
“Getting that first one out of the way feels good,” McDonald told Evan Radford of the Prince Albert Daily Herald. “I’ve played in this barn before and back then our game wasn’t very well that we played here (with the Cougars). But to have a good memory coming in to start feels good.”
Firing the game-winner, his 20th goal of the season, was a great way for the Lethbridge native to make friends in the pro-Raider crowd of 1,901 at Art Hauser Centre, after a virtually sleepless night.
“I didn’t go to bed until late last night,” McDonald said in a postgame interview Saturday. “I had to get up at 4:30 a.m., was on a fight at 6, had a couple connections and didn’t get here until 5:45 p.m. I just hopped into the warmups.”
The six-foot-three, 196-pound Rhinehart made his debut with the Cougars Saturday in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Tri-City Americans at CN Centre and he took a regular shift playing the right side with defence partner Ryan Schoettler. The Raiders picked Rhinehart 13th overall in the 2016 bantam draft. The native of Lloydminster, Alta., had one assist and 16 penalty minutes in 31 games with the Raiders
“Rhett was one of the top defencemen in his bantam draft year, given his unique blend of size and skill,” said Cougars general manager Todd Harkins. “We’re thrilled to add an elite-level defenceman like him, that NHL scouts are already zeroing in on. He will be a staple on our blueline for years to come.”
Rhinehart had nine goals and 30 points in 25 games last season as the leading point-getter among defencemen in the Canadian Sport School Hockey. In his final bantam season he collected five goals and 18 points in 30 games split between the Yale Bantam Prep and Elite 15s teams.
At the time of the trade, the sixfoot, 203-pound Crossley had four assists and 38 penalty minutes in 19 games in his second season with the Raiders. The Fort St. John native joined the Raiders from the Nanaimo Clippers of the BCHL in December 2016. He had a goal and an assist in 30 WHL regularseason games and also played three playoff games. In 25 BCHL games for the Clippers he had one goal and one assist.
“Austin brings a welcomed combination of size and grit to our team and he’ll fit in perfectly on our back end,” said Harkins. “His experience and ruggedness will complement our younger blueline nicely.”
McDonald played in 232 regular-season and 15 playoff games over four seasons for the Cougars and had 60 goals, 66 assists and 126 points as well as 369 penalty minutes. At the time of the trade he was second in team scoring with 19 goals and 36 points in 35 games. He was the Cougars’ second-round pick, 24th overall, in the 2013 draft.
McDonald attended NHL camps the past three years and played in rookie tournaments for the New York Islanders, Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets. He’s been on a hot streak lately, with five goals and four assists in five games leading up to Sunday’s game in Regina. McDonald was held pointless in a 4-1 loss to the Pats.