End of the journey

Barzal and company leave lasting impression on Thunderbirds

When the Seattle Thunderbirds fell 7-0 on Tuesday to the Saint John Sea Dogs at the Memorial Cup, it signalled the last time the franchise’s core would play together.

It’s the end of a four-year journey for a group of teenagers now forced to take the next step in their careers.

Forwards Mathew Barzal, Ryan Gropp, Keegan Kolesar, Scott Eansor and defenceman Ethan Bear — all rookies with Seattle in 2013 — will be moving on, with four full seasons of junior under their belt.

“After we lost I was kind of having flashbacks from when I was 16 to now,” said Bear, an Oilers prospect. “Very sad, probably the last day I’ll throw on the jersey with those guys.

“Proud of what we accomplished, tough to go out the way we did. Been a long season, went through a lot. I’m pretty happy with what we did.”

The future looks bright for the soon-to-be Thunderbirds graduates.

In 2015, four of them had their named called at the NHL Draft, with Barzal leading the way as the 16th-overall pick by the Islanders. Gropp went 41st to the Rangers, Kolesar 69th to Columbus and Bear 124th to Edmonton.

Eansor, an overager who serves as Seattle co-captain, is undrafted but hoping to earn a contract. All five attended an NHL camp last fall.

But after their second straight thumping at the four-team tournament for the biggest trophy in major junior hockey, the future was the last thing any of them were thinking about.

“We obviously had different plans for this tournament, not to score three goals and get outscored 18 to 3 or something,” said Barzal.

“Hasn’t really sunk in season’s done yet, just happened fast. In a day or two we’ll look back, it’s pretty impressive to win the WHL (championship).”

“They’ve grown up with me as a coach, we’ve had our battles and they’re good, young men,” said Seattle coach Steve Konowalchuk.