Giants rookie Sourdif ‘plays like he’s 19,’ grateful coach says
Justin Sourdif isn’t acting his age and Vancouver Giants coach Michael Dyck is grateful for that.
The 16-year-old rookie forward has been one of the Giants’ best players in their 3-1 start to the WHL regular season. Dyck even had him on the ice for the 3-on-3 overtime period in Sunday’s 5-4 shootout win over the Spokane Chiefs at the Langley Events Centre, which is rare for someone that young.
“He plays like he’s 19, the confidence he’s got and the confidence he’s instilled in us,” Dyck said of Sourdif, a Surrey native who was chosen third overall in the 2017 bantam draft. “He’s got great instincts, he skates well, he’s strong on the puck. He’s worked himself into a pretty good spot here.”
Sixteen is the youngest a fulltime player can be in the WHL. Vancouver has just two 2002-born players on its roster. The other is defenceman Joel Sexsmith, who has yet to play this season due to an upper-body injury.
Sourdif has a tenacity to his game and it was especially on display Sunday against the Chiefs when he twice forced turnovers deep in Spokane territory on the same first-period shift. He has skill, too. It was particularly evident Sunday when he threaded a pass from the
left corner to a wide open Kaleb Bulych at the right point in the third period to create a Vancouver scoring chance.
Sourdif, a right-handed shot who is listed at five foot 11 and 163 pounds, led the B.C. Major Midget League in scoring in the regular season last year, totalling 73 points, including 23 goals, in 35 games with the Valley West Hawks. When the Hawks’ season was over, he joined the Giants as an underage call-up and thencoach Jason McKee played him in all seven games of Vancouver’s first-round playoff loss to the Victoria Royals.
Dyck replaced McKee when Barclay Parneta took over from Glen Hanlon as general manager over the summer. The new Giants brass were raving about Sourdif in training camp and the pre-season, tagging him as one of the club’s best players over that stretch.
He has one goal, one assist and a plus-five rating.
Giants fans could become overly accustomed to this. A 16-year-old Bowen Byram was one of Vancouver’s best players last season. History says, though, that players of that age aren’t often major factors at this level.
“He’s a 16-year-old playing at an elite level right now for us,” said Byram, a defenceman touted as a possible early pick in the 2019 NHL draft at Rogers Arena. “He’s done a great job so far. We just have to try to help him keep it going.”
Meanwhile, Sexsmith is listed as day-to-day by the Giants. He wasn’t practising with the team late last week. The Edmonton native was the ninth selection in the 2017 bantam draft by the Swift Current Broncos, but balked at signing there and was traded to Vancouver in January for the Giants’ first-round pick in the 2019 draft.
Fellow rearguard Bailey Dhaliwal (shoulder) is also on the mend after leaving Friday ’s 3-1 loss to the Seattle Thunderbirds in the first period. Dhaliwal’s injury prompted Parneta to trade for another defenceman on Monday, bringing in Ty Ettinger from the Brandon Wheat Kings in exchange for a 2020 seventh-round draft pick.
Ettinger, a left-handed shot who is listed at six foot one and 190 pounds, was a fifth-round pick by Brandon in the 2015 bantam draft. In 45 games last year with the Wheat Kings, he had two goals, seven points, a plus-10 rating and 47 penalty minutes.
Adding Ettinger, who’s from Ardrossan, Alta., gives Vancouver 24 skaters, including nine defencemen.
Ettinger is expected to be in the Vancouver lineup when the Giants visit the Kelowna Rockets on Wednesday.