King, of the Canes
Hurricanes rookie back from injury
You can understand if Ethan King is particularly excited to get this season going. Having sat out pretty much all of the previous season due to injury will do that.
The 17-year-old defenceman for the Lethbridge Hurricanes was relegated to five games with the North Okanagan Knights last season and was otherwise shelved the rest of the season with a knee injury.
After getting in one game with the Hurricanes in the 2014-15 season, the team’s second-round, 23rd overall pick in the 2014 WHL bantam draft is back in Lethbridge, in game shape and, ideally, with the injury bug behind him.
“With me being out for the year it was really tough on me,” said King, from Vernon B.C. “I had to work super-hard to get back in the game. I came into this year thinking I wasn’t going to be given anything. I was going to have to take everything and work for it. So far I think I’ve been working hard.”
It’s been a long road back for King.
“Ethan has been in this organization for a long time already and he’s just turning 17 (Sept. 22),” said Hurricanes general manager Peter Anholt. “He showed up last year in not very good shape. He had a bad knee, so we had to send him back and said ‘You have to take care of your knee to play at our level and have a year where you can get that knee back in shape and, two, you have to get back in better physical shape.’ He was about 30 pounds overweight, but when he walked into my office when he showed up at camp you could tell he was in good shape. You could tell he had done his work. I knew he did at least what we asked him to do and that was a step in the right direction.”
That proper direction continued in the preseason.
“When he started to play a little bit you could tell,” said Anholt. “The one thing about Ethan that I noticed is that when he has the puck, almost every time it ends up in a better place. He makes a good pass. He has that dimension that I think is important.
“It’s a process with him. He has to
keep on working and has a long way to go to be able to play at this level after missing one full year of hockey.”
King put in a hectic summer of training to help the process.
“Lots of workouts, I was basically skating every day, there was no time off, seven days a week, all day,” he said, adding the time spent on the sidelines last season only strengthened his resolve to return. “Big time, I’ve been with this organization for three years now and this is my big chance. I’m doing whatever I can to make it.”
King joins a Canes blue-line that includes overager Kord Pankewicz as well as veterans Brady Reagan and Brennan Menell, acquired during the preseason from the Vancouver Giants in exchange for Darian Skeoch. They are joined by 16-year-old defenceman Calen Addison and fellow 1999-born blueliner Nick Watson.
“It’s a great group of guys back there, lots of older guys,” said King. “Its going to be tough to get in there, but I’ll take it day-by-day and when I get the chance I’m going to do my best and work as hard as I