Giants will bring Benson along slowly
Vancouver carefully mapping out forthcoming season for WHL’s first-overall draft pick
Vancouver Giants general manager Scott Bonner says that the club will map out well in advance which games 2013 first overall WHL bantam draft pick Tyler Benson plays as a call-up this season.
They want to make sure the left winger is rested and ready, so that he has the best chance to succeed, Bonner explained. It’s a safe bet, too, that with how the Giants like to market and the cache that comes with that first-pick status, that fans will get considerable advanced notice about his outings.
Under WHL rules, Benson, like the other players from this draft class, can only play five games this season in the league until his regular team’s campaign is complete. The Edmonton native is going the academy route, with the Pursuit of Excellence in Kelowna, rather than traditional major midget setup, and that season ends in early March rather than the middle of the month. It could make the 5-foot-11, 185-pound left-handed shot available for an extra five or six Giants regular-season games, plus whatever playoff matchups they may take part in.
“We’re fortunate now that he’s in Kelowna — he’s a lot more accessible for us,” Bonner said. “We will cherry pick those games. We’ll have to gauge when we will need him and we’ll have to pick times when he has a down time in his schedule, so we can get him in here practising with us.”
Bonner said that he wants to find opportunities during the season for Benson to work with skills coach Yogi Svejkovsky and strength and conditioning coach Ian Gallagher, explaining “they will be influential in his career with us.”
Bonner wouldn’t rule out having Benson play a Feb. 22 game in Edmonton. Not only is that Benson’s hometown, but his older brother Cole, 18, is a forward with the Oil Kings.
“That could be interesting,” Bonner said.
Bonner said that Benson has “done everything we’ve asked for and more.” In Friday’s action with the fellow rookies, his work ethic came off as a greatest asset. His feet were forever moving.
In the shootout that followed, he did show off some of the skill that helped him to an Alberta bantam record 146 points in 33 games last season, as he outwaited the opposing netminder with a toe-drag move that looked like he might have borrowed from the playbook of Detroit Red Wings star Pavel Datsyuk.
“The guys are bigger and faster and stronger out here, so you have to keep working harder,” Benson added.
Benson will report to POE as soon as he’s released from Giants camp.
“The development I’ll be getting there will improve my skills a lot,” he said.
Other players lauded by Bonner for their efforts in the early going include 2013 third rounder Gage Ramsay, 14, a left winger from the Notre Dame academy in Wilcox, Sask., who “has scored with the best of them right off the bat,” and centre Cullen Munson, 17, a free agent from the Minnesota high school ranks “who came right from the airport and played with the older guys and was very good.”
Bonner also cited right winger Rob Trzonkowski, 19, who joined the Giants from the Kamloops Blazers in the Kale Kessy trade in early January and lasted just three games before blowing out his knee. There was some concern that he wasn’t going to be fit in time for training camp, “but he came in unbelievable shape and he looks like a guy who is quite focused on not just making the team, but also being a contributor.”
Trzonkowski, listed at 6-foot-2, 198 pounds, has seven goals, 21 points and 254 penalty minutes in 155 career WHL games. He did make the Pacific team for the Under-17 World Challenge in 2010-11, along with the likes of Vancouver Canucks forward prospect Hunter Shinkaruk of the Medicine Hat Tigers, and Toronto Maple Leafs defence newcomer Morgan Rielly of the Moose Jaw Warriors.