Giants have raised their expectations
After tasting playoffs last season, WHL franchise is looking to ‘do some damage’
Expectations are back in full force with the Vancouver Giants. They were here, in small samples, the past few years.
You wondered what Tyler Benson was capable of.
Ty Ronning was intriguing. There were others, too.
Last year’s Giants played the franchise’s first playoff games in four years last spring, and they won the first post-season matchups for Vancouver in that seven-game, first-round loss to the Victoria Royals since the 2011-12 incarnation of the Giants.
The franchise took a step forward last season. And it’s hoping to take another step or two this spring.
The Giants, for those scoring at home, haven’t won a playoff series since 2009-10.
“We had a taste of it last year, and we’re not going to settle for just making the playoffs,” explained winger Jared Dmytriw at the Giants’ season-opening golf tournament at Tsawwassen Springs on Wednesday.
“We want to do some damage. It starts with Day 1 here. It starts with training camp. It starts with our mindset going into the year.
“The expectations have risen from the success we had last year and the group we have coming back. There’s a pressure, but we have to take that in stride. It starts with camp this weekend and setting our habits early.”
The Giants hit the ice for the first time this season Friday at the Ladner Leisure Centre.
Vancouver has two goalies in David Tendeck and Trent Miner who look capable of being starters. The Giants haven’t had that since Dustin Slade and Tyson Sexsmith to start off the Memorial Cuphost season of 2006-07.
Vancouver returns five defencemen who played a ton last year, including potential 2019 NHL Draft first-rounder Bowen Byram.
They return four forwards who were playing top-six minutes down the stretch and into the playoffs last year in James Malm, Dawson Holt, Milos Roman and Davis Koch.
Ronning scored a team-record 61 goals last season.
Benson had 27 in 58 regular-season games. They’re both out of the picture this year, with Ronning graduated from the WHL and Benson expected to play his 20-yearold season in the Edmonton Oilers’ farm system.
The Giants will need to find some goals, but rearguards Byram, Matt Barberis, Dylan Plouffe, Alex Kannok Leipert and Kaleb Bulych showed they can move the puck.
Defencemen will steer this offence, and this is the best quarterbacking blue-line corps that Vancouver has had since the likes of Jon Blum and Brent Regner, who were around when the Giants were making long playoff runs a decade or so ago.
“We need to focus on the details. We need to get the details set,” Michael Dyck, the Giants’ coach, said of going into the year.
“We need to maintain good habits. That’s what we’re focusing on to get the season started.
“The guys have come in with lots of enthusiasm. The work ethic is there. It’s the work-smart and work-together that we have to refine.”
Dyck is the Giants’ new coach, brought in by new general manager Barclay Parneta, who fired bench boss Jason McKee over the summer with one year left on his initial three-year contract with the team.
Dyck brought in Jamie Heward as his assistant, replacing Dean Chynoweth, who parted ways with the Giants and ended up with an assistant’s spot for the Carolina Hurricanes.
Parneta replaced GM Glen Hanlon, who also left the Giants.
There will be difficulties with so many changes.
There are things to be figured out by players and staff both. You could argue it’s taking a chance, particularly with the fact that the team progressed last season.
Barberis, for one, says that he’s reading it as a further expectation to succeed.
“We feel like we have the group to do it,” said Barberis.
“There’s a confidence here now. We’re here to win.”