Miner rebounds from personal tragedy
Giants goalie praises supportive teammates after losing both grandfathers days apart
Trent Miner has packed a lot into the first 14 games of the Vancouver Giants season.
The 17-year-old netminder has twice been named the WHL goalie of the week. He also had to leave the team for a time to return home to the Brandon area for a pair funerals.
Miner’s grandfathers, Reg Averill and Don Brading, died two days apart earlier this month. Averill was 74. Brading was 75.
“It was good to get home. It obviously wasn’t the circumstances that you want, but to see everyone was nice,” said Miner, a native of Souris, Man.
“And, coming back, the guys have been as supportive as you’ll ever find . ...
“Guys have helped keep me up. If I was ever struggling, or wasn’t doing the greatest, they would come up and give me a pat on the pads and say, ‘It’s fine, man.’ Everyone has been so supportive.”
Miner said that both grandfathers were supportive of his hockey career. He said that Brading, in particular, would go out of his way to help.
“If I needed a two-minute ride from house to hockey, he would drive 45 minutes to make it happen,” Miner said. “He was a backbone for me.”
Miner was away from the team when the Kamloops Blazers visited the Langley Events Centre and for Vancouver’s home-and-home set with the Victoria Royals a couple of weeks ago.
He backed up David Tendeck for his first two games after returning to the team, and then started back-to-back contests at the LEC to finish off last weekend, making 31 saves in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Portland Winterhawks before turning away 28 shots in a 3-1 triumph over the Kamloops Blazers.
“That’s the one thing that makes hockey so great — once you get on the ice, everything is gone,” said the 6-foot-1, 179-pound Miner, when asked about how he found his form again so quickly.
“It’s just your brothers on the ice with you and it’s a battle. You don’t have anything else to focus on.
“After the game, you can start thinking about other stuff. During the game, you’re just thinking about that.”
Through all this, Miner has put up great numbers. As of Wednesday morning, he led the WHL in goals-against average (1.24) and save percentage (. 958) while fashioning a 3-0-1-0 record.
That would seem to bode well for someone in his NHL Draft season, although Miner maintains he’s not focused on his pro possibilities.
He was the second goalie taken in the 2016 WHL bantam draft, going 20th overall to the Giants, so it’s easy to suggest that hockey people have been paying attention to him for some time now.
“I don’t feel any added pressure this year,” said Miner. “It’s just another year. You control what you can control. The draft is the draft. It’s going to happen, no matter what. You do whatever you can do and not let it (the draft) get to you.”
It looks like Giants coach Michael Dyck plans to split the netminding duties between Miner and Tendeck, the incumbent starter.
Tendeck, who turns 19 next month, was a sixth-round draft choice of the Arizona Coyotes last summer.
He’s 7-2-1-0 with a 2.16 goals against and a .911 save percentage this season.
The Giants traded up to get Miner in the draft, sending the 24th and 46th overall selections to the Red Deer Rebels for the slot they used for Miner.
The Giants nabbed defenceman Bowen Byram with the third overall choice. Meanwhile, the Prince George Cougars had taken goalie Taylor Gauthier 10th overall selection.