Giants veteran Hammett talks up youngsters
Defenceman sees promise in team's four 16-year-olds
Count defenceman Logen Hammett among those intrigued about the Vancouver Giants' future.
Hammett is one of the Giants' three 20-year-olds, meaning that he ages out of the WHL at the conclusion of the season and the countdown for the end of his junior hockey career is underway. Vancouver has 11 games left before the playoffs, beginning with a Friday visit from the Kelowna Rockets at the Langley Events Centre.
The Giants (28-26-3-0) head into the match with points in 12 of their last 14 games (11-2-1-0). The Giants are sixth in the Western Conference, three points behind the fifth-place Victoria Royals (2724-4-4), with two games in hand, and three up on the seventh-place Rockets (26-28-3-1), with one game in hand. The top eight teams make the post-season.
The additions of 19-year-old forwards Tyson Zimmer (from the Lethbridge Hurricanes) and Connor Levis (from the Kamloops Blazers) at the Jan. 10 trade deadline have helped spur on this Giants surge, but Vancouver has a younger core group as well.
They have four regulars in their 16-year-old seasons — defenceman Colton Alain and forwards Aaron Obobaifo, Cameron Schmidt and Jakob Oreskovic — and that's tied for third-most in the league, according to WHL statistics guru Alan Caldwell.
Schmidt has eight goals in his past 10 games and 22 on the campaign, which is three shy of Gilbert Brule's 2003-04 team record for a player that age.
There are five teams with a single 16-year-old on the roster. There are nine with two. The Giants had just one last year in defenceman Colton Roberts. That's the earliest age that players can be regulars.
“I think all four of our 16-yearolds are going to be really good players in this league and, when they're a little bit older, this is a team that will be very good,” Hammett said. “Going down the stretch is big for guys like me and for guys like them. You'll gain a lot of experience from this last stretch and, if we can have a good push in the playoffs, it'll be huge for this year and for years to come.
“When you've played on a team and you look back and the guys you've played with are doing well, it's a cool thing to see. You're going to look back and feel a connection and remember what it was like playing with them when they were younger. You're going to hope that you made a little bit of an impact on them.”
The Giants traded for Hammett over the summer hoping he would bring that type of impact. They sent a 2024 fourth-round pick to the Brandon Wheat Kings to land his rights. Hammett had lined up for two full seasons with the Wheat Kings. He was a teammate of Zimmer for a time there before Zimmer was dealt to Lethbridge.
His play in Vancouver has steadily improved. He's been one of the team's better players during this recent stretch, including potting three game-winning goals. For the season, he's at six goals and 12 points in 56 games. The six-foot-one, 198-pound left-handed shot had two goals and 15 points in 68 games a season ago with Brandon.
“As the year has gone on I've been able to find my game a little bit more and get more comfortable,” said Hammett.
The Regina native admits he's starting to think about his junior career winding down. Heading to a university next season is “a big option,” but he didn't rule out trying to catch on with a minor pro team, maintaining “we'll see if anything else comes up.”
“It's coming fast. This year has blown by for sure,” Hammett said. “I think every young guy gets in the league and thinks that the end is quite a ways away and the next thing you know you are there. It's the blink of an eye for sure.”
Defenceman Wyatt Wilson and goalie Brett Mirwald are Vancouver's other 20-year-olds.