Sports stats



WHL Portland Winterhawks

Josh Hanson Looking To Make An Impression

August 28, 2009 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Portland Winterhawks News Release


Saturday's preseason game against Seattle will be a Futures Games with many of the teams' 15 and 16-year olds taking part. This week, we'll be featuring some of the players you might see in that game. Today we take a look at 15 year-old defenseman Josh Hanson.

After this year's WHL Bantam Draft, much of the attention was focused on Derrick Pouliot, the defenseman Portland took with the top overall pick.

But when the Winterhawks took defenseman Josh Hanson in the eighth round, it may not have created headlines in the public, but other WHL teams took notice. Hanson is a talented player who fell to the eighth round only because he's American, and thus led to questions as to whether he'd report.

So when the Hawks got his name on the dotted line two weeks ago, you could almost hear other teams' executives groaning.

Signing Hanson, an Alaska native, was a high priority for the Winterhawks, and the team's efforts impressed the young blueliner.

"My family and I looked at (the WHL) for about six months and we just decided that because of my school situation, I'm graduating this year as a 16 year-old, it seemed like the better choice because of how things work with the education package here," he said.

The deal was sealed when Hanson and his father came to Portland to take a first-hand look at the city, the facilities and meet the team's staff.

"It was a great trip, they treated me really well. They brought me in and took me on a tour of the Coliseum, the Rose Garden, took me out to dinner, and I signed my contract that night at dinner," he said.

The day after signing the contract, Hanson and his father played in the team's alumni association golf tournament. There, he got a chance to meet former Hawks and current NHLers like Paul Gaustad, Brandon Dubinsky and Brendan Mikkelson, and those meetings confirmed to the Hansons that they had made the right call.

"They've heard about the changes being made and just said that his is a one of a kind experience here," he said. "With Mike Johnston and Travis Green, they've really turned it around and it's a top notch organization."

Green, Portland's assistant general manager and assistant coach, in particular struck a chord with Hanson. Not only is Green coming off a 15-year NHL playing career, but he too came through the WHL and could relate to the decision Hanson was trying to make.

"My dad has talked a lot with Travis, and Travis has been really supportive in making this decision, giving us a lot of information and he doesn't try to push us," he said. "Travis played in the WHL and he relayed to us his experience and I think he had the same experience as me, not knowing too much about the WHL before he went in, so he's been really supportive. Being from America I didn't know what the WHL was until December of last year, and he really gave a good impression to me and played a huge part in my decision coming here."

For Green's part, he wanted to give the Hansons all the information they needed without giving them the hard sell.

"I think it's a process of getting comfortable with him and him getting comfortable with us. It's a big decision for a kid to come and commit to our team and it's nothing we wanted to rush into or wanted them to rush into, so after the draft we spent time with them and talked to them a lot about our league, our program and where we're headed. We want families to be comfortable when they do commit and that was part of the process," said Green.

When you meet Hanson, it's easy to see why the team worked so hard to get his name on the dotted line. At 15 he's already 6'2" and 185 pounds, and still growing (Hanson's father is 6'6"). With the Alaska All-Stars last season he combined for 36 points in 48 games.

"Well any time you're looking at a young player like that with the skating ability, the composure, size and overall package it's pretty exciting. You watch him now as a '94, and he doesn't look like a '94 player out there," said Green. "It's exciting from our standpoint but you have to remember that he's still young. As a defenseman that's a tough position to come into in our league so we want to take the course of this year to do a lot of taking with him and correspondence and try to get him prepared to play."

Hanson will play this season for the L.A. Selects Midget U16 AAA team, one of the top midget programs in the nation. The Selects had six players drafted by WHL teams from their Bantam AAA team in May. From there, Hanson hopes to be in a Winterhawks uniform next season, and is laying the groundwork for that goal at camp this week.

"I just want to try to make plays and make a good impression," he said.

So far, he's doing just that.

Check out the Portland Winterhawks Statistics

• Discuss this story on the Western Hockey League message board...

Western Hockey League Stories from August 28, 2009


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Portland Winterhawks Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central