WHL Kelowna Rockets

Rockets Make Two Import Selections

June 29, 2011 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Kelowna Rockets News Release


The Kelowna Rockets selected Latvian forward Zemgus Girgensons with its first of two selections in the annual Canadian Hockey League import draft Wednesday.

Girgensons, 17, is from Riga, Latvia, the same home town as former Kelowna Rockets player Lauris Darzins. He was picked 45th overall

The 6-foot-1, 182 pound Girgensons already has a year of North American hockey under his belt, after playing last season with Dubuque of the USHL (Junior A) where he scored 49 points in 51 games.

Rockets president and general manager Bruce Hamilton says they will lean on the experience that Darzins had in Kelowna as they attempt to bring Girgensons into the Rockets family.

"There are no guarantees," said Hamilton. "We are going to go after him and recruit him. We're hoping we can convince him to come and see us and understand the last Latvian we had play here had a pretty good career."

The Rockets also announced that they had acquired a second pick in the import draft in a trade with the Portland Winterhawks. Kelowna traded its first round pick in 2012 import draft to Portland for the Winterhawks first round pick this year.

That gave the Rockets the 58th overall selection with which they chose Slovakian forward Filip Vasko.

"He's similar to Zach Franko," said Hamilton. "He's got great speed and really good hands."

The pair replace Andreas Stene (Norway) and Gal Koren (Slovenia) both of whom were released following last season.

Check out the Kelowna Rockets Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from June 29, 2011


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