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WHL Medicine Hat Tigers

Roster Re-Tooling

April 27, 2015 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Medicine Hat Tigers News Release


Medicine Hat, AB -- The Medicine Hat Tigers are now a few weeks into their offseason. The players have since packed up their gear and went home to spend valuable time with friends and family. However in the bellows of the arena, the coaching staff and scouts are hard at work, looking over the roster and preparing for next season already.

The Tigers boasted ten 19 year old players, alongside their three overage players, were among the oldest rosters in the entire WHL. With the WHL rule for 20 year olds set at 3 for the season, some difficult decisions will have to be made within the next few months as the Tigers will open the season in the brand new Event Center in August.

Among the returning 19 year olds are leading goal scorer Cole Sanford, 109 point man Trevor Cox and new additions Dryden Hunt and Kyle Burroughs. All four players are capable of playing at the WHL level, most likely in the top 6 forwards and top 4 defenceman, with Burroughs being a two time captain of the Regina Pats. Those four players are mixed in with penalty kill specialist and hardest working player of the year Chad Labelle, shot blocking machine Ty Stanton, defenceman turned forward Matt Staples, St. Louis Blues prospect Tommy Vannelli, hard nosed Anthony Ast and German import Markus Eisenschmid.

The Tigers have always been able to produce a winning product on the ice, through trades or acquiring players in the Bantam Draft and watching them develop. The latter can be seen by the strides taken by rookies Matt Bradley, Ty Schultz, Mason Shaw and David Quenneville, who were selected by the Tabbies in the annual draft occurring in May. Mark Rassell and Zach Fischer also had good rookie seasons and although not drafted, were listed by the Tigers and will be key to the success of the franchise future as well.

The first task on the schedule for the offseason is this year's edition of the Bantam Draft, which takes place next Monday in Calgary, the Tigers will select 17th in the first round of the draft, a spot familiar with Medicine Hat where last season the orange and black selected James Hamblin in that spot.

It will be a busy offseason for the scouts and coaching staff as they look to stock the cupboards and put together another team to compete for the Central Division title and will look to reach the playoffs for the 14th consecutive season.

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