08-09 Hawks Season Review (Offensive Production) · 11 September, 15:50

Will the Hawks offensive show up this season?

You would think so. The Hawks only scored 132 goals last year; fewest in WHL history.

But that was the same story, the year before when the Hawks scored 146 goals.

An offensive improvement should be a slam dunk, until you look closer at the roster.

The team comes into the season losing 4 players and 33% of the team’s offensive production:

Jacob Dietrich 16 goals, 6 assists, 22 pts
Tyler Swystun 12 goals, 22 assists, 34 pts
Keith Voytechek 6 goals, 10 assists, 16 pts
Tristan King 9 goals, 16 assists, 25 pts

Total 43 goals, 54 assists, 97 pts

So who is going to produce the offense?

The new young talent the Hawks have been acquiring and drafting will get that chance.

In pre-season,

Killian Hutt acquired in a trade for Tristan King has shown some real offensive ability. Ken Hodge, Winter Hawks general manager, had this to say about Killian, “He is an offensive player who loves to score. He sees the ice very well, plays with a lot of energy and a great hockey sense. Killian loves to compete and we believe that he will be able to score at this level.”

Brad Ross (16) a number 1 pick has played well in pre-season, but will take time to figure out the league and his team mates.

Riley Boychuk (17) the previous year number 1 pick has been injured most of 07-08 and hasn’t had a chance to show what he can do.

Last year, the fans got a chance to see 15 year old Taylor Peters (16) play and he didn’t disappoint, scoring 2 goals in the 5 games played. He showed on-ice poise, a physical presence and some scoring ability. I am looking forward to seeing more of him this year.

This is a good group that will give the Hawks a future, but not be ready to carry the team’s offensive load.

That will depend on the improved play of Chris Francis (19), Matt Schmermund (20), Radim Valchar (19) and Luke Walker (18).

Chris Francis 10 goals, 13 assists, 23 pts
Matt Schmermund 8 goals, 12 assists, 23 pts
Radim Valchar 9 goals, 15 assists, 24 pts
Luke Walker 9 goals, 12 assists, 21 pts

Totals 37 goals, 52 assists, 89 pts

Excluding Chris Francis playing some defense last year, this group played major minutes with little offensive results.

As a comparison last year,

Kelowna’s Colin Long (19) provided 31 goals, 69 assists, 100 pts out pointed our 4 top returning forwards.

On the plus side, for the last 23 games we acquired Colin Redding (18) from US Hockey who totaled 3 goals, 3 assists, 6 pts. He has played well in pre-season.

Could we find some offense on defense. Defencemen Travis Ehrhardt and Travis Bobbee were brought here specifically to improve the power play and score some goals. Last year,

Travis Ehrhardt 7 goals, 22 assists, 29 pts on 54 games
Travis Bobbee 5 goals, 6 assists, 11 pts on 47 games

Both have offensive upside.

Defenceman Brock Cornish (19) was also brought in for offense, but season ending shoulder injury keep him out of the 07-08 season. The good news is he is back and could add some goals from the backline. As a 17 year old with Tri -Cities he totaled 3 goals, 7 assists, 10 pts on 31 games.

As the exhibition season nears the end, it looks like more of the same this year.

For the first 6 exhibition games, the Hawks have scored 13 goals and gave up 27.

Looking at the last 6 games of the 07-08 season, the Hawks scored 14 goals and gave up 26.

Yesterday, coach Rich Kromm states in the Portland Tribune article, “I think we can compete with any team.”

Rich, when you start stating, we can compete with any team in the league, I will have little more confidence that we are moving off the bottom.

— S. Blanchard

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US Divisional News · 18 January, 16:48

— S. Blanchard

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