Monday, July 13th: Winterhawks News and Notes

Turgeon at camp

Turgeon Impresses Wing's Head Coach:
-New Detroit Red Wings Coach Jeff Blashill, who coached Detroit's AHL affiliate: Grand Rapids for 3 seasons before being promoted after former Spokane Chief's Head Coach left to take over the Toronto Maple Leafs, was impressed by Dominic Turgeon's performance at Prospects Camp. Of note from the interview is that Blashill feels like Turgeon could improve his confidence when carrying the puck. I would agree with this statement completely, as Turgeon has shown signs the last couple of years of elite puck handling skills, but very rarely does he try to carry the puck into the zone on his own. It certainly looks like he's going to be Portland's top line Center next season and will be relied on a lot to carry the offensive play. Gone are Nic Petan and Chase De Leo, who along with Oliver Bjorkstrand (also gone), were Portland's best players at possessing the puck and driving play. I believe, Turgeon has the skills to do this, but we will definitely see this coming season, whether I am right.

Koules Hunting an NHL Deal with Washington:
-Former Winterhawk, Miles Koules has apparently turned down several AHL deals, in order to try and ink a 2 way NHL deal with the Washington Capitals. He, apparently had a great development camp and will likely be invited back in September.

Goulbourne and Leier

Leier a Big Goulbourne Fan:
-Former Hawk Taylor Leier was at Philadelphia Flyers development camp with former Kelowna Rocket: Tyrell Goulbourne and apparently the two are close friends. Leier had a good camp and is looking to possibly make his NHL debut at some point this coming season, after scoring 31 points last season for the Flyers AHL affiliate the Adirondack Phantoms. Of note is the fact that Leier tied as the 3rd fastest skater at camp.

Kevin Young Continuing Hockey Career:
-Former Winterhawk's D-man Kevin young (1999-2001) signed a contract extension with the ECHL's Allen Americans. Young notched 44 points last year as his team won the Kelly Cup as champions of the ECHL.

Jost and Fabbro

Jost and Fabbro Top Rated Prospects:
-Tyson Jost, whose WHL rights are owned by Everett and Dante Fabbro, whose rights are held by Seattle, could be just the 3rd BCHL duo to be drafted in the first round. According to "Dub From Above": Kyle Turris and Riley Nash (2007) and Travis Zajac and Kris Chucko (2004) are the other two duos. Speaking of Jost, he was part of The Pipeline Shows in studio segment and talked about how he feels about the possibility of going to Everett. All 3 segments can be found here. Regina Pat: Sam Steel was also in studio. Lets just say it's really not looking likely that Jost will wear Everett's green and white.

Penguins Really High on Pouliot:
-The full breakdown of the Toronto-Pittsbugh Phil Kessel deal can be found here. According to this writer, Toronto really wanted Pit to include former Winterhawk: Derrick Pouliot, but the Penguins were unwilling to do so. This caused talk of the deal to take much longer than originally thought. This goes a long way to show you how much Pittsburgh thinks of Pouliot and probably means he will start the season in a top 4 rotation role and might mean he will see some power play time.