Winterhawks trade Gray and Morison, plus stats and notes from Saturday's shut out loss to Vancouver

TRADE: Hawks acquire a draft pick from @WHLKootenayICE in exchange for Austin Gray & Reed Morison: https://t.co/Tezkqyo77N

— Portland Winterhawks (@pdxwinterhawks) November 29, 2015

The Portland Winterhawks announced Sunday that they had traded the rights to 1997 born forward Austin Gray and 1998 born forward Reed Morison to the Kootenay Ice for a seventh-round bantam draft pick in 2016.

Gray played in two games this year and left the team for personal reasons last week. His career with Portland was likely derailed to an illness that kept him out of most of the preseason and allowed other forwards like Brett Clayton, Ryan Hughes and Cody Glass to cement their spot ahead of him. Trading him to Kootenay likely allows him to get more ice time and not have to go back and play in the BCHL, which is probably what Portland was going to do with him.

Morison played two games as a 15-year-old back in 2013/14 with Portland and showed a lot of promise. In the early going of the 2014/15 season with most of Portland's centers at NHL camps. Morison was given a lot of playing time as a second or third line center for Portland. In the five games, though he apparently did not prove himself ready for the WHL yet and was sent back to major-midget hockey. As a 17-year-old this season, he was likely hoping for a great preseason to get him a spot in the top 12 forward group for Portland. His preseason started great with a goal in the first game against Spokane, but he did not notch another point after that. Meanwhile, forwards like Cody Glass and Alex Overhardt were providing scoring punch and pushing him out of the top 12. Ultimately, Portland decided to send him to the BCHL to start the season. He went to the Calgary Canucks and in 15 games, he has one goal and three assists for four points in 15 games.

Gray and Morison were not in Portland's plans this season and Morison was the only one likely to come back and fight for playing time next year. This trade will likely give them more of a chance to prove themselves at this level and even get NHL scouts' attention. Kootenay was pretty desperate for forward help as they are without injured forwards Jaedon Descheneau (for the season), Luke Philp (for quite some time) and River Beaddie and Zak Zborosky (for at least a couple weeks). Gray and Morison give them a couple forwards who have at least played some WHL games. All the best of luck to the two of them. It appears that Kootenay will keep Morison in the AJHL for now, but could call upon his services were they to suffer anymore injuries.

Vancouver 2 Portland 0:



Portland had their traditional daylight game on Saturday afternoon, but unfortunately the 7,150 in attendance were sent home unhappy with Vancouver goalie Ryan Kubic shutting out their Winterhawks 2-0. Coming into the game, Vancouver had won only two of their last 20 games and had played the previous night up in Seattle. The Giants though, looked like the livelier team, committing to a team-defense game by blocking shots and not allowing Portland to get any good looks in close on Kubic.

The win for Vancouver is their first against Portland this year in the four-game series. Portland won both matchups in Vancouver earlier this year. There will be one more matchup in Portland later in the year.

The opening period was one played mostly with the sun shining down on the ice, making play a little sloppy. Vancouver had one of the best looks of the period when, while on the power play, defenseman Brennen Menell made a nifty pass backdoor to Dakota Odgers, who missed the gaping net.

The Giants opened the scoring early in the second period when a point shot from Tyler Benson bounded off of Adin Hill's right pas, directly to Chase Lang, who corralled the puck and put it past Hill for his fifth goal of the season. Portland did get a puck past Kubic in the period, but it was called back as Colton Veloso had pretty clearly kicked it in with his skate.

This would be a running theme for Portland as they had another goal dis-allowed in the third period. Paul Bittner drove the net on Kubic and got the puck to trickle past him, but not before referee Jason Nissen had blown his whistle. The Giants would get an insurance goal from Tyler Benson off a bad rebound given up by Hill on an Alec Baer slap shot. The Hawks best look late in the game, came on a backdoor play to Rodrigo Abols, who had a wide open net to shoot at. Abols fanned on the shot though and allowed Kubic plenty of time to get over and make the save.

The shutout was Kubic's first of the year and first of his WHL career. It was also his very first WHL victory. He had played well in relief of the injured Daniel Wapple, since he went down last week, but was finally rewarded with a win. He stopped all 39 Portland shots he faced. Meanwhile, Hill played well, except for the two rebounds he gave up and stopped 36 of 38.

Portland's power play was 0/3 and their penalty kill was 3/3. Their PP on the year is 21/99 or 21.2 percent (eight in the league). Their PK is now 84/103 or 81.6 percent (ninth in the WHL).

Portland was missing Keegan Iverson, Alex Schoenborn and Carter Czaikowski, who were all out with injuries. Their absence was easily noticed as Portland lost a lot of board battles. This is something Schoenborn and Iverson excel at. Schoenborn sat several rows behind me at the game and appeared to be holding his shoulder a little gingerly, but overall did not look too out of sorts. I would expect him to return fairly soon (though the shoulder is something he's injured before, so they might be cautious). Iverson's injury is a strange one to me. He did something to his lower body on his first shift on Wednesday vs. Moose Jaw and appeared to try and stretch it out on the bench. He still ended up leaving at the next break in action and did not return. He does not have the injury history that Schoenborn has, so one hopes that he will be back soon.

Their absence meant that the lines were juggled around. Coach Jamie Kompon broke up the top six and put Turgeon and Bittner together. They were great together Wednesday, but were not as in sync on Saturday. The top-six throughout the game was juggled around, but obviously did not result in too much success. Evan Weinger and Colton Veloso were given the most chances in the top-six, but did not do that much with the opportunity given. Weinger appeared to be trying to do the same things Schoenborn does but dos not have the same scoring touch he has to go along with the physical stuff.
Stats:

Player	Goals	Assists	Points	Shots	Faceoffs	F.O. %	Hits	Blocked Shots	PIMs
Bittner	0	0	0	8	1/1	100%	3	0	0
Turgeon	0	0	0	0	13/21	61.9%	1	0	0
Veloso	0	0	0	0	-	-	5	1	0
Bukarts	0	0	0	3	-	-	3	0	0
Abols	0	0	0	5	3/11	27.3%	1	1	0
Weinger	0	0	0	2	0/1	0%	5	0	0
Overhardt	0	0	0	0	4/8	50%	3	0	0
Glass	0	0	0	1	2/4	50%	0	0	0
McKenzie	0	0	0	2	-	-	7	0	0
Clayton	0	0	0	1	-	-	5	1	2
Hughes	0	0	0	0	8/13	61.5%	0	0	0
Nagel	0	0	0	0	-	-	4	0	0
Heinrich	0	0	0	3	-	-	4	1	4
Dougherty	0	0	0	6	-	-	6	2	2
Jones	0	0	0	5	-	-	3	1	0
Texeira	0	0	0	2	-	-	4	1	0
MacEachern	0	0	0	0	-	-	3	0	0
De Jong	0	0	0	1	-	-	1	1	0

Notes:
-Jack Dougherty had perhaps his most impressive game of the year in the loss. In my opinion he was Portland's best skater. He really seems to be coming into his own as a shutdown defenseman in this league. At one point he had Trevor Cox skating in on him one-on-one. He not only stick-checked the puck away from Cox but also buried him with a check.
-Keoni Texeira, meanwhile, has been struggling recently. He's looked good in flashes this season, but has been the most mistake prone d-man of the top-four. His outlet passes under pressure, have been picked off pretty consistently. He had one really poor one in the second period that led to an immediate scoring look against Hill.
-Paul Bittner's three-game goal streak was snapped, but not for lack of effort. He led the team, by my count, with eight shots on goal and drove the net off of power moves twice. Both times, it looked like he was hauled down from behind, but neither time did he get a call.
-Tanner Nagel was great in his WHL, regular season debut. He threw four checks and was the driving force behind a fourth line that was playing so well that they were getting ice time with less than four minutes to play in a tight game.

Winterhawks in the NHL:

Wednesday:
-Brandon Dubinsky made his return to the lineup after having surgery on his infected elbow. He skated 17:48 of ice time in Columbus' 2-1 win over New Jersey.
-Jannik Hansen scored his seventh goal of the year and it was the game winner in a 3-2 Vancouver win over Minnesota.

Friday:
-Marian Hossa scored his 490th career NHL goal in a 3-2 OT win for Chicago over Anaheim.
-In a 2-1 OT win over Pittsburgh, Brandon Dubinsky cross-checked Sidney Crosby in the back of the head and then broke his stick over Crosby' back as he laid on the ice. Dubinsky would end up receiving a one-game suspension for his actions. Dubinsky had an assist and Ryan Johansen had a goal in the win.
-Jannik Hansen had an assist in a 3-2 shootout loss to Dallas.

Saturday:
-Ryan Johansen scored his sixth goal of the year for Columbus, despite the trade rumors swirling around him. CBJ lost to St. Louis 3-1 in the game.

Winterhawks in the AHL:

Tuesday:
-Taylor Aronson had two more assists as the Milwaukee Admirals beat former Seattle Thunderbird goalie Calvin Pickard and San Antonio 6-3.
Wednesday:
-Chase De Leo had a goal and an assist and Nic Petan had an assist and somehow Manitoba still lost to Lake Erie 4-2.
-Derrick Pouliot had the overtime winner for Wilkes Barre/Scranton in a 4-3 win over Binghamton. Three-on-three hockey seems built for someone like Pouliot.
Friday:
-No Winterhawks in this one, but Binghamton had only six shots on net in a 4-0 loss to Albany.
Winterhawks in the ECHL:
-First AHL goal for Nic Petan in a 4-1 Manitoba loss to Lake Erie.
-Taylor Leier had two points in his return to the AHL, after being sent down by Philadelphia. His Lehigh Valley Phantoms beat Hershey 6-5 in the game.
-Derrick Pouliot had an assist in a 3-0 WB/S Penguins win over Providence.
Saturday:
-Brendan Leipsic scored a goal for Toronto in a 6-2 losing effort to St. John's.
-Travis Ehrhardt, who was scratched the previous game for Utica, had two goals and two assists for four points in a career-best night. He now has seven points this season, which matches his entire effort for Utica last year. Utica beat the Portland Prates 6-3 in the game.
-Cam Reid was called up from Reading to Lehigh Valley for a one-game stint in the AHL. He got one shot on net in a 3-0 loss to Providence.
-Tyler Wotherspoon assisted on Stockton's second goal of the game in a 3-2 win over Bakersfield.
Sunday:
-Brendan Leipsic assisted on the lone Toronto goal in a 5-1 loss to St. John's.

Winterhawks in the ECHL:

Wednesday:

-Mac Carruth finally got another start for the Indy Fuel and it wasn't a good one. He gave up five goals on 38 shots in a 5-1 loss to Wichita.

Friday:

-Thomas Frazee scored a goal as Atlanta edged Orlando 4-3.

-A day before he would be called up to the AHL, Cam Reid had an assist for Reading in a 6-3 loss to Greenville.

-William Wrenn had an assist for Alaska in their 4-2 loss to Evansville.
Saturday:

-Kevin Young had an assist in Reading's 4-3 loss to Greenville.

-William Wrenn had another assist and Garrett Haar had two points as the last-place Alaska Aces took down Evansville 4-1. Troy Rutkowski had an assist in the loss for the IceMen.
Sunday:
-Yet another assist for Kevin Young in a 3-2 Reading win over Wheeling. Cam Reid returned to the ECHL and played in the game, after a short-lived AHL stint.
-Mac Carruth stopped 30 of 33 shots and Indy lost in overtime 3-2 to Quad City. Miles Koules was not in the lineup for the Mallards in the loss.
-Patrick Wellar and Willieam Wrenn each had an assist in a 5-3 loss to Evansville. Wrenn currently has a five-game point streak going, during which he has seven points.