Thursday, March 3, 2016

Thursday's Portland Winterhawks' News and Notes: Demin and Karki Honored

The U.S. National Team Development Program announced their preliminary list of 48, 2000 born U.S. players invited to their development camp, which will run March 18th-22nd. The camp will be used to choose the final roster for the 2016-17 U. S. National U-17 team. Of the 26 forwards, 17 defensemen and five goalies listed, two are on the Portland Winterhawks' protected list. They are 6'0", 165 lb, Cypress, CA native, d-man Stanislav Demin and 6'4", 205 lb, Sartell, Minnesota native, goalie Keegan Karki. 

Demin was drafted by Portland in the sixth round of the 2015 WHL Bantam Draft, out of the Anaheim Jr. Ducks program. While playing 25 regular season games for the U-16 Ducks this year, he ad five goals and six assists for 11 points. He played in three playoff games, where he was pointless. The Jr. Ducks 16U AAA-1 team, of which he is a part, won the California state title, by beating the Jr. Ducks 16U AAA-2 team 4-0 in the final. Scouting News praised Demin's lateral movement and expressed hope that he will grow another three or four inches.

Karki was listed by the Winterhawks over the summer and attended the Neely Cup in August. His season was just ended Wednesday night, though not for lack of effort on his part. His St. Cloud Cathedral High School team fell in the quarter-finals of the Minnesota Class A State Tournament 4-2 to St. Paul Academy. Karki stopped 39 of the 42 shots he faced and held the Crusaders in the game until five minutes were left in the third period. That is when St. Paul broke a 2-2 tie, en route to winning by two on an empty-netter. Karki had a 3.05 GAA and a 0.881 Save % in 18 regular season games for St. Cloud this year. In this training video he shows excellent form and great lateral mobility. He could very well be signed and find himself in the Winterhawks' plans within the next couple years.

Three Former Winterhawks on 2016 World Cup Preliminary Rosters:
-Marian Hossa (Team Europe), Jannik Hansen (Team Europe) and Seth Jones (Team North America) were all among the players listed to represent their assigned teams Wednesday. They will play in the eight-team World Cup 2016 tournament September 17th-October 1st in Toronto, Ontario. The first 16 players for each team were the only ones named Wednesday and so there is the possibility that more former Hawks will be named in the months to come.

Here are some of the players with a good chance of being one of the last seven named for their team by June 1st:
-Nino Niederreiter (Team Europe)
-Sven Baertschi (Team Europe)
-Luca Sbisa (Team Europe)
-Ryan Johansen (Team Canada)
-Matt Dumba (Team North America)
Of those listed, Nino has the best chance and probably should've been one of the first 16 named for Team Europe. All the rest are more of the dark horse variety and will need to have a pretty great finish to their season this year to find a roster spot.

Jason Wiemer Will Help Host a "Hot Stove Lounge":
-Former Winterhawk Jason Wiemer is one of several former professional hockey players taking part in an event on April 1st, that will help kick off the Westeran Canada Bantam AAA Championships. Wiemer will take part in a discussion type event at the ATB Hot Stoves Lounge, where he will impart some of the wisdom he gained over his 12-year professional career.
-Wiemer played from 1991-95 with the Hawks, compiling 173 points and 458 penalty minutes in just 158 games. He was chosen eighth overall by Tampa Bay in the 1994 NHL draft and 726 NHL games, compiling 202 points and 1,420 penalty minutes, while playing for the Lightning, Calgary, Florida, N.Y. Islanders, Minnesota and New Jersey.  He was more of a power forward type, while with Portland, but ended up evolving into more of a pugilist at the NHL level. In this video, he goes to town on Dallas' Phillipe Boucher.

Winterhawks in the NHL:
Tuesday:
-Ryan Johansen notched an assist for Nashville in their 5-3 win over Dallas. It was Johansen's first point in seven games.
-Nino Niederreiter scored twice and added an assist for Minnesota as they took down Colorado 6-3. Mat Dumba added an assist, while Cody McLeod scored his eighth goal of the year for the Avalanche in their loss.
Wednesday:
-Brendan Leipsic was called up on an emergency basis for Toronto, but not in time to play in their loss to Washington Wednesday.

Winterhawks in the ECHL:
-Anton Cederholm earned ECHL-Plus player of the month honors. He had a league-best plus/minus rating of +13 rating to get the award. He leads his team in plus/minus this year with an overall rating of +12.

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