WHL pocket book: Giants D-man Damian Palmieri pumps tires of Blazers centre making an attempt to stay with Maple Leafs

Article content material

Rely Damian Palmieri amongst these in Fraser Minten’s nook.

Article content material

Minten is the Kamloops Blazers centre from Vancouver who’s getting some nationwide media consideration after sticking with the Toronto Maple Leafs as a 19-year-old to start out this NHL season.

Article content material

Additionally 19, Palmieri is a third-year Vancouver Giants defenceman initially from Delta. Palmieri and Minten performed spring hockey collectively rising up and he couldn’t be happier for the success Minten is having.

“He’s in all probability one of many biggest guys I do know,” Palmieri mentioned. “He’s all the time completely happy for everyone else. I’m completely happy for every little thing he’s completed within the final yr and a half, from getting drafted to creating that group. 

“I believe it actually opens as much as guys that it may occur. You must put the work in by yourself, and he undoubtedly did. He’s very dedicated to what he does.”

Article content material

Article content material

Minten was a fourth-round choice by the Blazers out of West Vancouver Academy within the 2019 WHL Draft. He was picked within the second spherical, No. 38 general, by the Maple Leafs within the 2022 NHL Draft. 

He amassed 31 targets, 67 factors and a plus-24 ranking in 57 common season video games with Kamloops final season. The 6-foot-1, 194-pound Minten is understood for his savvy, mature sport. 

In keeping with Yahoo! Sports activities, there have been 155 situations the place a participant Minten’s age or youthful has appeared within the NHL, and simply 14 occasions — Alex Forementon counts twice since he did it at 18 and 19 — when gamers had been drafted exterior the primary spherical. 

The Blazers are considered one of three Western Convention groups which have had 18- or 19-year-olds stick within the NHL to start out the yr, together with Seattle Thunderbirds (defenceman Kevin Korchinski is with the Chicago Blackhawks) and Wenatchee Wild (winger Zach Benson and centre Matthew Savoie are each with the Buffalo Sabres, though Savoie is injured).

Article content material

The gamers can see motion in 9 NHL video games earlier than the primary yr of their entry-level offers are activated. That would be the subsequent countdown for the quartet.

GIANTS WAIVE HAYNES TO GET DOWN TO OVERAGE MAXIMUM

Tuesday was 20-year-old cut-down day within the WHL. Groups can have three 20-year-olds on their lively roster and Vancouver opted to maintain the overage trio of goaltender Brett Mirwald, winger Skyler Bruce and defenceman Logen Hammett, and waive defenceman Carson Haynes.

Haynes was picked up on waivers later Tuesday by the Regina Pats.

Giants common supervisor Barclay Parneta says the group mind belief didn’t come to a conclusion on which three to maintain till Monday. 

“We thought that extremely of all 4 of them,” Parneta mentioned. “It was a troublesome determination.”

Article content material

As for Haynes, Parneta mentioned: “He was an enormous a part of our room. He’s a preferred man.”

Parneta says the group regarded into trades and he predicted forward of the announcement of Regina’s waiver declare that Haynes was going to be chosen by somebody.

“I needed the fellows to all play within the league, and particularly since they’re all such good children,” mentioned Parneta. 

Mirwald and Haynes joined the Giants in trades with the Moose Jaw Warriors and Tri-Metropolis Individuals, respectively, forward of final season. Bruce came to visit from the Winnipeg Ice within the commerce deadline blockbuster that noticed ahead and group captain Zack Ostapchuk head to Winnipeg, and Hammett arrived this summer time in a swap with the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Vancouver needed to wholesome scratch one of many quartet for the primary 4 video games this season. Bruce bought into simply a kind of video games. 

Article content material

Haynes, who’s from Taber, Alta., is a gradual, stay-at-home kind. He put up three targets and 15 factors, to go along with 47 penalty minutes, in 50 video games with Vancouver final yr.

The Giants go to the Pats on Jan. 12 of their lone assembly this yr.

VIVEIROS WON’T GET NOSTALGIC ABOUT FACING SWIFT CURRENT

Friday’s journey to the Langley Occasions Centre by the Swift Present Broncos will mark the primary time they’ve performed Vancouver on the Giants’ residence rink since Oct. 19, 2019. That’s due to the COVID pandemic and since there’s restricted crossover between the WHL’s Japanese and Western Conferences.

Manny Viveiros, who’s in his first yr as Vancouver’s head coach, spent two seasons guiding Swift Present, the final in 2017-18, when he led them to the WHL championships. He says going through the Broncos received’t have him waxing nostalgic. He has coached in opposition to them since leaving, bringing to Spokane Chiefs to Swift Present 2019-20.

Article content material

“It’s been fairly a number of years. Everybody that’s there now wasn’t there after I was there,” he mentioned.

[email protected]

Bookmark our web site and help our journalism: Don’t miss the information that you must know — add VancouverSun.com and TheProvince.com to your bookmarks and join our newsletters right here.

It’s also possible to help our journalism by changing into a digital subscriber: For simply $14 a month, you may get limitless, ad-lite entry to The Vancouver Solar, The Province, Nationwide Submit and 13 different Canadian information websites. Help us by subscribing in the present day: The Vancouver Solar | The Province.

Article content material