It was just over 5 months ago the Chiefs saw their season come to a disappointing end with a game 7 loss to Portland in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. Spokane had finished 4th in the conference during the regular season, but drew 3rd seed Portland in a battle of heavyweights in the early going. The experience will no doubt serve the Chiefs well as they head into the 2018-19 campaign as one of the favorites in the West. Spokane lost several key contributors from last season, including their three 20 year olds, Captain and defenseman Tyson Helgesen, and forwards Hudson Elynuik and Zach Fischer. High scoring forward Kailer Yamamoto will also not return, as his 20 year old campaign will be playing for the Edmonton Oilers or for their AHL affiliate.
The good news for the Chiefs is there will be a number of returners. Defenseman Ty Smith and forward Jaret Anderson-Dolan should be back in Spokane, but may gone in their NHL camps with New Jersey and Los Angeles for a bit longer than anticipated after getting off to great starts with their NHL clubs. Expect both of them back though by sometime in October at the latest though, as the team's leading scoring forward and defenseman will be huge factors in how far Spokane goes come playoff time. Up front, Anderson-Dolan will be joined by returners Jake McGrew, Eli Zummack, Ethan McIndoe, Riley Woods, Luke Toporowski, Jeff Faith and Carter Chorney. Newcomers Connor Gabruch, Jack Finley, Adam Beckman, Cordel Larson, Michael King and Sean Gulka should round out a very strong offensive corp that should put up plenty in the scoring department this season when all is said and done.
Defensively, Smith will lead a veteran group of blue liners. Twenty year old Nolan Reid is coming off a career season. Filip Kral will miss the first few weeks of the year recovering from an injury suffered in the Portland playoff series, but will be back to build on a season in which led to him being drafted by Toronto in the NHL draft. New Russian import Egor Arbuzov will be a welcome addition on the back end with returners Luke Gallagher and Matt Leduc. Bobby Russell was acquired in a deal from Kootenay, who along with Tyson Feist, who saw limited time with the Chiefs last season, will round out an improved defensive corp that by year's end should be one of the best in the West.
Goaltending is also very strong as returners Dawson Weatherill and Bailey Brkin will man the nets. Brkin was a very good replacement for Weatherill while the starter was out with injury. Weatherill returned late in the season to play his best hockey of the year into the playoffs. Both are 19 with a lot of experience, so Spokane should be in good hands as I think this will be the best tandem the Chiefs have had since Dustin Tokarski and Kevin Armstrong in 07-08.
In all, this year's team, barring injuries, should be one of the top clubs in the West and the league. Pre-season voters in the CHL poll seem to think so as well, as Spokane is the second highest rated team in the Western Hockey League, and ranked 6th overall in the entire CHL. We'll see if that pans out, but the team has shown a lot of promise in the pre-season, going an impressive 4-1-1, including two straight wins over Tri City to end the exhibition campaign. The Chiefs will also open the season with the Americans on Saturday the 22nd down in Kennewick. Spokane started the year with a win down in Tri Cities last season, so the club will be hoping to repeat a little history in this year's season opener. I'll have the call on 1510 KGA starting at 6:30pm, with the puck drop set for around 7:15pm. Here's to another season of Spokane Chiefs hockey, and follow along all season with my weekly recap blog here on krem.com, and also with the road game blogs on spokanechiefs.com. Just click on the fan zone tab on the main page and click on the road with Mike Boyle. We hope to see you at the rink this season!
