Plenty of new faces for Thunder
Some of the players ready to wear a Wichita Thunder jersey for the first time this season might just be happy to be wearing any jersey.
Of the 25 players scheduled to report on Monday to the opening of training camp, 16 are newcomers. Among those 16 are 11 who have played 43 games or fewer in the ECHL. Several have no professional experience.
Not all of them will make the team, but those players will look to build goodwill by supplementing a group of experienced returners that includes forwards RG Flath, Danick Gauthier, Ian Lowe and Kenton Miller, along with defensemen Dan Milan and Dalton Reum.
“There’s a good mix of guys that are proven, then there’s some young guys that have pedigrees,” Thunder coach Kevin McClelland said. “But pedigrees can’t skate – they’ve got to show me starting Monday.
The Thunder’s offseason mission appeared to be centered around goal prevention, as Wichita solidified its defenseman corps by adding former NHL player Ray Macias and Brandon Martell, who is in training camp with an AHL team but may return to the Thunder.
Andrew Blazek and Andrew Darrigo also could figure into the Thunder’s plans, and the team added rookie defensemen Tim Boyle, Ryan Ruikka and Luc Kilgore. The goaltending duo of David Shantz and returner Grant Rollheiser looks to be a strength.
“We wanted to be a hard-working hockey team and a team that’s really difficult to play with,” McClelland said. “…You always like to start from the goalie out when you’re building a hockey club, that’s for sure.
“You can ask any coach in any league where he’s most vulnerable once you get a few injuries or a few call-ups, and it’s always defense. They’re at a premium, those guys.”
Last season, Gauthier was the only Thunder player in the ECHL’s top 48 in scoring, and Lowe barely gave Wichita two in the top 50. The Thunder finished tied for 17th among 28 teams in scoring, missing the playoffs in its first season in the league.
Wichita returns four of its top five scorers — Gauthier, Lowe, Kenton Miller and Todd Hosmer, but didn’t add a top-level forward during the summer.
Players such as Joey Sides and Michael Neal may add to the Thunder’s scoring punch and 20-year-old rookie Anthony Deluca scored 91 points in juniors last season.
“You want to add a little bit more depth,” McClelland said. “There’s a lot of teams out there recruiting, you just want to make sure you’re in the mix and can get a couple of these guys. You’re dealing with 27 other teams, and it’s tough sledding out there.
“A guy like Deluca, he’s just stepping into the pros out of juniors right now, so there’s going to be a transition period for him. But anyone that puts up almost 100 points in the Quebec League as a 19-year-old, you know he’s doing something right. Monday’s going to be my first chance to look at the kid, then we’ll go from there.”
This story was originally published October 4, 2015 at 7:10 PM with the headline "Plenty of new faces for Thunder."