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Vancouver Giants continue to be in turmoil as two more players leave the team
It’s only early November, but the Vancouver Giants have already seen a season’s worth of roster turnover as they attempt to reverse a five-year downward slide on the ice and in the stands.
New coach Lorne Molleken was supposed to bring stability to the organization, but hasn’t yet been able to clean up a mess that was started when two coaches led the club to a last-place finish last season.
On one hand, the Giants seem to be angling for a playoff run this year, acquiring 20-year-old star Trevor Cox and 19-year-old NHL draftees Chase Lang and Ben Thomas in recent trades that sent three younger players and a second-round draft pick elsewhere.
On the other hand, five players have now bailed on the team this season, as Province writer Steve Ewen reported that defenceman Brennan Menell and forward Jesse Roach have departed the organization. That doesn’t bode well for a team that considers itself a playoff contender.
Menell and Roach join Ty Comrie, Shaun Dosanjh and Gage Ramsey as players who have left the Giants since September. Roach is a depth forward whose absence won’t be particularly painful, but Menell was the team’s most versatile defenceman and may have led the team in ice time, according to Ewen:
Menell’s different. The WHL doesn’t keep ice-time stats, but Menell played in every situation for Vancouver. He played maybe more than any other Giant. He’s small and not blazing quick, but he’s smart and shifty. If you talked about potential pros with the Giants, Menell had to be in the conversation.
He had no goals and seven assists, to go with a team-worst minus-14 rating, through 14 games.
Molleken said Menell came into his office Tuesday morning and looked so pale that Molleken thought he was ill. Molleken said Menell told him he had “lost his passion for hockey.”
Ewen reports that Menell and Roach have gone home to await trades, so Menell may have only lost the desire to play for Vancouver. Last year, Spokane Chiefs defenceman Reid Gow told his club he had “lost the desire” to compete in the WHL, but resurfaced with the Brandon Wheat Kings later in the season.
The Giants started this season 3-1-0-1 and had a brief appearance in the CHL Top 10, but they've now dropped six in a row and have won just once in 10 games to fall to the bottom of the Western Conference at 4-8-2-1.
With Kelowna once again looking strong and the surprising Victoria Royals continuing to play well in what was expected to be a bit of a down year, the Giants are already 11 points out of second place in the B.C. Division, a spot they would need to reach to get home-ice advantage in the playoffs.
This was supposed to be a stabilizing year for Vancouver, which hasn’t won a playoff series since 2010 and has seen attendance steadily decline in the years since. Last season was a disaster, with first-year coach Troy Ward lasting just 25 games before being fired. Veteran coach Claude Noel came in and briefly made things better, but the Giants eventually plunged back to last place by season’s end.
Ewen directs most of the blame for the Giants’ current predicament toward GM Scott Bonner:
These were situations the Giants had to deal with when the fiery, scrappy Hay was in charge. They were supposed to avoid these situations with Molleken. He came with a reputation as a players’ guy. He preaches communication. He knows this age group. He’s one of four coaches in the history of the WHL with 600 regular-season wins.
It’s unfair to tag this all on him, though. The player mix with Vancouver isn’t right, and that falls on Bonner.
In the past three seasons, Vancouver’s team captains have been trade acquisition Dalton Thrower followed by five-year veteran Dalton Sward and, this year, 17-year-old Tyler Benson.
Teams don’t usually make new guys or young guys captain. While compliments to both Thrower and Benson, it also speaks to the way the roster has been constructed.
Cox, a 109-point scorer last year for Medicine Hat, will help when he returns from a hand injury. Veteran centre Thomas Foster also hasn’t played yet this season. There’s hope that things could get better, but thus far the Giants haven’t done well at building a contender around budding superstar Tyler Benson.
