Chase Witala was due to arrive Friday night in Prince George from Toronto, after catching a glimpse of his pro hockey future with the Toronto Marlies.
The 20-year-old left winger spent most of the month of April in Toronto on a tryout with the Toronto Maple Leafs' top farm team and has signed a deal to return to the American Hockey League next season.
The Marlies topped the Bridgeport Sound Tigers 6-4 Thursday in Toronto to win a first-round series 3-0 and advance to the second round of the AHL playoffs. They will meet the Albany Devils starting next Wednesday in Toronto. The Marlies, under rookie coach Sheldon Keefe, finished first overall this season with a 54-16-5-1 record and are Calder Cup favourites.
"They're a pretty good team - they have a good chance of winning it all," said Witala.
Witala played three AHL regular-season games and picked up two assists, finishing with a plus-two rating. He already had some idea what it would be like playing with the pros, having attended the Dallas Stars prospects camp and rookie camp last summer.
"It was a pretty cool experience - different from junior, that's for sure - but I felt good out there and it was a pretty awesome experience," Witala said. "There's a lot of stronger guys and the game is really structured, not many mistakes out there, and it's faster, too. I thought I performed well.
"There's always room for improvement but it was my first couple games of pro and you can't expect too much of yourself."
Witala arrived in the Marlies' camp at the same time as Lethbridge Hurricanes 18-year-old defenceman Andrew Nielsen, picked by the Leafs in the third round, 65th overall in the 2015 draft. The Marlies brought up several young players from the ECHL and other junior leagues for their first look-see while Witala was there.
"It was nice to have other young guys here, that helped quite a bit," said the six-foot, 175-pound Witala. "It's nice to be down here and get practices in and a few games to get comfortable with the players and the staff. That helped out, for sure.
"This summer is going to be a big one for me. I've got to get a lot stronger, put a few more pounds on. I'll probably take a month or more off the ice and then get back at it. It's been a pretty long year and it'll be nice to just take a couple weeks off and get away from things."
Having just finished the longest season of his hockey career, Witala is looking forward to laying low at home and taking a break from the game. Although his Prince George Cougars didn't last long into the playoffs and were swept out of the first round in four games by the Seattle Thunderbirds, Witala finished a stellar WHL career with 40 goals and 39 assists for 79 points as the Cougars' leading scorer. In a 302-game career over six WHL seasons he established Cougar records for goals (120) and points (239).
While Witala was away, head coach Mark Holick left the Cougars with one year left on his contract in what was termed a mutual agreement. That came as a big surprise to Witala.
"I liked Mark a lot, he was a great coach to me and he taught me a lot - you know I wouldn't be here without him," said Witala. "I'm not there anymore (with the Cougars) so it doesn't really affect me too much. I'm sure he'll have other options."
