Cougars head scout Bob Simmonds predicts Hudson Thornton will eventually be the quarterback of the Cougars' power play once he's got his feet wet as a Western Hockey League defenceman.
The 14-year-old kid from Winnipeg offered glimpses of greatness that could lie ahead in his hockey future to a sparse gathering Friday night at CN Centre in the Young Guns Game as the Cougars kicked off their six-day training camp.
Thirteen minutes into the game, Thornton gained a loose puck along the boards and dragged it out to the face-off circle and launched a whistler of a snap shot that was in the net before his 17-year-old brother Kolby had a chance to wave at with his trapper.
"I saw that he was cheating to the right a bit and shot it to the left and it went in," said the five-foot-eight, 161-pound Hudson. "(Kolby) doesn't think I beat him very often, but I do.
"I think I'm a strong offensive defenceman that carries the puck up the ice but really takes pride in the defensive zone helping his goalie out. I like to put up some points but also stop the other team from getting them."
The younger Thornton, picked the second round, 33rd overall in the 2018 WHL bantam draft, showed the defensive aspect of his game near the end the period with a well-timed shot block on a penalty kill, a sign of things to come for Cougar fans from the highly-skilled, offensive-minded blueliner.
"He's going to be able to drive the offence from the back end," said Simmonds. "His teammate, Carson Lambos (who went second overall in the 2018 draft to the Kootenay Ice) was discussed in the scouting world as being the consensus first-overall pick, but when you went to watch Lambos, Hudson Thornton was often paired with him and you realized the separation between the two was minimal.
"Quite frankly, projecting forward over a couple of years, maybe the positions of the two players switch. He plays a very mature game and he's only 14 years old still (Thornton turns 15 on Nov. 4). He reads the game very well and he gives the puck to the forwards in such a way that the forwards can do something with it. He's very smart."
Thornton and two other Young Guns - Brewer goalie Tyler Brennan (picked by the Cougars 21st overall in 2018) and Hamhuis forward Michael Svenson (104th overall) - were teammates on the Rink Hockey Academy bantam prep team last season. Thornton had 13 goals and 29 points in 30 games in the Canadian Sports School Hockey League.
"We had an awesome team, depth from top to bottom, and we went to the finals," said Thornton. "It's awesome being here in a junior camp, obviously it's a lot faster guys are a lot stronger, so it's a really great experience."
Thornton's blistering shot opened the scoring for Team Hamhuis but they couldn't hold off the guys in Black, otherwise known as Team Brewer, who cruised to a 5-3 win. Edge Lambert scored two goals. Ty Mueller, with a goal and an assist, Keegan Craik and Craig Armstrong, while shorthanded in the third period, also found the net for Team Brewer.
"I should have iced it and then I just rimmed it around the boards and the d-man picked it up and passed it to the high guy and he bobbled it and I got it and went down, forehand-backhand-forehand, top shelf," said Armstrong.
The native of London, Ont., who moved to Alberta when he was five, learned he was the Cougars' first choice, ninth overall, in the April draft while playing for a select team against Sweden at a tournament in Philadelphia.
"As soon as I finished the game I heard I got drafted and I was just ecstatic. It was unbelievable," he said.
Armstrong is a natural centre and he and Mueller played together last year with the Airdrie Xtreme. The 15-year-old Armstrong will be moving on to the Edge Academy midget prep team in Calgary this season.
"I think I'm a two-way player who can contribute offensively and defensively," said Armstrong. "I'm sort of like a playmaker, a pass-first player, but when I get the chance to shoot I will. The last two years I've played left wing but I'm more comfortable at centre and hope I'll get an opportunity to play centre here someday."
Prince George minor hockey product Jaxon Danilec and Blake Eastman also lit the lamp as Team Hamhuis goalscorers. Matthew Magrath, 16, who played for the Prince George Tier 1 midgets last year, lined up on defence for Team Brewer. He's heading into his second Cougars camp after getting drafted in the ninth round last year.
"It felt good to finally get into see game action and ended up playing well, it feels good winning," said Magrath. "The first time around was a little nerve-wracking, being 15, but this year it felt good coming in. It's obviously really exciting, growing up watching them, and now I get to play with them and I'll give it my best shot."
A shootout ended the night's activities and Tyson Phare, the Cougars' 18th overall pick in 2017, scored on his shootout chance for Team Brewer.
"It was nice to get the first one in camp, even if it was in a shootout," said Phare, a 16-year-old Maple Ridge native. "It's still nice to get off a shot and watch it go in. Everyone loves to score."
The game gave five goalies a chance to show their stuff. Dawson Pelletier of Hope started for Hamhuis and Jackson Glassford (West Vancouver) and Colton Phillips-Watts (Quesnel) also took the crease for a period of action. Brennan, the Cougars' 21st overall pick in 2018 from Winnipeg, came in to replace the older Thornton in the Brewer net with 7:33 left in the second period and gave up just one goal the rest of the way.
Camp resumes with practices and workouts this morning and then the mini-tournament begins with scrimmages at 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. Sunday's scrimmages are at 4 and 6 p.m. and they'll resume Monday and Tuesday at 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. The Black-White intrasquad game is Wednesday at 6 p.m.
