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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Favorite Tag To Seattle In The West Chiefs, Who Open In Arena Tonight, Picked 3rd

The Seattle Thunderbirds are the obvious choice.

If.

The Portland Winter Hawks should chase them to the wire.

If.

Forced to deal prized young talent for proven veterans at the January trade deadline, the Spokane Chiefs could get up for third.

If.

What you see in September is rarely what you get in March, such is the volatility of junior hockey. Today’s unsung 17-year-old is next June’s first-round National Hockey League draft choice. As kids change, the fortunes of a franchise change with them.

What little predictability there is in the Western Hockey League is based on returning stars. Who comes back from pro camps - and when - is a factor in getting off to a fast start. Figuring out who’s coming and who’s going is a guessing game that tests the patience of every WHL general manager.

The ifs start in Seattle.

If one of the most gifted players in the game, Patrick Marleau, is shipped back to the T-Birds by the NHL San Jose Sharks, Seattle should reign as WHL West Division champion. It’s not hard to envision the Thunderbirds with Marleau winning the Memorial Cup.

But if the Sharks decide to keep the 18-year-old phenom - and this week he was playing very well for them - the picture clouds in a hurry.

Add to that the uncertain status of talented forwards Torrey DiRoberto and Jeremy Reich and the T-Birds could struggle out of the gate. DiRoberto had surgery last month to correct a tear in his stomach wall. Reich broke his foot in camp with the Chicago Blackhawks. Both are out at least a month.

Former Chiefs center Martin Cerven has signed with Philadelphia and is not expected back in Seattle. Veteran agitator Tyler Willis and Derek Arbez, both 20-year-old right wingers, will start the season in the American League, in Worcester, Mass.

So the T-Birds aren’t the team they’ll be down the line. Enter the Winter Hawks. For the past two seasons, Portland coach Brent Peterson has looked forward to this year, when his team comes of age. If it can block out the shock of winning the regular-season championship last March - then falling to Prince George in the first round of the playoffs - the Hawks will contend.

The Chiefs, who launch the season tonight in the sold-out Arena with the improved Tri-City Americans, are picked to finish no higher than third by all but one representative of the division’s seven teams.

Coach Ed Dempsey, let go by Kamloops and snapped up by Prince George, says the Chiefs will do enough wheeling and dealing to win the West.

“Spokane is going to win it,” Dempsey said. “They have to. You don’t get many shots at hosting a Memorial Cup. When you do, you have to make sure it’s your year. This is their year.”

The Chiefs have a free pass to the Final Four. They’ll play as the host team in May, when the three league champions of North American junior hockey come to Spokane in pursuit of the Memorial Cup.

The consensus from a sampling of coaches and GMs rides with Seattle.

Peterson said, “If (forwards Blake) Evans, (Marc) Brown and (Jared) Smyth step in and play great, Spokane will be right there. If they don’t take over for (Trent) Whitfield and whoever else is gone (Cardarelli, Hugh Hamilton and John Cirjak), ‘Spoke’ will struggle.”

Looking ahead to the playoffs, Seattle ousts Tri-City, Portland atones for last year’s flop by finessing big and tough Kelowna and the Chiefs grind one out over defensively strong Kamloops.

Seattle would draw the bye and eventually meet Portland for the division title and the ticket to the WHL finals. Until we see what kind of talent, if any, the Chiefs trade for at the deadline, it’s not plausible to expect them to get beyond the semifinals.

They’re short of scoring pop and unproven in goal.

“Seattle has the the best team on paper,” Peterson said, “but I thought Spokane had the best team on paper last year. You don’t play this game on paper.”

If it’s difficult to pick a champion, it’s almost impossible to foresee who’ll wind up last. Prince George lost as much talent as any team in the league, but the town is Cougar crazy after the club’s strong finish in the playoffs last year.

Enthusiasm is contagious. Prince George could finish closer to first than last, but the Cougars are breaking in a new goaltender. And what are the chances of Tri-City missing the playoffs again after acquiring sniper Scott Gomez, who scored 124 points in 56 junior league games?

“I won’t be surprised if Tri-City gets out of the gate real fast,” Kelowna GM Bruce Hamilton said. “They’ve been together the longest. Everybody’s been with them a month or longer. We had nine or 10 guys away for two weeks. They just started coming back this week.”

“Portland and Seattle are the big dogs for sure,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said, “but everybody is improved. Tri-City, Kamloops, Kelowna. It’s impossible to predict anything in junior hockey. Last year everyone thought Moose Jaw needed a goaltender. They had (Donavan) Nunweiler. He turned out to be the best in the league.”

Dempsey’s high opinion of the Chiefs may be well-founded. Spokane GM Tim Speltz was active in the exhibition season, releasing 20-year-old Mike Haley, acquiring steady forward Ron Grimard from Edmonton and moving the veteran sniper Cirjak to Regina for strong defenseman Perry Johnson.

“We have to acquire more people, no question, but in saying that we think we’re in a good situation right now,” Babcock said.

The good would be upgraded to excellent if center Whitfield should be returned by the Boston Bruins.

Don’t count on it, Babcock cautions.

The Chiefs were dealt a blow when their pick in the import player draft, Czech center Petr Sykora -the 76th player taken in the June NHL draft, by the Detroit Red Wings - opted not to accept the Red Wings’ contract offer. He apparently won’t play in North America this year.

Seattle GM Russ Farwell wasted no time building the T-Birds into a contender and enhancing his own reputation as the most insightful GM in the division.

“Marleau is the key,” he said. “With Marleau here, and a player we picked up in the import draft, Stanislav Gron, as our next center we can have a tremendous first two lines.

“Without Marleau it’s an unknown.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: OUR PICKS This is the predicted order of finish by Dan Weaver, who covers the Chiefs for The Spokesman-Review. 1. Seattle 2. Portland 3. Spokane 4. Kamloops 5. Kelowna 6. Tri-City 7. Prince George

This sidebar appeared with the story: OUR PICKS This is the predicted order of finish by Dan Weaver, who covers the Chiefs for The Spokesman-Review. 1. Seattle 2. Portland 3. Spokane 4. Kamloops 5. Kelowna 6. Tri-City 7. Prince George