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Spokane Chiefs

Chiefs enter Western Hockey League season with new coach, returning firepower

Spokane’s Ty Smith is considered a top prospect for the 2018 National Hockey League draft. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
By Kevin Dudley For The Spokesman-Review

The Spokane Chiefs enter the 2017-2018 Western Hockey League season with a new coach in Dan Lambert and the team’s top three scorers returning. The Chiefs are looking to return to the playoffs after a rare season without spring hockey in Spokane.

But it’ll be a difficult task: Two teams in the U.S. Division – the Portland Winterhawks and Tri-City Americans – are ranked in the Canadian Hockey League’s Preseason Top 10. Portland is fifth while the Americans are eighth.

The Chiefs enter Friday night’s season opener on the road in Prince George without forwards Kailer Yamamoto and Jaret Anderson-Dolan. Both players remain in training camp with their respective NHL teams.

But that just means the Chiefs will get some solid firepower once they return.

That’s the working assumption, at least. It would seem Anderson-Dolan would be the first to return after training camp with the Los Angeles Kings.

Yamamoto’s return date is still somewhat of a mystery. The Edmonton Oilers’ first-round draft pick has impressed so far in training camp. Yamamoto scored a nice goal on Monday in a preseason win against the Calgary Flames.

The Edmonton Journal’s David Staples noted that Yamamoto, “looked like a Top 6 NHL forward” after a preseason win over the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday.

The NHL season begins Oct. 4 for the Oilers, and NHL teams can play rookies in nine games before they burn a year of the player’s entry-level contract. It remains to be seen how long Yamamoto will be in Edmonton.

Meanwhile, the Chiefs also return 20-year-old Hudson Elynuik, a third-round draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2016. Elynuik was third on the team last year with 73 points (29 goals 44 assists). Elynuik also spent time in an NHL training camp before the Hurricanes sent him back to Spokane.

The other 20-year-olds are forward Rykr Cole and defenseman Tyson Helgesen.

A wild card this season but nonetheless intriguing is 1999-born forward Jake McGrew. The Orange, California, native missed all of last season with an injury but was still selected in the sixth round by the San Jose Sharks in this past summer’s NHL Draft.

On defense, the Chiefs return just about everybody, including Helgesen and Ty Smith. Helgesen spent time at Calgary’s training camp and Smith is a top prospect for the 2018 NHL Draft.

The defense needs to take a big step forward this season if the Chiefs are to return to the playoffs. The Chiefs allowed the sixth-most goals last year in the WHL (272) and had the league’s fourth-worst penalty kill with just a 74.8 percent success rate.

In goal, the Chiefs return 1999-born Dawson Weatherill. He was technically the backup last season but appeared in 36 of the Chiefs’ 72 games, posting a .885 save percentage and a 3.58 goals-against average.

The Chiefs are currently carrying four 2001-born rookies, including 2016 first-round bantam draft pick Luke Toporowski, the brother to defenseman Jake.

The Chiefs play back-to-back games against the Prince George Cougars Friday and Saturday before a Sept. 29 date in Cranbrook, British Columbia, with the Kootenay Ice. The home opener is Sept. 30 against the Ice.