Chiefs Deal Jones, But Don’T Fold To Seattle Spokane Starts Anew With Win Over Thunderbirds
The Spokane Chiefs can only hope the rest of the post-Ty Jones era goes as well as the first night.
A couple of hours after Jones, their star winger, was traded to the Kamloops Blazers on Wednesday, the Chiefs worked over the Seattle Thunderbirds 5-2 before 5,566 in the Arena.
Brandin Cote had three points and three other Chiefs scored two in a breeze over the T-Birds, who started the week as the hottest club in the Western Hockey League West.
Sure, it was Seattle’s second game in as many nights, following a 5-1 loss to the Calgary Hitmen. And yes, it came against the backup goaltender, 17-year-old Thomas Vicars.
But it looked easy, and when was the last time the Chiefs made anything look easy?
“I don’t know about easy,” Chiefs coach Mike Babcock said. “We get a couple of great saves early from our goaltender, when it could have gone either way.”
With goalie Mike Lencucha turning aside 23 of 25 shots, the Chiefs for the most part sat on Seattle’s impressive skill players, although Bret DeCecco did shake free to score his 43rd goal of the year late in the game.
The Chiefs by then had put it away. Brad Ference, Cam Severson and Lynn Loyns were other multiple-point scorers in Spokane’s 14th win. At 14-27-6, still last in the West, the Chiefs in the wake of the Jones deal could be viewed as a club looking beyond this season. They are, Babcock said, but not at the expense of this one.
“Ty Jones is a great kid, a happy-go-lucky kid, who in four years here did a lot of good things for us,” the coach said. “But for some reason this year he just couldn’t get it going. It was time for a change. He knew it. I knew it. We wish him nothing but the best.
“A lot of people will look at this as giving up, but I think it’s just the opposite. Because it wasn’t working. Ty gets a positive opportunity and so do we. We’re pretty satisfied with the group we have. We still think we can make a good, strong run at the playoffs.”
Jones was sent to Kamloops for 17-year-old Ryan Thorpe, a 6-foot-4, 200-pound former first-round bantam draft pick described by sources in Kamloops as a character player who is a willing combatant, although at this point not a very successful fighter.
Babcock said he hoped Thorpe could play in his top three lines. “We get a big ‘81 (born in 1981) forward,” he said. “We’re puny in ‘81s (17-year-olds).”
Thorpe scored six points in 65 games over two seasons with the Blazers, who lead the WHL West and are intent on making a run for the Memorial Cup. Jones started the season with the NHL Chicago Blackhawks, for whom he played eight games.
“I knew it was going to come but when it finally happened my heart sank for a second,” he said. “This is where I grew up and pretty much learned everything I know in hockey. It’s weird, after four years, but it’s one of those things that happens.”
Did both parties need a change?
“I think so,” Jones said. “This will probably help the Chiefs, and hopefully help myself. I’m going to a Memorial Cup contender and the Chiefs are bulking up for next year, even this year, I don’t know. I’ve never seen the guy I was traded for. It’ll help them in the future, for sure.
“They were going to lose me after this year anyway, and they’re in last place,” Jones added. “I’ll be rooting for them to make a run, and get in the playoffs. I’ve been with Schutzy (Derek Schutz) and (Brad) Ference for a long time. I’m good friends with Sever (Cam Severson), Vandermeer and (David) Haun. It’s going to be weird, lining up against those guys.”
Should the Chiefs dig their way out of the cellar, they could, as the No. 6 seed, wind up in a best-of-7 opening round playoff with Jones and the Blazers.
“That would be unreal,” Jones said. “They trade me away, so I hopefully shove it back in their face.”
He was smiling as soon as he said it.
Asked if there’s any bitterness in leaving, Jones said, “Not at all. They actually did me a favor. They could have traded me to a team in the Prairies. They could have done something a lot worse. I’ve got a relationship with (GM Tim) Speltz and Babs (coach Mike Babcock) and (owner) Bobby (Brett). In my heart, they’ll always be my friends.”
The 16th pick of the ‘97 NHL entry draft, Jones is the third-highest drafted player in Chiefs history. The 6-foot-3, 220-pound winger scored just over a point a game - 15 goals and 12 assists for 27 points - in 26 outings.
He compiled 72 goals in a junior career that dates to the Chiefs’ inaugural season in the Arena, in the fall of ‘95.
“We felt a change of some kind was necessary,” Speltz said. “It didn’t specifically have to be Ty Jones but we felt we had to make a change before the (Feb. 1) trade deadline.”
Are other moves imminent?
“Other teams will answer that for us,” Speltz said. “We’ve got wants and needs but we don’t have a decision to make until somebody puts an offer on the table that we think is worth discussing.”
With strong ties to Spokane - his parents attended school in the Valley and recently returned to live here - Jones was a popular figure for four seasons, a young sports millionaire with a broad smile who can be virtually unstoppable going to the net.
” Babcock said. “That has to change, and I think it will.”
Chiefs 5, Thunderbirds 2
Seattle 0 1 2 - 2
Spokane 1 1 3 - 5
First period - 1, Spokane, Severson 6 (Cote), 7:11. Key penalties - Forster, Sea, 11:42; Ference, Spo, 16:52.
Second period - 2, Spokane, Ference 3 (Smith, Schutz), 9:45 (pp). 3, Seattle, Clymer 5, 14:55. Key penalties - Forster, Sea, 1:11; Severson, Spo, 2:02; Pollock, Sea, 9:39; Vandermeer, Spo, 10:47; Saprykin, Sea, 11:53; Schutz, Spo, 19:21.
Third period - 4, Spokane, Bohac 19 (Cote, Loyns), 3:39. 5, Spokane, Severson 7 (Vandermeer, Ference), 8:01 (pp). 6, Spokane, Loyns 13 (Cote, Suter), 11:15. 7, Seattle, DeCecco 43 (Forster), 18:19. Key penalties - DiRoberto, Sea, 1:32; Severson, Spo, 5:06; Kelman, Spo, 6:14; Severson, Spo, elbowing major, game misconduct, 19:37.
Power-play Opportunities - Seattle 0 of 6; Spokane 2 of 6. Saves - Seattle, Vicars 5-12-9-26. Spokane, Lencucha 6-15-2-23. A - 5,566.