WHL NOTEBOOK: Tyson Zimmer makes Giant address change

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This article was published 06/02/2024 (590 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As it turned out, Tyson Zimmer arrived at the perfect time for the Vancouver Giants.

The Lethbridge Hurricanes sent the 19-year-old Russell product to Vancouver on Jan. 8 for 19-year-old forward Colton Langkow — who never reported — 15-year-old forward Kai Anderson, a second-round pick in 2024 and a third-round pick in 2025. It was the second deal of his major junior career after the Brandon Wheat Kings sent him to the Hurricanes on Sept. 27, 2022.

Zimmer joined the Giants during their East Division swing on Jan. 9 for a road game against the Prince Albert Raiders, rejoining his former Brandon teammate Logen Hammett. In his debut against the Raiders, the teams were tied 5-5 after overtime and headed to the shootout.

“We were in the sixth round and nobody had scored for either team,” Zimmer said. “Finally, Hammett looked at our coach and said ‘Put Zimm in. He’s pretty good at them.’

“So I went in and scored the game winner there so that felt good, and then scoring another goal the next night was also a pretty good feeling.”

That goal came in a 7-2 loss to the Saskatoon Blades.

Zimmer said it was nice to have Hammett in the dressing room.

“I played with him for a couple of years and he was very welcoming,” Zimmer said. “It’s nice to know some faces, but it’s nice to meet some new guys, too.”

Zimmer had an inkling he might be on the move at the deadline, adding the Brandon deal was by far the bigger surprise.

“It was a shock, but I was expecting it a little bit,” Zimmer said. “I talked to my agent about it and he said my name was going around. They called me in and said Vancouver was my spot. It was a shock, but it’s also been exciting.”

And while he had been through the jumble of emotions brought on by a trade just 468 days earlier, he said prior experience doesn’t really help.

“It’s hard,” Zimmer said. “It’s never easy leaving the guys, and especially the billet families. They sacrifice so much and do so much for you.”

He has been close with the families he lived with both times, saying it’s especially hard to say goodbye to the children.

But there are positives to joining a new club.

“It makes it easier to be yourself when you’re coming to a new team, like I did last year when I came to Lethbridge,” Zimmer said. “It was really different. It takes a bit to be yourself and play your own game. Here, I felt really welcomed and could do that right away so it was nice.”

Since he arrived in Vancouver, he has four goals and three assists in 11 games with the Giants, to go with the 12 goals and 11 assists he had this season in 37 games with Lethbridge.

Overall, in 194 WHL regular season games he has 47 goals and 56 assists, including 12 goals and 13 assists in 82 games as a Wheat King.

The six-foot-one, 191-pound right-shooting forward is a member of Brandon’s first-round draft class of 2019, when they took Nate Danielson fifth, Zimmer sixth and Rylen Roersma 16th as they capitalized on deals involving Tanner Kaspick and Kale Clague in 2018.

The Hurricanes picked up Zimmer from Brandon for a third-round pick in the 2023 Western Hockey League draft, which was previously acquired from the Red Deer Rebels, and a fifth-round pick in 2024 that previously belonged to the Seattle Thunderbirds.

The third-round selection was later flipped to the Victoria Royals on Nov. 24 — along with two other picks and forward Teydon Trembecky — in return for 18-year-old defenceman Luke Shipley and 17-year-old Tony Wilson. Wilson was later traded for current roster player Matteo Michels.

Zimmer is close friends with Portland Winterhawks defenceman Ryder Thompson — the pair grew up together in Russell — and after he was sent to Vancouver they were quickly in touch about the opportunity to play against each other. They match up twice more this season, in a home-and-home series which has them in Vancouver on Feb. 16 and Portland on Feb. 12.

Zimmer lives in Ladner, which is on the south side of Richmond and a suburb of Vancouver. Zimmer is about a two-minute drive from the team’s practice rink, the Ladner Leisure Centre, but depending on traffic, anywhere from a 25-minute to hour-long drive to the Langley Events Centre, which is about 35 kilometres west.

“It’s been not bad,” Zimmer said about all the traffic. “It’s only game days that it’s tough. When you’re going to the rink, you’re leaving at 3, 3:30 and traffic is just nuts at that time.”

He’s played the most with Adam Titlbach and Winnipegger London Hoilett, but said the entire team has been welcoming. “The guys have been unbelievable,” Zimmer said. “It’s a whole new change to a new conference and the weather is also unbelievable so that’s a good part of it.”

He added with a chuckle he’s been in shorts since he got there.

While it might be warm away from the rink, the Giants have been red hot on the ice. The Giants (22-24-3-0) are seventh in the Western Conference but 5-0-1-0 in their last six.

“We’re a pretty deep team,” Zimmer said. “Our coach and our general manager, they’re excited. We’ve come together and since I’ve been here it’s been a lot of fun. We’re having a lot of fun in the room, and I think that’s a big part of it. We’re deep, our team is really good I like to think personally, and our goalies are unbelievable.”

Brandon got a taste of that when Brett Mirwald made 48 saves against them in a 4-0 Vancouver victory on Jan. 6, two days before Zimmer was traded.

Zimmer is also appreciative of how he’s been handled.

“The coaching staff has been really good,” Zimmer said. “They’ve been really open to me kind of doing whatever I want to a certain point. Obviously there’s a system you have to follow, but I feel personally I’ve been doing a good job of that and our team has been doing a good job lately. We’ve been on a roll, and hopefully we can keep that up.”

His parents haven’t been out to visit yet, but are hoping to potentially make it out for the playoffs. He’s hoping they’ll have plenty of games to watch in the post-season.

He’s also hoping they’ll see him at his best.

“Personally, I just want to keep playing the way I am,” Zimmer said. “I like to think I’m playing good hockey right now and we’re doing it as a team so I want to do what I can to help this team win. We have a good shot to do something in the playoffs, and even if we don’t win, we have a decently young team, too. Hopefully we’ll get them some experience and build off it for this year to have a really good year next year.”

Zimmer won’t turn 20 until September, but there is also an expectation he’ll provide some leadership. It’s a role he covets, although he’s also trying to get a sense of the new room and is careful not to overstep his bounds.

“I’m 19 so I feel pretty old in this league now,” Zimmer said. “I’m trying to lead the younger guys in the right direction and making sure they’re staying on top of things. We have young guys but we also have a lot of talent so hopefully they can keep going in the right direction. If they do that, I think we have a shot of being a really good team in two or three years.”

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — Since the WHL began operations in the 1966-67 season, how many times has the regular season champion won the league title? How many times has Brandon done it?

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is 19-year-old Saskatoon Blades forward Egor Sidorov after he had five goals and three assists in three games, including two goals against Brandon on Sunday. The Anaheim Ducks prospect is from Vitebsk, Belarus.

The goaltender of the week is Swift Current Broncos netminder Reid Dyck, who posted a 0.85 goals-against average, a .970 save percentage and two shutouts in three appearances. The Winkler product, who just turned 20, is a Boston Bruins prospect.

The rookie of the week is Saskatoon Blades goalie Evan Gardner, who won both his starts last week while posting a 1.00 goals-against average and .969 save percentage. A product of Fort St. John, B.C., the 17-year-old goalie made 33 saves against Brandon on Sunday in a 3-1 win.

• MONTHLY AWARDS — Medicine Hat Tigers forward Gavin McKenna, 16, was named top player for January after recording 29 points (10g, 19a) in 12 games to lead all scorers.

The top goalie is Red Deer Rebels rookie Chase Wutzke, 17, who went 8-0-0-1 in nine appearances with a 1.98 goals-against average and .929 save percentage.

The top rookie is Everett Silvertips forward Carter Bear, 17, who had nine goals and 10 assists in 13 games.

• SIN BIN — Seattle Thunderbirds defenceman Kaleb Hartmann received a one-game suspension for a game misconduct he earned versus the Portland Winterhawks on Saturday.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — Goaltender Jordan Papirny, 27, who played with the Wheat Kings from 2013 to 2017, is in his second full pro campaign. He has split the season between the American Hockey League’s Henderson Silver Knights and the ECHL’s Savannah Ghost Pirates, with nine appearances in each. Papirny appeared in 205 regular season WHL games and 63 playoff games, including 17 regular season appearances and 14 playoff games after he was traded to the Swift Current Broncos on Jan. 10, 2017 for goaltender Travis Child, defenceman Kade Jensen, plus a second-round draft pick in 2019 and a fifth-round pick in 2018. Papirny was the starting goalie on the 2015-16 Brandon team which won a league title. He is one of three former Brandon goalies in the Vegas Golden Knights organization, joining Logan Thompson and Jiri Patera.

• THE WEEK AHEAD — Brandon has 19 games remaining in the regular season, with eight at home and 11 on the road. They host the Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday and the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday, and finish up the week with a road game against the Prince Albert Raiders on Saturday. All three games start at 7 p.m.

• ANSWER — Brandon has done it twice, in 1978-79 and in 1995-96. In total, it’s been done 24 times, which means just 41 per cent of the time.

• 2018–19 — Prince Albert Raiders (112 points) def. Vancouver Giants 4–3.

• 2012–13 — Portland Winterhawks (117 pts) def. Edmonton Oil Kings 4–2.

• 2011–12 — Edmonton Oil Kings (107 pts) def. Portland Winterhawks 4–3.

• 2009–10 — Calgary Hitmen (107 pts) def. Tri-City Americans 4–1.

• 2002–03 — Kelowna Rockets (109 pts) def. Red Deer Rebels 4–2.

• 2000–01 — Red Deer Rebels (114 pts) def. Portland Winter Hawks 4–1.

• 1998–99 — Calgary Hitmen (110 pts) def. Kamloops Blazers 4–1.

• 1997–98 — Portland Winter Hawks (111 pts) def. Brandon Wheat Kings 4–0.

• 1996–97 — Lethbridge Hurricanes (97 pts) def. Seattle Thunderbirds 4–0.

• 1995–96 — Brandon Wheat Kings (105 pts) def. Spokane Chiefs 4–1.

• 1994–95 — Kamloops Blazers (110 pts) def. Brandon Wheat Kings 4–2.

• 1993–94 — Kamloops Blazers (106 pts) def. Saskatoon Blades 4–3.

• 1991–92 — Kamloops Blazers (106 pts) def. Saskatoon Blades 4–3.

• 1989–90 — Kamloops Blazers (112 pts) def. Lethbridge Hurricanes 4–1.

• 1988–89 — Swift Current Broncos (111 pts) def. Portland Winter Hawks 4–0.

• 1984–85 — Prince Albert Raiders (119 pts) def. Kamloops Blazers 4–0.

• 1983–84 — Kamloops Junior Oilers (100 pts) def. Regina Pats 4–3.

• 1980–81 — Victoria Cougars (121 pts) def. Calgary Wranglers 4–3.

• 1978–79 — Brandon Wheat Kings (125 pts) def. Portland Winter Hawks 4–2.

• 1975–76 — New Westminster Bruins (112 pts) def. Saskatoon Blades 4–2–1.

• 1973–74 — Regina Pats (97 pts) def. Calgary Centennials 4–0.

• 1970–71 — Edmonton Oil Kings (91 pts) def. Flin Flon Bombers 4–1–1.

• 1969–70 — Flin Flon Bombers (84 pts) def. Edmonton Oil Kings 4–0.

• 1968–69 — Flin Flon Bombers (94 pts) def. Edmonton Oil Kings 4–2.