Penner bounces back with Pistons

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This article was published 14/10/2022 (1314 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Spencer Penner was supposed to be in the middle of a successful career in major-junior hockey by now.

Those best-laid plans, after a slow start with the Seattle Thunderbirds, went awry last season, but the 18-year-old defenceman has bounced back – this time with the MJHL’s Steinbach Pistons.

Penner was Seattle’s second-round pick in the 2019 WHL Prospects Draft and signed with the T-birds before dressing for 15 regular-season games over his 15- and 16-year-old seasons.

As a 17-year-old in 2021-22, he played four pre-season games but couldn’t crack the T-birds lineup, eventually returning home to play for the MJHL’s Selkirk Steelers.

“I was out there (in Seattle) for pretty much a full month and then my mental health kind of got to me,” Penner said earlier this week. “So, I just had a meeting with the GM (Bil La Forge). He was cool with it. He let me go home for a couple of weeks and then I went back out there and it was even worse.”

A skilled, mobile puck-mover, Penner seemed to find his groove in Selkirk with 22 points in 30 regular-season games. In the off-season, the Pistons shipped forwards Owen Weihs, 19, and Lucas Gillson, 18, to the Steelers for Penner, who hails from nearby Blumenort.

The price was high but the fit has been excellent.

The always-in-contention Pistons, a club he watched closely in his childhood, are guided by GM and head coach Paul Dyck. Penner has a goal and four assists as Steinbach has surged to nine wins in its first 10 regular-season games and he’s sympatico with his new bench boss.

“He understands the players, he understands their life,” said Penner of Dyck. “He understands how to coach from player to player and how he’s got to change the way he coaches for different players. I think that’s what makes him stand out from the rest of the coaches I’ve had in my career. He’s an outstanding coach.”

Dyck’s assessment of Penner is effusive.

“He’s got a great attitude, he practises hard and he’s a good teammate,” said Dyck. “I think he’s really enjoying his time here.”

Penner is content playing a leading role for the Pistons but hasn’t ruled out a return to the WHL — but only if that means he’d be closer to home.

“I’d say I’m here to stay on,” said Penner, who was partnered with Moose Jaw Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk for long stretches during their minor hockey careers. “I’m enjoying hockey a lot more playing here. I’m playing for the love of the game, not just for treating it like a job… It felt like a job in Seattle and here it feels like it’s just something I like to do.”

He declined a opportunity to be traded to the Red Deer Rebels but almost landed in Winnipeg, where the Ice was in the midst of a run to the Eastern Conference final.

“(La Forge) called me and he said there was an opportunity with Winnipeg because it was like last day of the WHL (trade) deadline and I was more than happy to go do that,” said Penner. “And then they took someone else instead of me.”

Penner’s resolve to stay in Steinbach could be tested later this season with the T-birds possibly looking to generate a return. The potential of a trade to bring him to one of the WHL’s Saskatchewan- or Manitoba-based franchises would be tempting.

“It would definitely be something that I have to sit down and think about for a while and yeah, it’s it’s always a possibility,” admitted Penner. “The other part is it’s kind of hard to leave what we have going here.”

FRIENDLY FACES: The Winnipeg Ice take on the Cougars in Prince George on Saturday, the lone meeting between WHL teams in 2022-23.

It’s an opportunity for Ice defenceman Carson Lambos and forward Skyler Bruce to reconnect with some former RHA Winnipeg teammates, blue-liner Hudson Thornton and goaltender Tyler Brennan of the Cougars.

Thornton, whose club is 3-4-0-0 heading into the weekend, would very much like to end a two-game losing streak by beating the high-powered Ice.

“I would say we’re playing well, for sure,” said Thornton. “Obviously, our record right now is not what we’d want it to be at the start of the year, but we have so much skill and in that room. I think we’re just kind of still trying to figure out how to play with it.”

Prince George uses defenders Keaton Dowhaniuk and Ethan Samson as its shutown pair while Thornton, who has two goals and seven points in seven games, plays with hulking Slovakian import, Viliam Kmec, on a more offensively oriented pairing.

“A big focus for me is I just kind of want to show everybody that I can be a really good defensive defenseman as well as put up points offensively and it’s kind of what I’m trying to work on,” said Thornton, an undrafted 18-year-old. “I know that I have the offensive side of my game.”

BLUE-LINES: Former Ice standout Mikey Milne has signed an amateur tryout agreement with the AHL’s Iowa Wild and was scheduled to be in the lineup for Friday’s regular-season opener against San Jose.

Milne, a 20-year-old whose rights belong to Winnipeg, could still return to junior at some point and would be a superb overage addition to any WHL roster.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14