Vancouver Giants notes: Could hitting the goal column with Oilers be a boost for Benson?


Vancouver Giants have six games added to backend of schedule to make up for matchups postponed due to COVID-19.

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Count Vancouver Giants owner Ron Toigo among those keen to see what’s next for Tyler Benson after his first NHL goal.

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“It’s great for him. He’s feeling good. He’s feeling like he’s going to start making things really happen now,” said Toigo, who texted back-and-forth with Benson after the former Giants’ captain bagged his inaugural goal with the Edmonton Oilers in his 30th career NHL game in a 7- 3 loss to the visiting Minnesota Wild on Sunday.

Benson, 23, played four seasons with the Giants (2014-18), and was captain for the final three of those. The winger, who’s an Edmonton native, was a 2016 second-round draft pick of the Oilers. He has been a top-six forward in the AHL with the Bakersfield (Calif.) Condors (34 goals, 141 points, 156 games), and his coach for much of that time was Jay Woodcroft, who was appointed the bench boss of the Oilers on Feb. 10, replacing the fired Dave Tippett.

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“The coaching change should be good for him. He already has that guy’s trust,” Toigo said.

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Benson’s NHL debut came on Feb. 6, 2020, against the San Jose Sharks. Benson saw duty in 23 of Edmonton’s first 50 games this season and averaged eight minutes, 38 seconds of ice time.

“Every day I’m just trying to put in as much work as possible and show the guys I’m committed to the team and wanting to do anything I can to help the team win games,” Benson told reporters Tuesday.

Benson played his 20-year-old season in 2018-19 with Bakersfield. Toigo says that the Giants made a push to have the Oilers send him back to Vancouver to be one of their three overage players that campaign. The Giants felt good about their chances of contending that season and they went to the WHL championship series, where they lost 3-2 in overtime in Game 7 on the road to the Prince Albert Raiders.

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“It thinks coming back would have been good for his development. A two-way guy like that would have thrived under Dycker (Giants coach Michael Dyck),” Toigo said.

BENSON AND BRULE HAVE LOTS IN COMMON

Benson was a marquee talent with the Giants and received ample fanfare, starting with being picked No. 1 overall in the 2013 WHL Draft by Vancouver after setting an Alberta bantam scoring record.

I have battled injuries through his time in Vancouver. I have played 190 regular-season games with the Giants; he was eligible to play 295 when you add him in his seven games as an underage call-up.

He put up 184 points, including 61 goals, in regular-season action with Vancouver. Oddly enough, that’s one point fewer than Gilbert Brule, the only other No. 1 WHL Draft selection that the Giants have ever had. He was the top pick in 2002.

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ROMAN NABS OLYMPIC BRONZE WITH SLOVAKS

Milos Roman, 22, who was a center on that Giants’ team that went to the 2019 league finale, won a bronze medal with the Slovaks at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games last week.

He’s in his second season playing in the Czech League with Trinec Ocelari, a team that features another former Giant in defenseman David Musil, 28.

The Slovaks beat Sweden 4-0 in the third-place game. They had lost 2-0 in the semifinals to Finland, who went on to win gold.

In seven games in the Olympic tournament, Roman averaged 13 minutes, 53 seconds of ice time and finished with a plus-five rating, which tied for the team high. He had no goals and one assist.

Roman played 160 regular-season games over three seasons with Vancouver, amassing 61 goals and 139 points.

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WHL PUSHES BACK LEAGUE PLAY TWO WEEKS

The WHL has added two weeks to the regular season to allow teams to make up games that had been postponed due to COVID-19 and, in more limited instances, travel issues.

Vancouver now has six games that follow what had been their regular-season finale on April 3 at home versus Spokane. Vancouver is now home to Portland April 8 (formerly Jan. 9); at Kelowna April 9 (Jan. 7); at Kelowna April 10 (Feb. 9); home to Seattle April 13 (Feb. 6); home to Kelowna April 15 (Jan. 22); and at Kamloops on April 16 (Jan. 8).

Tickets for those original games are all valid for the rescheduled ones.

Getting those games in means extra tickets sold, which is a financial boost for teams, but Toigo maintains it was important for teams to play their full 68-game schedules for “a lot of reasons and economics is just one of them.”

“We wanted to get back to a sense of normalcy for the players. We wanted to get them playing full schedules again. We want to get them ready to play pro hockey as best we can,” said Toigo.

[email protected]

twitter:@SteveEwen

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