Hawks Camp Opened Yesterday; First Games of Neely Cup Today

The Portland Winterhawks opened camp yesterday with a bunch of new faces in the crowd. One of these faces is 20 year old, former Kelowna Rocket and Saskatoon Blade Shane McColgan.

Shane McColgan

McColgan, a key addition to the forward group had a little setback last week with an injury to his hand and wrist. It came out shortly thereafter that this injury may have been because of a weightlifting mishap and he will be out for an undisclosed mount of time. Hopefully this will not set him back in creating a little chemistry with his new teammates.

The Neely Cup (basically a scrimmage between 4 different squads made of camp attendees) gets under way this afternoon at 4pm with a match up between Teams Playfair and Vernon. Playfair will be wearing red and includes, among the returning Hawks: Adam De Champlain, Nic Petan, Alex Schoenborn, Oliver Bjorkstrand, Shaun MacPherson and Goalie Brendan Burke. Also, camp invitee and former camp attendee and Tri City American  Lukas Walter will be on Team Playfair as well. I don't see him making the team, as the tough guy role was filled admirably by Joe Mahon last season, not to mention, Walter is a 20 year old and he has already shown he is not a top 6 forward and to make the team, he will need to be just that.

Lukas Walter

Team Vernon, wearing white, has returning Hawks: Paul Bittner, Chase De Leo and Derrick Pouliot. Zach Paterson, who got into several games last season for the Hawks, is also on this team and the 17 year old 2011 2nd round pick in the WHL Bantam pick. Paterson seems like he could be a wild card on the Hawk's defense unit and not only make the team but move up the defensive depth chart as the season progresses.

The later game (6pm) will be involving Teams Finley (wearing black) with returning Hawks: Presten Kopeck, Keegan Iverson, Dominic Turgeon, Joe Mahon and Layne Viveiros. Viveiros seems like he is in a position, as an 18 year old returning D-man, to take a large step forward and finally make himself an integral piece of the defense on this team. Viveiros, if he does not prove himself in camp, could find himself as a depth D-man, yet again and fighting for the 7th-8th spot on the defense. He will be helped, however, by the lack of experienced D-men.

Adam Rossignol

The other team, wearing blue, is Team Morrow. Morrow has returning Hawks: Taylor Leier, Brendan Leipsic and Josh Hanson. Also, a late camp invitee is 20 year old former Regina Pat: Adam Rossignol. Rossignol, was a victim of numbers over at Regina and is attempting to make the team. This will be challenging for Adam as he only put up 14 points last season with the Pats.

Friday and Saturday, all 4 teams will finish their round robin series and set up the championship and 3rd place game on Sunday.