John MacNeil
Daily Herald
The Prince Albert Raiders showed more confidence in one of their young goaltending prospects this week, signing Chase Kettles to a Western Hockey League scholarship and development agreement.
In a double announcement Friday, the Raiders said they’ve signed the 2009-born goalie and also assigned him to the Battlefords North Stars of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, as part of the Western Canadian development model.
“Chase showed tremendous growth over the last year in his position,” Raiders general manager Curtis Hunt said in a news release. “We’re excited to have him play close by, so he can have an opportunity to join us in an affiliate situation, or spend time with our goalie coach in North Battleford.”
Prince Albert selected the six-foot-three, 175-pound Kettles in the eighth round of the 2024 WHL prospects draft.
Last season, the Headingley, Man., product played in 28 games with the Winnipeg Wild of the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League, posting a 21-5-1 record, a 1.71 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage.
Now, in joining Battlefords, Kettles is going to the same junior A team where Raiders goaltender Steele Bass started last season, before returning to Prince Albert in the second half for the Raiders’ run to the WHL final.
Along with No. 1 goaltender Michal Orsulak, a 19-year-old now attending the Detroit Red Wings’ training camp, the Raiders have two other goalies still in the pre-season mix — Bass, 18, and Brady Holtvogt, 19.
Holtvogt, who played U18 AAA with the Prince Albert Mintos, has spent the past couple of seasons with the junior A Humboldt Broncos.
Orsulak is among five active Raiders at NHL training camps this weekend.
Prince Albert opens the regular season at home next Friday, Sept. 18, with a 7 p.m. game against the Regina Pats.
Locals on Team Sask radar
While the Raiders visited the Pats this Friday night to wrap up their pre-season schedule, one of the team’s top prospects is also in the Regina area this weekend for Hockey Sask’s Top 36 camp.
Saskatoon Blazers rookie Caleb Mozell, who impressed two weeks ago during Prince Albert’s training camp and pre-season, is one of four players from his U18 AAA team attending the provincial camp for 2011-born players.
A pair of the Mintos’ first-year forwards, Lachlan Vandall of Prince Albert and Caleb Philp of Shellbrook, are among the local representatives at the Team Sask camp.
Prince Albert’s Luke Trann, a defenceman going into his first year with the U18 AAA with the Yorkton Maulers, is also among the provincial team contenders, along with Nipawin blue-liner Parker Bleich, now of the U18 AAA Tisdale Trojans.
