Red Deer Rebels forward Cohen Poulin had been waiting for an opportunity to show the organization what he was capable of on the ice and took full advantage of it.
After he went undrafted in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft, Poulin was put on the Rebels' protected player list last year. After he impressed the coaching staff and management at training camp last week, he signed a WHL Scholarship and Development Agreement with the team.
The 17-year-old from Abbotsford, B.C. made the most of his opportunity at camp and even scored a nifty goal during the annual black-and-white game at the Peavey Mart Centrium.
In addition, he also nearly buried a couple of scoring opportunities in the Rebels' first home preseason game against the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Saturday.
"I've been pretty happy with how I've played. I just have to work as hard as I can every day to prove myself," he said.
"I made an impact in [the black and white game] at least and I've tried to keep that going the last couple of preseason games. It hasn't happened but I've had chances, which is a good thing. I hope to keep it going."
Despite his early success, he isn't guaranteed a roster spot but has a good case for it. The Rebels had lost five forwards over the offseason leaving plenty of opportunity for younger players to step up and fill those shoes.
Poulin is fresh off a strong season with the U18 Fraser Valley Thunderbirds where he scored 20 goals and 22 assists for 42 points in 36 games. The year before he contributed 33 points in 30 games with the U17 squad and added eight points in eight playoff games.
He came into Rebels training camp with the mindset to get signed and said he's proud to have accomplished his goal. For Poulin, getting to this point has taken a lot of patience and hard work.
"When I first got here I liked the aspect of the culture and the community of it all. It just impressed me," he said. "It has been a lot of hard work. There have been many days just grinding it out so I'm happy how it's turned out so far."
The Rebels don't sign listed players too often, which speaks to the organization's belief in the young man.
The last time the Rebels signed a listed player was in 2023 when they inked forward Levi Green but after four games in Red Deer, he left and signed with the Bonnyville Pontiacs of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
Rebels owner and general manager Brent Sutter said Poulin's size played a major factor in signing him. He's listed as nearly six feet two inches tall and 186 pounds.
"You can never have enough size on your team as long as they can play and it's been defined to Poulin exactly what type of player he needs to be here for us and how he has to commit to that every day," Sutter said.
"He had a good camp and we had to get him signed to be able to play in an exhibition but we don't sign players just to play in an exhibition, we sign them if they have a legitimate chance of playing on our team."
Not only is Poulin big in stature but Sutter also likes his skating ability and his shot, especially around the front of the net. he just hopes Poulin continues to develop his game and forms into the strong power forward they've seen so far.
"We have the resources here to do that for him and help him with that but he's got to make the commitment to want to do it," he said.
"We're excited he's made that commitment to wanting to be that type of player now it's just about developing him. There's no easy way of doing it and the coaches will have to spend time with him and he needs to continue to be a coachable player."
This weekend the Rebels will welcome the Medicine Hat Tigers to town on Friday for a preseason matchup at 7 p.m. followed by a trip to Edmonton on Saturday to face the Oil Kings in the final exhibition game.
