The clouds in the Red Deer Rebels’ world are all black these days.
But there are silver linings in every dark cloud, as evidenced by the performance of Rebels-in-waiting Scott Feser and Conner Bleackley on Wednesday at the Centrium.
While the suspension- and injury-ravaged Rebels tumbled to their seventh straight defeat at the hands of the Spokane Chiefs, fans couldn’t help but notice the promise of the future WHL forwards, both of whom were summoned to the big club on an emergency basis.
Both play in the Alberta Midget League — Feser with the Red Deer Optimist Rebels and Bleackley, 15, with the UFA Bisons.
To suggest that both have a bright future in the WHL would seem a safe assumption.
Feser, 16, is a heads-up, creative type who set up the Rebels’ second goal against the Chiefs. He made his WHL regular-season debut the night before at Lethbridge.
Bleackley also showed some on-ice smarts on Wednesday and projects as a power forward who will score on a regular basis at the major junior level.
Rebels GM/head coach Jesse Wallin was certainly impressed with the youngsters.
“I thought they were fine. I didn’t think they were out of place,” he said. “Feser made a nice play on a goal tonight and played pretty well last night as well. Same with ‘Bleacks’. He made some offensive plays and got a couple of shots on goal. He has a heavy shot and for a 15-year old kid I thought he handled himself very well.”
l The suspensions just keep rolling in.
Lethbridge Hurricanes forward Graham Hood was hit with a three-game sentence on Thursday for a hit to the head of Rebels forward Josh Cowen two nights earlier. There was no penalty called on the play but the league head office deemed it worthy of a multi-game suspension.
Rebels defenceman Alex Petrovic was hit with a checking-to-the-head major in the same contest and was nailed with a two-game suspension, the second of which he will serve tonight in Brandon when Red Deer takes on the Wheat Kings.
Meanwhile, repeat offender Kale Kessy of the Medicine Hat Tigers was suspended for four games after the head office looked at his hit on Rebels forward Joel Hamilton — there was a head-hit major called on the play — last weekend, and Seattle Thunderbirds rearguard Cason Machacek has been suspended three games for being assessed a checking-to-the-head major last weekend versus Kamloops.
Rebels forward Turner Elson, of course, is halfway through his six-game sentence levied earlier this week.
On the move: With slick and super-skilled sophomore defenceman Morgan Rielly lost to the team for the rest of the season with a knee injury, the Moose Jaw Warriors were on the search for a puck-moving rearguard and on Tuesday acquired Tyler Vanscourt, 19, from the Prince Albert Raiders. Vanscourt, who had seven goals — five on the power play — and 17 points in 26 games with the Raiders, should fit in nicely with the Warriors, who surrendered fourth- and fifth-round picks in the 2013 WHL bantam draft for his services. “Obviously with the injury to Rielly we felt the need for an offensive defenceman — a puck mover — someone that could give us another option on the power play,” Warriors director of hockey operations Alan Millar told the Moose Jaw Times-Herald . . . The Everett Silvertips bulked up on the blueline with Tuesday’s acquisition of rugged overage defenceman Josh Caron from the Kamloops Blazers. The six-foot-four, 212-pound native of Campbell River, B.C., is considered one of the league’s toughest players. The ‘Tips gave up a fourth-round pick in the 2014 bantam draft for Caron . . . Still with the Silvertips, the club’s all-time top scorer, 20-year-old Tyler Maxwell, is settling in with his new club — the Edmonton Oil Kings — after requesting a trade from Everett and subsequentley being sent home by team management three weeks ago. The California native was dealt to Edmonton last week. “Everybody has been really welcoming. They’re happy to have me and I’m happy to be here,” Maxwell told Nick Patterson of the Everett Herald this week. “I don’t have anything bad to say about the Everett Silvertips organization,” Maxwell added. “I learned a lot being there four years. I wish them all the best of luck.” Maxwell assisted on a goal in his Oil Kings debut, a 3-0 win over visiting Medicine Hat last Friday. “When I walked into the room and saw my name at first-line center, I was pretty excited to start off like that,” he said. “Luckily it went well.”
gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com