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Trade day “hectic” for Leth; Raiders ready for Spoke and Stoon

Oct 27, 2016 | 5:00 PM

To say that Cavin Leth didn’t have much time to settle in with the Prince Albert Raiders is the understatement of the season, so far. The Raiders acquired the 20-year-old from the Seattle Thunderbirds on late Thursday evening, less than 24 hours before starting a 3-in-3 series in Edmonton on Friday.

Leth had a busy day of travel and met his new team moments before suiting up for the three game series.

“It was pretty crazy. It was a hectic day,” Leth smirked. “I got told [about the trade] the night before the game in Edmonton. It was kind of hectic getting on the plane, flying out there, landing and meeting all the guys at pre-game, then jumping on the ice with some kind of unfamiliar faces. But it was nice jumping into it instead of having to wait it off.”

Not everybody in the room is unfamiliar to Leth. He reached the WHL finals with Nic Holowko last season in Seattle, and ran into Swift Current’s Tim Vanstone during Leth’s time as a Bronco from 2013-16 before last year’s deadline.

After the busy weekend, Leth has settled in both on the ice with the Raiders and in P.A. with his new billet family.

“The settling was nice. We got home on Sunday night, or Monday morning I guess you could say. It was nice to go to a house I knew a little about; the guys told me about it,” Leth said. “Settling into the locker room was nice and coming here to the rink and getting some practices in was nice, too.”

The Raiders (4-7-1-0) have two home games this weekend, Friday against the Spokane Chiefs (5-6-1-1) and Saturday against the Saskatoon Blades (6-6-1-0).

Things you need to know about Spoke

Chiefs defenceman Jake Toporowski has some Raiders roots. He’s the nephew of former Raider star Shayne Toporowski and current Raider board of directors member Brad Toporowski, who himself was also a former Chief and Moose Jaw Warrior.

The Chiefs blueline features Ty Smith, the first overall pick of the 2015 WHL Bantam Draft. He has seven points this season in 11 games in his first full season.

The brunt of Spokane’s scoring is done by a pair of brothers, Kailer and Keanu Yamamoto. Kailer, the younger at 18 years old, is the only Chief producing at over a point-per-game pace with 10 goals and 21 points in 13 games. Keanu, a 20-year-old, has 12 points in 13 games.

They’re 5-6-1-1 on the season and are 2-2 during their eastern road trip. The Chiefs have won their last two games, a pair of 6-2 victories over the Moose Jaw Warriors Oct. 25 and the Saskatoon Blades Oct. 26.

“They’re a hard working team, it’s going to be a good battle,” Leth said, after playing the Chiefs four times last season as a T-Bird. “I think with the pieces we have here, we have a really good chance here to get two points.”

Raids and Blades, Part 2

Saturday’s game against the Raiders will be their first of the season in the Art Hauser Centre. They shutout the Raiders 2-0 on Oct. 6 in their first meeting this season at the SaskTel Centre. 

The Blades lineup features former Raider Kolten Olynek, who will play his first game at the Art Hauser Centre since the Raiders waived him on Oct. 5. Olynek participated in the 2-0 Blades win the following day.

Raider forward Austin Glover, who played with Olynek at the Midget AAA level with the Saskatoon Contacts, is looking forward to playing against him again on Saturday.

“It’s always kind of fun playing against an old buddy and stuff, but there’s no friends out there. You can’t focus on it too much,” Glover said. “They’ve had a pretty good start here and a pretty good B.C. trip. They’re going to be playing with some confidence and they’re going to be obviously a little more difficult than some teams may have anticipated. We can’t take that lightly at all, we have to bring our A-game, for sure.”

 

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW