Portland Winterhawks captain Gabe Klassen is having a stellar season. (Matthew Wolfe/Portland Winterhawks)

By Nolan Kowal

Hometown kid

Winterhawks star Klassen has fond memories of growing up in P.A.

Nov 17, 2023 | 3:54 PM

There will be a strong Prince Albert flavour inside Veterans Memorial Coliseum Friday night as Portland Winterhawks captain Gabe Klassen plays against the team he grew up watching.

The Prince Albert Raiders are in Oregon to take on the Winterhawks as their season-long seven-game road trip slowly winds down. Klassen was born and raised in Hockeytown North with the Raiders having a big impact on him.

“Any small town in Canada is going to be huge around the game of hockey, and having the Raiders there was awesome for me growing up and playing the game,” said Klassen, who still gets back to P.A. during the summer months. “You can see in that championship run (in 2019) all the support that they had, and it’s a good place to play I think.”

“I got tons of memories…I had season tickets since I was four or five years old up until when I moved to Portland,” said Klassen, whose parents billeted several Raiders players over the years, including Josh Morrissey. “Just when they won the championship a few years ago, I think I was 15. That was a pretty special night.”

The timing is good for the Klassen family this weekend. It’s Parents Weekend in Portland meaning Klassen’s parents will be taking in the game between the Raiders and Winterhawks.

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“It’s going to be a nice game tonight…I think I’ve only gotten to play them (the Raiders) once in my career,” Klassen said. “So having them come here to Portland, it’s going to be a special night and parents are going to be in the building so it’s going to be fun.”

On the ice, the 20-year-old Klassen is having a very productive season. He’s got 31 points in 17 games on a Winterhawks team that is among the Western Hockey League’s best clubs with a record of 12-4-0-1.

“Obviously we’ve got a really good squad this year, we’ve been winning a lot of games, so that’s obviously helping when you’re scoring a lot of goals, and getting to play with a lot of really good players this year,” Klassen said.

“I think expectations are super high based on a couple tough playoff series the last couple years, I think we know what that feels like. So the expectations are to obviously go a little bit farther this year.”

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nolan.kowal@pattisonmedia.com