Exceptional seasons by a pair of local players were recognized by the Western Hockey League.
North Delta native Nic Petan of the Portland Winter Hawks was honoured with the Player of the Month award for January, while Cloverdale’s Laurent Brossoit of the Edmonton Oil Kings was named the Goaltender of the Month.
Petan, 17, is in his second full season of Major Junior hockey with the Winterhawks. He is the league’s top scorer with 36 goals and 37 assists for 93 points in 53 games played.
He netted nine goals and added 17 assists in 13 games last month, tops among all WHL players.
Prior to this season, he won a gold medal while playing for Canada at the Under-18 World Championship tournament in Slovakia, and at the time said the 30-goal mark in Portland was the goal for this season.
“Yeah, absolutely the goals have been exceeded so far,” Petan told whl.com. “Coming into the season, I knew I was going to get more playing time, but I didn’t know who I’d be playing with and what role I fit into.”
Playing on a line with Ty Rattie and Brendan Leipsic, Petan is making the most of skating alongside a pair of players drafted by NHL teams last spring. Leipsic (Nashville Predators) is fourth in the league scoring race, while Rattie (St. Louis Blues) is fourth.
“We knew Nic would have a bigger impact than he did last year, but to say we expected him to be performing at this level, we wouldn’t have thought that,” said Travis Green, acting head coach with the Winterhawks. “He’s obviously a highly skilled player, but he’s also very intelligent and has a very high compete level.”
Brossoit has also been drafted by an NHL team, and is hoping to play professionally in the Calgary Flames organization next season.
Shaking off the disappointment of getting cut from the Team Canada selection camp just prior to the World Junior Championships in December, he has had an outstanding month of January. The 19-year-old was 7-2 ( won-lost) with a pair of shutouts, with a 1.35 goals against average and a .957 save percentage.
In 38 games played, Brossoit has 26 wins and four shutouts. His 2.09 goals against average is third among WHL net minders, behind Mac Carruth of Portland and teammate Tristan Jarry, a North Delta native. Jarry has a 1.62 average with five shutouts, and he and Brossoit have combined to form the league’s best goaltending pair. They have combined for 10 shutouts, a single-season record for the Oil Kings.
