CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. – There’s one less spot available on the Charlottetown Islanders blue-line.
The team has signed 19-year-old defenceman Colin Van Den Hurk for the upcoming season.
“The refreshing part is he came in and made it the old-fashioned way: on merit,” Islanders head coach and general manager Jim Hulton said Tuesday. “He earned it.”
Van Den Hurk was good in intra-squad games and dominant in Sunday’s first pre-season game against the Moncton Wildcats in Cornwall. The Havelock, Ont., native had options in his home province and Hulton wasn’t prepared to lose him, so the team made the move now.
Hulton said there’s natural offensive ability in Van Den Hurk’s game and better mobility than the team initially thought before seeing him in training camp.
“We anticipate him being on a power-play guy,” Hulton said. “He has a pretty heavy shot from the point and natural offensive instincts as well.”
The five-foot-11, 185-pound Van Den Hurk is expected to join returnees Pierre-Olivier (P.O.) Joseph, Brendon Clavelle and Hunter Drew as well as its top draft picks in Lukas Cormier of Sainte-Marie-de-Kent and Germany’s Alexander Dersch in the top six. It gives Charlottetown three right shots and three left shots on the back end.
Joseph and Drew will be attending NHL camps with the Phoenix Coyotes and Anaheim Ducks, respectively, and could turn pro. If both return to junior, it leaves the Isles with one spot remaining on the back end.
Zachary Arsenault, Jack Desroches, Anthony Hamel, Greg Kehoe, Antoine Leblanc, Nathan Martel, Noah Massie and Connor McCluskey remain in camp, trying to solidify a spot.
Hulton said they will speak to the players Tuesday afternoon to be as honest and transparent with them and let them know what’s on the line as the team prepares for three pre-season games this week.
“They’re smart kids,” he said. “They see the names that are already up on the board.”
The team is further away from making a final decision on its forward group with about eight or nine spots locked up, leaving about five spots, at most, in play.
Hulton hopes to have his roster finalized by Saturday in order to have the veterans play in Sunday’s game. In some cases, it will be their first pre-season action of training camp.
The Islanders haven’t had Nikita Alexandrov in camp yet as he works through a visa issue. Hulton said it is a clerical issue that happened last year with his passport not being stamped properly when he returned to P.E.I. after Christmas. Alexandrov visited the consulate last week and is hoping to hear back this week.
Upcoming games
A look at the Charlottetown Islanders remaining Quebec Major Junior Hockey League pre-season games:
Friday
7 p.m. – Charlottetown at Cape Breton.
Sunday
4 p.m. – Cape Breton vs. Charlottetown at APM Centre.
Saturday, Sept. 8
3 p.m. – Charlottetown at Saint John.
Sunday, Sept. 9
3 p.m. – Cape Breton vs. Charlottetown at Evangeline Recreation Centre in Abrams Village.
