Hurricanes drop the puck on exhibition season tonight
By Dale Woodard on September 17, 2021.
On the eve of opening their Western Hockey League exhibition season, it was an eventful day for the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
On Thursday, the Canes announced they had signed 2005-born forward Nolan Viesner to a Western Hockey League Standard Player Agreement.
They also announced that, effective Monday, fans aged 12-and-over will need to show proof of a full vaccination or a negative COVID-19 PCR or rapid test to get into their games.
The Hurricanes, Medicine Hat Tigers and Red Deer Rebels announced Thursday each organization will be implementing the Alberta Government’s “COVID-19 Restriction Exemption” program.
For the foreseeable future, all spectators at the Enmax Centre aged 12 and over will be required to show proof of a full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 PCR or rapid test from a paid private testing provider, taken within 48 hours of the event’s start time.
This policy, however, does not apply for the Hurricanes game against the Medicine Hat Tigers tonight at 7 p.m., although masks for all spectators are required.
Either electronic or paper immunization records will be accepted. Albertans’ immunization records can be viewed online and are available on cell phones through MyHealthRecords or by downloading the MyHealthRecords app.
The Canes made another move Thursday, inking Viesner to a player agreement.
The 16-year-old was undrafted in the WHL prospects draft and the product of Kamloops spent the 2020-2021 season with the Yale Hockey Academy U17 Prep program. He had six goals and 10 points in five games.
Viesner finished the 2019-20 season with 19 goals and 30 points in 30 games with the Yale U15 Prep team.
“We’re thrilled to sign Nolan to a player agreement,” said Hurricanes general manager Peter Anholt in a release. “We were really impressed with him at camp and we are excited about his upside offensively and he’s another great addition to what we think is a really strong 2005 group for us.”
The five-foot-11, 161-pound forward had two goals and two assists in the Canes’ training camp scrimmages and scored twice in the Red Vs. White game in a 9-6 win for Team White. Viesner will join the Hurricanes pre-season roster and is expected to play this weekend.
Anholt noted a strong showing from the younger prospects at last week’s camp.
“We hadn’t had a training camp in quite some time and there were some players we hadn’t seen at all since we drafted them,” he said. “So we were really excited about that. We really liked some of our young guys, our group of 16-year-olds who were at camp. I think all in all we were pleased with our group of prospects and I think that will show this weekend when we play some of the guys who are signed. Early on we had signed Cole Miller, Noah Chadwick and Logan Wormald and since that time we have signed a couple more. So we’re excited about our prospects but we are certainly very optimistic with our group of older players.”
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