REGINA – Robert Thomas has won the Memorial Cup before, but he admits a second title would probably be a little more significant.
Thomas was only an OHL rookie with the 2015-16 London Knights and didn’t have the same impact that he did with the Hamilton Bulldogs this spring. Thomas was the OHL playoff MVP after recording 32 points in 21 games.
And then there’s the added significance of potentially winning a Memorial Cup championship in the same season as a world junior title.
“To have a chance to do it twice is really cool, especially with winning the world juniors as well. I’m sure there’s not too many people who can say they’ve done that,” said Thomas, whose Bulldogs open the tournament against the against the host Regina Pats on Friday.
Thomas joins Pats captain Sam Steel and Swift Current Broncos winger Tyler Steenbergen as 2018 Canadian world junior teammates vying to join the double-championship club this season.
According to tournament records dating back to 1985, only 24 players have claimed both titles in the same season. Jeremy Bracco (Windsor Spitfires/United States) most recently accomplished the feat last year. The last Canadian player to do so was Nashville Predators defenceman Ryan Ellis with Windsor in 2009.
As long as the Acadie-Bathurst Titan don’t win the Memorial Cup, another player will join the select club.
“It would be unbelievable,” said Steel, a 2016 Anaheim Ducks first-rounder. “They’re the two biggest things in junior hockey. It’s crazy to think about.
“Winning the tournament is definitely on my mind.”
A championship on home ice would be a fitting way for Steel to end his WHL career.
Drafted second overall in the WHL bantam draft by the Pats, Steel essentially became the face of the franchise midway through his rookie season in 2014-15. New coach-GM John Paddock decided to jettison veteran players to rebuild the team around him.
“As soon as we saw him on the ice, we knew that there was a special player here,” Paddock said.
Steel led the CHL in scoring with 131 points last season before helping the Pats reach the WHL final. After being among the final cuts for the 2017 world junior team, Steel was the first-line centre and recorded nine points in seven games at this year’s tournament.
Steel got goosebumps thinking about winning the Memorial Cup when Regina was awarded the event in February 2017 – over Hamilton and Oshawa. Now, he has a chance to make that happen before his WHL career ends.
“I have to make the most of this tournament,” he said. “It’s the only chance I’m going to get.”
Steel had a 45-day layoff because Steenbergen’s Broncos defeated the Pats in seven games in the first round of the WHL playoffs.
Like Steel, Steenbergen was a first-round WHL pick (12th overall) in 2013 and has spent four years with the organization. His development has been on a more gradual curve, though.
The undersized forward – he’s five foot 10 – had just 11 points in his rookie campaign and wasn’t selected by an NHL team in his first year of eligibility. But the Arizona Coyotes pick him last year after a 90-point season. He was even better in 2017-18 with 102 points.
“It just seemed like everything was going in at the start,” Steenbergen said.
Steenbergen was Team Canada’s 13th forward and averaged just 7:42 of ice time. But he accepted his role and wound up scoring the winning role in the gold-medal game over Sweden with 1:40 left in regulation.
The dream scenario is for a similar outcome.
“Hopefully we can put ourselves in that situation where I can lift the guys up,” he said. “To win the world juniors was an unbelievable moment. It would be even better to win this. All in one calendar year – it would be pretty special.”
Compared to the other Canadian gold medallists, Thomas is especially new to his surroundings.
Acquired by the Bulldogs after serving as Canada’s second-line centre, there was an adjustment period for Thomas after having to leave his billet family and Knights teammates behind in London.
“It took him awhile to understand and believe in what we were doing,” Bulldogs coach John Gruden said. “The more we willed him and the more success we had, he started to (believe).
“We were ready for a player like Robert Thomas to come into that locker room. When we got in the playoffs, he was the calming influence. He was the one who stepped up.”
As someone who’s won an OHL championship before, Thomas had a hunch his new team would duplicate what his former team accomplished two years ago.
“I texted a couple of my friends saying, ‘We’re going to the Memorial Cup.’ This was just before playoffs,” the 2017 St. Louis Blues first-rounder said. “I was just really confident in our group. I had a feeling we could do something special.”
Although Thomas won’t say that he’s sent out another text about actually winning the Memorial Cup, there’s no doubt what’s on his mind.
“My goal is to win it again,” he said. “That’s my goal and that’s what I want to do.”
[relatedlinks]
