Gameday: Rockets welcome Silvertips to Prospera Place

NOTES PREPARED BY REGAN BARTEL OF AM 1150

• Tonight’s Preview: The Kelowna Rockets play their second home game of the season when they welcome the Everett Silvertips to town. This is one of four meetings between these two teams this season. The Tips make a return visit on February 28^th. The Rockets make two stops in Everett on January 17^th and again on February 29^th. Last season, the Rockets were 1-3-0-0 in the seasonal series, losing 4-1 and 3-1 on home ice while suffered a 2-1 setback before earning a 2-0 shutout win with James Porter making 40 saves and being named the first star. Following tonight’s game, the Rockets are in Vancouver (Langley) for a Sunday 4 pm start. Last night the Rockets suffered a 3-2 overtime loss in Kamloops. Dillon Hamaliuk and Kyle Topping scored goals in a losing cause.

 Tale of the Tape

• Welcome back! The team essentially welcomes back 17 of the 22 players that wore a Rockets jersey last season. That includes 5 of the teams’ top 6 scorers in Kyle Topping, Leif Mattson, Nolan Foote, Liam Kindree and Kaedan Korczak. Topping led the team with 69 points while Mattson and Foote collected 63 points apiece. Foote led the team in goals with 36. The team said farewell to 20 year-old’s Schael Higson, Dalton Gally and Matt Barberis. The team also parted ways with Lassi Thomson, Conner Bruggen-Cate and Ted Brennan. Adam Foote returns as head coach for his first full season behind the bench with Kris Mallette and Vernon Fiddler as his assistants. Fiddler was added to the staff on July 3^rd.

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• Broadcasters Notebook: The Rockets play 4 of their opening 8 games against teams based in the U.S Division….Nolan Foote was selected in the opening round (27^th overall) of the NHL Draft in June by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Foote joins his older brother Cal, who was chosen 17^th overall by the Lightning in 2017….Foote attended Hockey Canada’s Summer Development Camp, collecting 2+4=6 in four exhibition games….Kaedan Korczak was chosen in the second round of the NHL Draft by the Vegas Golden Knights….Newly acquired forward Dillon Hamaliuk was selected in the second round by the San Jose Sharks. Hamaliuk was acquired in a trade with Seattle back in May….Jake Lee received a free-agent tryout with the Sharks, attending the teams rookie camp….Leif Mattson and Kyle Topping attended the rookie camp of the Carolina Hurricanes…19 year-old d-man Sean Comrie received an invite to Philadelphia Flyers rookie camp which led to an invite to main camp…On May 2, 2019 the team acquired Dillon Hamaliuk, Jake Lee and goaltender Cole Schwebius from Seattle for the Rockets 10^th overall pick in the 2019 WHL Bantam Draft, a 2^nd round pick in 2021, a first round selection 2022 and Conner Bruggen-Cate. Hamaliuk and Lee were members of the 2017 WHL champion Seattle Thunderbirds…The team will start the season with three-20 year-old’s after obtaining d-man Carson Sass from the Tri City Americans September 11^th for a 10^th round WHL bantam pick. Sass has played the majority of his career with the Red Deer Rebels…The team will have two-16 year-old’s on its roster this season. Trevor Wong, the Rockets 1^st round bantam pick from (18^th overall) 2018 is joined by 16 year-old blueliner Elias Carmichael. Carmichael was the teams 2^nd round pick in the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft…The Rockets welcome Czech Republic forward Pavel Novak to the team this season. Novak was chosen 13^th overall in the opening round of June’s CHL Import Draft. Novak played recently for his country at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, helping the Czech Republic to a 5^th place finish…Back on October 3^rd, the Rockets were awarded the host site for the 2020 Kia Memorial Cup, beating out bids from Kamloops and Lethbridge.