For the fourth straight season, the Minnesota Wild will have a representative at the Memorial Cup Tournament which serves to determine a champion of Canadian major junior hockey. Kris Foucault, Minnesota’s 4th round pick (103rd Overall) in 2009 is the most recent member of this exclusive club as he helped Calgary win a WHL championship after defeating the Tri-City Americans in 5 games earning the Hitmen a bearth at the tournament held in Brandon, Manitoba. Calgary has to feel fairly good about its chances as it is already very familiar with one of the qualifiers for the tournament, the Wheat Kings who earn an automatic bid as the hosts and the Hitmen quickly disposed of Brandon in 5 games to get their chance in the WHL Finals. Foucault has played an important role, chipping in offensively with 9 goals, 7 assists in 23 playoff games thus far. The Calgary-native joins fellow Wild prospects Justin Falk (Spokane, WHL) and Cody Almond (Kelowna, WHL) and A.J. Thelen (Vancouver, WHL) who have played in the Memorial Cup the last three seasons. If history is any indication then Foucault can expect his team to do well, as Falk and Thelen both won a Memorial Cup with the Spokane Chiefs and Vancouver Giants’ respectively while Almond’s Kelowna Rockets were a runner up to 2009 champion Windsor Spitfires (OHL). In a strange coincidence all of Minnesota’s Memorial Cup attendees the last four years have been out of the Western Hockey League. In a less official capasity the Wild do have two other connections in Hitmen defenseman Giffen Nyren and Brandon’s Jay Fehr both of whom the team gave a tryout to last summer at the team’s prospect camp and used the offensively gifted blueliner in its annual prospect tournament in Traverse City, Michigan. There are also two other notable Minnesota-connections in Calgary Hitmen assistant coach and Elk River, Minnesota-native Joel Otto, as well as Windsor Spitfires defenseman Craig Duininck from St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Last year, it was a strong playoff performance by Foucault that likely drew Minnesota’s attention prompting them to draft him later that summer after he scored 11 goals and 16 points in just 18 post-season games. In that same year, Cody Almond parlayed a strong post-season performance to help lead the Rockets to the finals. Almond used that effort to have a solid first pro season even earning some time with the Wild in the process. No doubt the Wild hope another solid playoffs could do the same for Foucault as the organization is in need of skilled forwards. Perhaps the most overlooked portion of Foucault’s playoff performances is the fact he has ostensibly gained over an additional half season of development in the process; playing an additional 49 games throughout his junior career. With that comes additional practices and playing in additional pressure-filled situations. The 6’1″, 202lbs left winger has been notoriously streaky throughout his years in the WHL, but has found a way to play big when the games mean the most.
So far, at the time of writing there are 3 teams waiting to play in the Memorial Cup Tournament, including defending champion Windsor Spitfires representing the Ontario Hockey League, tournament host Brandon Wheat Kings, and Foucault’s Calgary Hitmen as Western Hockey League champion. The Moncton Wildcats hold a 3-2 series lead on the Saint John Sea Dogs in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League finals. No matter what, the Memorial Cup is often a showcase of player who will later move on to become notable contributors in the NHL. Here is an article from the Calgary Herald via the Vancouver Sun where Foucault talks about his excitement of playing in the tournament.
http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Calgary+Hitmen+eager+Memorial+start/3004640/story.html
Here is the schedule for the Memorial Cup Tournament thus far. All of the games are being broadcast on NHL Network, and the game times listed are in Central Standard Time.
Round Robin play:
May 14th – Windsor vs. Brandon – 7PM
May 15th – Calgary vs. Moncton – 2PM
May 16th – Brandon vs. Moncton – 2PM
May 17th – Calgary vs. Windsor – 7PM
May 18th – Moncton vs. Windsor – 7PM
May 19th – Brandon vs. Calgary – 7PM
May 20th – Tiebreaker (if necessary) – 7PM
May 21st – Semifinals – 7PM
May 23rd – Championship game – 2PM
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