Saturday, June 28, 2014

Rathjen Shipped to Medicine Hat

While the Canucks stole the headlines in Vancouver with three trades on Friday, the Giants made a move as well, sending goalie Jared Rathjen to Medicine Hat for a fifth round bantam pick.

The 20-year-old puck stopper played in 48 games over two seasons with the Giants, posting a record of 15-19-5-1.

Here's the press release from the Giants:

The Vancouver Giants have traded goaltender Jared Rathjen to the Medicine Hat Tigers in exchange for a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2015 Western Hockey League Bantam Draft. 

Rathjen played 29 games with the Giants last season. He finished the regular season with a 13-8-4-1 record and posted a Goals Against Average of 2.98 and a .898 Save Percentage.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Giants Schedule: Five Key Dates

The Vancouver Giants released their schedule for the upcoming 2014-15 season today. You can get the full press release and see the full schedule here, but here are five key dates to circle on your calendar.

For ticketing information, click here or call 604-444-2687.

September 20th vs. Victoria - The Giants will once again open the regular season on home ice against their division rivals from the island. This will be the first of 10 games between the two clubs and should be a dandy when you look at the fact that these two teams produced entertaining hockey in every single one of their meetings last year.



September 26th vs. Portland - The Western Conference champions visit the Rink on Renfrew in a rematch of last season's first round playoff series in which the Winterhawks swept the G-Men out of the post-season. However, this Portland team will look a lot different with the departure of Head Coach Mike Johnston and blueliners Mat Dumba and Derrick Pouliot likely headed to pro hockey.



October 17th vs. Kamloops - This is the big one. Don Hay returns to the Pacific Coliseum as the Head Coach of the Kamloops Blazers after a decade of coaching the Giants including a WHL Championship in 2006 and a Memorial Cup win in 2007. The WHL's second winningest coach will be hoping to steer the Blazers' ship in the right direction after a season to forget last year.



February 11th vs. Edmonton - The Memorial Cup champions will pay their only visit to Van City. It's one of only two meetings between the two clubs. Of note, the G-Men actually beat the Oil Kings 5-1 the last time the two teams met in Edmonton on February 22, 2014.



March 20th vs. Kelowna - Fan Appreciation night and the final home game of the regular season for the Giants will see them face the BC Division champion Kelowna Rockets. The G-Men will then conclude the season the following night in the Okanagan, but as was the case last year, these games -- against what should be a strong Rockets club -- will be a good test for the Giants late in the year.