John MacNeil/Independent editor
First-round draft pick Ty Mappin is just one day away from his first Western Hockey League training camp with the Everett Silvertips.
“I’m a little nervous, but I guess it’s a learning experience, so it’ll be fun,”
Mappin said Sunday night from his Big Valley home.
The Silvertips picked Mappin seventh overall in the WHL bantam draft in May, so he’s expected to be in the camp spotlight, even though he’s not eligible to play in the league full-time this season.
Mappin, whose brother Cass played four seasons in the WHL, hopes to stick with the Silvertips into their pre-season schedule.
“If I perform down there, hopefully I do get a couple of exhibition games,” he said.
That might make him a little late for tryouts with the midget AAA Red Deer Optimist Rebels, who open their training camp Sept. 3.
“I might not be there for some of the days, but they said that’s all right,” said Mappin, a 15-yearold centre who scored 37 goals and 71 points in 33 games last season with the Red Deer Rebels White bantam AAA team.
As he heads to Everett, Wash., today with his father Greg, Mappin wants to make a favourable first impression when the Silvertips open camp Thursday.
“I’ll just try to make myself look good for the next years that I’m eligible to play (in the WHL),” he said.
Skating in Red Deer this month, Mappin has been a travelling man this summer.
His hockey trips included the provincial under-16 tryouts in Camrose and an NHL-flavoured mentorship camp in Mississauga, Ont.
This month’s scheduled trip to Minnesota, however, was nixed when that camp was cancelled.
Stettler to host WHL pre-season game
The Red Deer Rebels are coming to Stettler next month for the sixth and final game of their WHL pre-season schedule.
The Rebels will meet the Medicine Hat Tigers in a Sept. 17 exhibition game at Stettler Recreation Centre. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
Red Deer’s camp begins Sunday at the Centrium, with 73 players expected to report. The Rebels’ Black and White intrasquad game is set for 7 p.m. next Wednesday at the Centrium.