Photo: Tri City Americans / Western Hockey League / Twitter

By Shane Clausing

storm add fowards

WHL’S Americans loan Lambert, Bjorklund, Mutala to Storm

Oct 26, 2020 | 12:48 PM

The Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League announced Monday that they have loaned Grande Prairie-born forwards Edge Lambert and Paycen Bjorklund, as well as forward Sasha Mutala, to the Grande Prairie Storm through December 20.

On October 23, the WHL announced that it will grant temporary transfers for WHL players so they can continue to develop by playing competitive hockey at either the Junior A, Junior B, or U-18 levels.

“This is an opportunity for WHL roster players to continue their development by playing hockey at a competitive level,” said WHL Commissioner Ron Robison.

“We felt it was very important to accommodate the requests of WHL roster players to play competitive hockey on a temporary basis in anticipation of WHL Training Camps beginning after Christmas.”

Earlier this month, the WHL announced that their goal is to start their regular season on Friday, January 8.

Bjorklund has spent the last three seasons with the Americans. Last season, the 19-year-old registered 18 points in 49 games.

Meanwhile, Lambert comes to the Storm after spending his first year of major junior hockey with the Americans last season. He tallied 26 points in 59 games.

Lambert does have some experience with the Storm as well. He appeared in two games as a call-up in 2018-19.

The Storm will also be receiving the Americans’ top point-getter from a season ago in the 19-year-old Mutala.

The native of Vancouver led the Americans in scoring with 67 points in 62 games. In 2019, he was selected in the 5th round of the NHL Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalanche.

Mutala represented Team Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in 2018-19, where he finished with four points in five games.

That Team Canada squad also featured top NHL prospects Alexis Lafrenière, Ryan Suzuki, Dylan Cozens, and Kirby Dach.

Storm head coach and general manager, Mike Vandekamp tells EverythingGP that the new players are a welcome addition to the team.

“It’s a unique situation. Obviously, the Western Hockey League’s start date has been pushed back a little bit and a lot of these young men have been skating with teams already or have been skating in small groups just to stay in shape and stay active.”

“I know some of the general managers in the Western Hockey League were kind of pushing to see their players to maybe play in leagues like ours and that finally came to fruition. We’ve had some of these guys around our team already a little bit this year anyway, so it’s not like this is anything brand new, they can finally play in games now.”

Vandekamp adds that now that the WHL has given their players the green light to start playing in other Junior A leagues, fans will see them in the lineup and getting good chunks of ice time.

“Ultimately, they are going to come in and be full-time members of our team. They are going to play whatever roles they’re suited to play and find linemates that they can have some chemistry with and help the hockey team win some hockey games.”

Vandekamp also mentioned that the relationship between Bjorklund and Lambert was a big reason why Mutala decided to come and skate with the Storm.

The team’s last exhibition game was against the Whitecourt Wolverines on October 17. Vandekamp tells EverythingGP that more exhibition games will be announced very soon.