The awards are rolling in for the Kent-based Seattle Thunderbirds junior hockey team.
Seattle goalie Thomas Milic is a finalist for Western Hockey League (WHL) Goaltender of the Year; Kevin Korchinski is a candidate for Defenseman of the Year; and general manager Bil La Forge a finalist for Executive of the Year.
All three were chosen as U.S. Division award winners. They next go up against the division winners from the B.C., Central and East for the top WHL honors. The top executive will be announced May 3, the top goalie May 9 and the top defenseman May 10.
“Excited for all three and it could have been more, when the team does well individual recognition comes with that, and it is well deserved for all three,” T-Birds President Colin Campbell said in an April 13 email.
The T-Birds have indeed done well and they are not done yet. Seattle set a franchise mark for wins with its 54-11-1-2 record to earn the top playoff seed in the Western Conference.
Seattle swept the Kelowna Rockets in four games in the first round of the playoffs and opens the second round Friday, April 14 against the Prince George Cougars at the accesso ShoWare Center. A win in the best-of-seven series would put the T-Birds in the Western Conference finals against the winner of the Kamloops Blazers vs. Portland Winterhawks series.
The ultimate goal for Seattle is a berth in the Canadian Hockey League Memorial Cup May 26 to June 4 in Kamloops, British Columbia. The T-Birds must win two more series’ in the Western Conference playoffs and then beat the Eastern Conference champion to advance to the Memorial Cup.
Goalie Milic
Milic led the WHL with a 2.08 goals-against average and .928 save percentage during the regular season. He was 13-0-0-1 in his last 14 regular season outings.
Earlier this year, Milic was a gold medalist with Canada at the 2023 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Junior Championship in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
“Thomas has been solid for us and was also the gold medal winning goalie for team Canada at the World Junior tournament at Christmas,” Campbell said. “Both our goalies this year have been tremendous, they finished number one (Thomas) and number two (Scott Ratzlaff) in the league and pretty much split the games all year.”
Milic, who hails from Coquitlam, B.C., turns 20 on April 14 and is a 2023 NHL Draft prospect. He has a career record of 60-23-3-3, including 27-3-1-1 this regular season. Ratzlaff is just 18 and had a 25-8-0-1 record this regular season.
“Thomas and Scott give us a chance to win every night,” Campbell said.
Defenseman Korchinski
Korchinski, of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, led all T-Birds defensemen with a career-best 73 points (11 goals, 62 assists). His 62 assists led all Western Conference defensemen.
“Korchinski, also a gold medal winner for team Canada at the World Junior tournament, was drafted in the first round to the Chicago Blackhawks last June and has continued to grow as a player and leader for us as he progresses to the next level,” Campbell said.
He was the seventh-overall selection by the Blackhawks in the 2022 NHL Draft. The 18-year-old, who is 6-foot-3 and 185 pounds, has totalled 148 points (13 goals, 135 assists) over his 145 appearances with the T-Birds.
General manager La Forge
After building a roster that captured the Western Conference Championship in 2022, La Forge is the U.S. Division WHL Executive of the Year for the second consecutive season in 2023.
La Forge’s T-Birds set a franchise record with 54 wins during the regular season, winning the U.S. Division title for the first time in six years while also entering the 2023 WHL playoffs as the top seed in the Western Conference.
La Forge made several high-profile moves during the season, including trading for Canadian World Juniors gold-medalists Nolan Allan and Colton Dach, while also adding WHL champions Dylan Guenther and Luke Prokop to the roster.
“Bil has a great eye for talent and works so well with our assistant general manager (Jared Crooks) and the rest of the scouting staff to put together a roster that went to the league final last year and be a top-ranked team this year and in the future,” Campbell said.
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Seattle’s Kevin Korchinski is a Western Hockey League finalist for Defenseman of the Year. COURTESY PHOTO, Brian Liesse, Seattle Thunderbirds
Seattle general manager Bil La Forge is a candidate for WHL Executive of the Year. COURTESY PHOTO, Seattle Thunderbirds