WestLEAFfan
09-03-2007, 08:18 AM
Fuller looks to be impact player
Free Press File Photo Nineteen-year-old Evan Fuller is returning to the Cougars this season and hopes to double his points.
By Alistair McInnis
Free Press
Aug 31 2007
A change in a team can often be implied though a difference in an individual’s role.
For the Prince George Cougars, look no further than returning 19-year-old forward Evan Fuller.
A year ago, Fuller wasn’t considered a top scorer on the Cougars.
A seventh round selection of the Vancouver Canucks in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, Fuller took on more of a checking forward role on a team that had loads of experience and firepower up front with forwards like Devin Setoguchi, Nick Drazenovic, Eric Hunter, Jared Walker and Dana Tyrell.
With the Cougars looking at Tyrell as the only player out of the five forwards back in uniform this season, Fuller will be looking to do more than play hard in the corners and collect the occasional point.
“I want to get up there a little bit higher, at least try and double my points [from 2006-07],” he said prior to practice on Wednesday morning. “I’m an older guy and we have a young team this year and I think our identity is going to be hard work and we have to move.”
In his third WHL season in 2006-07, Fuller finished with eight goals and 12 assists for 20 points in playing in all 72 regular season games. He also picked up 70 penalty minutes. In 15 playoff games, he tallied three goals and six assists for nine points, also collecting 12 penalty minutes.
When the playoffs began last March, Fuller was 11th in Cougars scoring. Of the players from that squad still with the Cougars to this point, he ranks sixth in 2006-07 regular season scoring totals.
Fuller, who grew up in 150 Mile House just south of Williams Lake, also carries the experience of attending the Canucks rookie camp a year ago and will be returning to try out for the NHL squad next week.
“I really want to make the main camp and try and show them I can play there,” he said. “I think that’s the [biggest] thing so far is just to try and get as much ice, get in tip-top shape down here, do as much as I can, and get my confidence up.
“You’re always working to be a better player and you get guys to help you out to do that. Coaches will help you out to do that. It’s just player development. Throughout your whole career you have to do that. Right now I’m just working on my skating, I have to work on my shot and I have to keep improving on everything I have.”
A year ago Fuller had a whirlwind summer, getting drafted by the Canucks and attending his first NHL camp. Fuller’s summer this year may not be as enjoyable to this point as he was battling sickness and a nagging injury a couple weeks prior to training camp. He said he had a shoulder injury, what he described as a possible pinched nerve and had to undergo some physiotherapy treatment. He also took a couple days off work while he was sick.
“I got over it,” he noted. “Right now I’m getting my appetite again, but that’s no excuse.”
Having been on last year’s squad, Fuller is as aware as anybody of the challenges facing the Cougars this season. He knows there’s a possibility he’ll be seeing ice time with some of the younger forwards vying for roster spots when the Cougars open their exhibition season at a tournament this weekend in Edmonton.
“I was a young kid too and so was everyone else when they started in this league and all the veterans had to do it. You just try to teach them as much as you can,” he said.
With vivid memories of a spring playoff run that saw the Cougars sweep the Kamloops Blazers and upset the Everett Silvertips in six games before falling to the Memorial Cup champion Vancouver Giants in five games in the Western Conference final, Fuller is excited to be back on the ice.
“I think all the guys that were part of that whole thing last year, I think they’ve grown and players realize what we have to do to make it that far in playoffs, what we have to do in the season and the sacrifices we have to make to make it that far. I was really proud of everyone and I was proud of myself for going so far last year. We worked so hard and hopefully this year we can teach these young guys what it’s like to do that. Hopefully they can experience that too.”
Fuller and the rest of the Cougars leave for Edmonton on Friday.
Their first game in the Edmonton Oil Kings inaugural preseason invitational tournament is Saturday against the Swift Current Broncos.
They play the Regina Pats on Sunday before wrapping up their weekend Monday against the host Oil Kings. Two other teams are participating in the six-team event - the Kamloops Blazers and Kelowna Rockets.
Free Press File Photo Nineteen-year-old Evan Fuller is returning to the Cougars this season and hopes to double his points.
By Alistair McInnis
Free Press
Aug 31 2007
A change in a team can often be implied though a difference in an individual’s role.
For the Prince George Cougars, look no further than returning 19-year-old forward Evan Fuller.
A year ago, Fuller wasn’t considered a top scorer on the Cougars.
A seventh round selection of the Vancouver Canucks in the 2006 NHL Entry Draft, Fuller took on more of a checking forward role on a team that had loads of experience and firepower up front with forwards like Devin Setoguchi, Nick Drazenovic, Eric Hunter, Jared Walker and Dana Tyrell.
With the Cougars looking at Tyrell as the only player out of the five forwards back in uniform this season, Fuller will be looking to do more than play hard in the corners and collect the occasional point.
“I want to get up there a little bit higher, at least try and double my points [from 2006-07],” he said prior to practice on Wednesday morning. “I’m an older guy and we have a young team this year and I think our identity is going to be hard work and we have to move.”
In his third WHL season in 2006-07, Fuller finished with eight goals and 12 assists for 20 points in playing in all 72 regular season games. He also picked up 70 penalty minutes. In 15 playoff games, he tallied three goals and six assists for nine points, also collecting 12 penalty minutes.
When the playoffs began last March, Fuller was 11th in Cougars scoring. Of the players from that squad still with the Cougars to this point, he ranks sixth in 2006-07 regular season scoring totals.
Fuller, who grew up in 150 Mile House just south of Williams Lake, also carries the experience of attending the Canucks rookie camp a year ago and will be returning to try out for the NHL squad next week.
“I really want to make the main camp and try and show them I can play there,” he said. “I think that’s the [biggest] thing so far is just to try and get as much ice, get in tip-top shape down here, do as much as I can, and get my confidence up.
“You’re always working to be a better player and you get guys to help you out to do that. Coaches will help you out to do that. It’s just player development. Throughout your whole career you have to do that. Right now I’m just working on my skating, I have to work on my shot and I have to keep improving on everything I have.”
A year ago Fuller had a whirlwind summer, getting drafted by the Canucks and attending his first NHL camp. Fuller’s summer this year may not be as enjoyable to this point as he was battling sickness and a nagging injury a couple weeks prior to training camp. He said he had a shoulder injury, what he described as a possible pinched nerve and had to undergo some physiotherapy treatment. He also took a couple days off work while he was sick.
“I got over it,” he noted. “Right now I’m getting my appetite again, but that’s no excuse.”
Having been on last year’s squad, Fuller is as aware as anybody of the challenges facing the Cougars this season. He knows there’s a possibility he’ll be seeing ice time with some of the younger forwards vying for roster spots when the Cougars open their exhibition season at a tournament this weekend in Edmonton.
“I was a young kid too and so was everyone else when they started in this league and all the veterans had to do it. You just try to teach them as much as you can,” he said.
With vivid memories of a spring playoff run that saw the Cougars sweep the Kamloops Blazers and upset the Everett Silvertips in six games before falling to the Memorial Cup champion Vancouver Giants in five games in the Western Conference final, Fuller is excited to be back on the ice.
“I think all the guys that were part of that whole thing last year, I think they’ve grown and players realize what we have to do to make it that far in playoffs, what we have to do in the season and the sacrifices we have to make to make it that far. I was really proud of everyone and I was proud of myself for going so far last year. We worked so hard and hopefully this year we can teach these young guys what it’s like to do that. Hopefully they can experience that too.”
Fuller and the rest of the Cougars leave for Edmonton on Friday.
Their first game in the Edmonton Oil Kings inaugural preseason invitational tournament is Saturday against the Swift Current Broncos.
They play the Regina Pats on Sunday before wrapping up their weekend Monday against the host Oil Kings. Two other teams are participating in the six-team event - the Kamloops Blazers and Kelowna Rockets.