THUNDERBIRDS

Cavin Leth set for leadership role in first full season with T-Birds

Aug 29, 2016, 10:23 AM | Updated: 12:32 pm

Acquired last season at the trade deadline, Cavin Leth was a big part of Seattle's playoff run. (Br...

Acquired last season at the trade deadline, Cavin Leth was a big part of Seattle's playoff run. (Brian Liesse photo)

(Brian Liesse photo)

It was late in a scrimmage on Saturday morning when Cavin Leth stole the puck at center ice. He quickly turned, dug his skates into the ShoWare Center ice and raced towards the goal. One quick flick of the wrist and he scored his second goal of the session.

Leth didn’t join the Thunderbirds until the trade deadline last year, but now in his first full season with the team he will be counted on to be one of its leaders.

“It’s awesome to get back,” Leth said after the scrimmage. “Especially with the great run we had last year, to get back and see everybody, to get back in the groove of things so we can make a good season out of this.”

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His WHL career started in Swift Current, where he played in 159 games with the Broncos but never tasted any playoff success until he got to Seattle. In the playoffs with the T-Birds last year, though, Leth played a key role. Paired with Alexander True and Andreas Schumacher, the three were one of Seattle’s top lines.

Leth scored three goals and had nine points in 15 playoff games with the T-Birds. Getting that opportunity after playing for a team that wasn’t going to get to the playoffs helped sooth the sting of being traded.

“Coming to this team I knew they were making a lot of moves to make a push for it,” he said. “I knew they had a lot of great pieces here already from (Mathew) Barzal to (Luke) Osterman, (Turner Ottenbreit), (Jerret) Smith, Jared Hauf, all those guys. The goalies are good and then we brought (Landon) Bow in, too, so they just kept adding to the pieces more and more.”

As one of Seattle’s two 20 year olds, Leth is in his last WHL season and wants to go out a winner. While he was new to the team last year, this year he will be one of the leaders on the club. He says that time in the league has flown by fast and it’s hard to believe this is his last.

At the same time, he looks forward to helping the younger guys behind him.

“I had a lot of great 20s that mentored me and I looked up to,” Leth said. “I hope to do the same for younger guys coming up.”

Last year he scored a career-high 12 goals between Swift Current and Seattle. His scoring rate ticked up in the playoffs, and with a more talented Seattle squad he could contribute more offensively. Leth has a ton of speed, plays with grit and plays a solid 200-foot game. Don’t be surprised if those goal totals are higher this year.

He’ll contribute to the team’s offense as well as be a key penalty killer for the T-Birds, as he was last season. Leth said that he hasn’t yet sat down to establish any personal goals and that right now, winning a championship is the only thing he’s worried about.

In the scrimmages so far in camp he’s been good. He’s scored some goals and even mixed it up at times as the competition has been pretty intense for what is really a practice. Leth says that is a good sign.

“Its been getting better throughout camp,” he said. “Through rookie camp you saw good competition. Now all the vets are in so there are a lot of younger guys trying to push the vets and the vets are pushing. The vets want to show what it takes to be a Thunderbird and i’ts showing out there.”

After Monday, the team will get into a more regular practice routine as it prepares for preseason games. When asked if the scrimmages were more fun than practice, Leth chose to stay neutral.

“No comment,” he said with a smile.

The T-Birds will wrap up training camp with the annual Blue-White game Monday night at the ShoWare Center. Unlike the scrimmages this will be an actual game with regular timing and three full periods. The game starts at 5:30 and is free to the public.

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