T-Birds’ Jarret Tyszka always thought he would play in WHL

On April 16, the Thunderbirds announced an exciting piece of news as last year’s first-round Bantam Draft pick, Jarret Tyszka, signed a WHL Standard Player Agreement.

The news couldn’t have come at a better time as Seattle will lose two of its top four defensemen from last season, Shea Theodore and Evan Wardley, and the status of 2013 first-round pick Dante Fabbro remains uncertain.

Tyszka, who stands 6 foot 2 and weighs about 180 pounds, hails from Langley, British Columbia and played last season with the Yale Hockey Academy, an elite development program. He had 10 points and 37 penalty minutes in 25 games at Yale, the same program that Theodore came from.

According to the Yale Hockey Academy website, Tyszka was “a stalwart on the back end with the U18 Lions this season.” Thunderbirds general manager Russ Farwell has stated that he fully expects Tyszka to make the team as a 16-year-old and earn a good amount of ice time.

Despite waiting until almost a year after he was drafted to commit, Tyszka said he’s always been confident that the WHL was the place where he wanted to continue his hockey development.

“I was (debating the NCAA) a little bit. I always thought I would rather play in the WHL, though,” he said. “I just wanted to be 100 percent sure about my decision. Seattle is the perfect place to be. They’ve done great with all of their players so I thought it was a safe decision to make.”

The decision became official for Tyszka shortly before the WHL playoffs began as he witnessed Seattle’s season-ending 6-3 victory over the rival Portland Winterhawks in front of a sold out ShoWare Center crowd. He stuck around for the team’s practices leading up to the playoffs and knew Seattle was the place he wanted to be.

“When I went down to practice with the team before the playoffs, I loved it and made my decision,” Tyszka said. “It was a great experience. All the guys were great. The level of play is tougher and the crowd was great every time. Those things made me want to play there.”

Tyszka describes his skating as one of his biggest assets and feels that he needs to add strength to both his frame and his shot in order to take the next step in his development. Both his strengths and weaknesses are reminiscent of Theodore, whose offensive skills were always elite but he had to spend most of his offseasons working on his shot and packing muscle onto his frame.

“Last season was a good year. It was all about training and getting ready for the next level,” said Tyszka, who also had a brief stint with the Chilliwack Chiefs of the BCHL last season. “Possibly, hopefully someday I can fit into (Theodore’s) role.”

It’s unreasonable to expect Tyszka to come in and have a Theodore-like impact as a 16-year-old, but it should be seen as a positive that he’s set a high bar for himself. The left-handed-shooting defenseman knows that he’ll need to work for his ice time, but sees it as a major positive that he’ll be joining such a talented roster.

“I’m very lucky to be coming in at this time,” Tyszka said. “It’s going to be a good team to play with. It’s good to be able to have to work for your ice. I would expect the older guys to get more ice time but it helps as a motivation to work harder.”

We’ll have the chance to see Tyszka at his second T-Birds training camp later this summer and this time we will have the chance to see him participate in the main camp, which he missed last season.

“I thought I did well (last year) but was a little tentative,” Tyszka said, reflecting on camp as a 15-year-old. “I sat back a bit and was nervous about how big everyone was. I (was injured) at the end of prospects camp so I didn’t get to experience everything.”

With Tyszka in the mix, Seattle now has six defensemen locked in for next season – Jerret Smith, Jared Hauf, Ethan Bear, Turner Ottenbreit, Sahvan Khaira and Tyszka. Farwell has stated that he’d like to add another defenseman during the offseason, likely to take the seventh spot or to allow Khaira and Tyszka to rotate in and out of the lineup, should he fit better into one of the top six spots consistently.