USHL 2023-24 Preview: Tri-City Storm
The Tri-City Storm could be one of the Western Conference's best teams
TRI-CITY — Following up on their Anderson Cup Trophy-winning season in 2021-22, the Tri-City Storm did not return many players last year.
Combined with starting netminder Sebastian Wraneschitz fighting through injuries in the season's early stages, the Storm got off to a slow start while searching for help in net.
Acquiring both Patriks Berzins and Cameron Korpi from the North American Hockey League provided some much-needed stability in net, allowing forward Trevor Connelly to take center stage.
The 16-year-old Providence commit was one of the best players in the second half of the year, recording 20 points and 17 assists for 37 points after returning from the holiday break. Connelly’s hot streak coincided with the Storm’s rise in the Western Conference standings, with Tri-City applying immense pressure on Lincoln for the No. 3 seed in the final month.
Anthony Noreen’s club acquired significant pieces for the team’s second-half push, trading for forwards Jake Richard and Alex Bump from Muskegon and Omaha, respectively. The former was a point-per-game player for Tri-City, finishing with 13 goals and 27 points in 27 games down the stretch.
The Storm finished in fourth place, just two points behind the Stars in the regular-season standings. In the postseason, Tri-City swept Sioux City in two games in the first round, before being swept by Fargo in the second round.
“It's always disappointing when you don't wind up winning at all. Obviously, we played a very good Fargo team, and the way that series went showed a lot about how far our team came over the course of the season,” said Noreen, who will be entering his seventh year as Head Coach and fourth as President of Hockey Operations for the Storm in 2023-24.
“Fargo beat us by nine the first time we played them, and I think they beat us by seven or six early on, like it wasn't even close. Then to go into their building and play two really hard-fought games, I think that said a lot about how far this team came but I think it also left a bad taste in our mouth and some hunger for the returning guys.”
Having turned over the roster from the previous year to the difficult start to finding goaltending help on the fly to making big splashes at the tradeline, it was overall a positive year for the Storm.
Now, Tri-City will shift their focus to the 2023-24 campaign, where they are expected to have several returners from last year’s squad.
‘We went with a young group. We took a lot of inexperienced guys that hadn't played junior hockey,” said Noreen, reflecting on last year’s team. “We felt like over the course of the year, they developed and our improvement was as good as anybody's. That was really our goal was to develop the guys and make sure we maximize what we had as a team.
“To wind up getting into the playoffs and winning a playoff series and beat the Sioux City team that beat us the year before, albeit different players, it meant a lot to our returning guys. And it gave our guys that will return next year a really good taste of just how hard the league is and what they can expect.”
Key Departures
Graham Gamache, F
Kieran Cebrian, F
Daimon Gardner, F
Cale Ashcroft, D
Tanner Adams, F
Evan Werner, F
Sebastian Törnqvist, D
Dane Dowiak, F
Jake Richard, F
Alex Bump, F
Jacob Jeannette, F
Cam O'Neill, F
Patriks Berzins, G (traded to Madison)
Key Returners
Trevor Connelly, F
August Falloon, F
Seth Constance, D
Ryan Smith, F
Charlie Kinsman, D
Philippe Blais-Savoie, D
Shaun McEwen, D
Nick Roukounakis, F
Alexander Bales, D
Cameron Korpi, G
Key Acquisitions
Owen Beckner, F (2023 USHL Phase II Draft)
Carmelo Crandell, F (2023 USHL Phase II Draft)
A.J. Lacroix, F (2023 USHL Phase II Draft)
Tender Signings
Cooper Simpson, F
Three Keys To 2023-24
Connelly Back For Another Year
Trevor Connelly will return to Tri-City in his draft-eligible season. The talent on the ice goes without question, and there is a very real possibility that Connelly leads the USHL in scoring in 2023-24.
The young forward comes into this year with plenty of hype after his second-half production in the USHL last season and his performance for Team USA at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup.
Connelly was easily the best player on the ice for the Americans, scoring a team-high 10 points (five goals, five assists) while helping Team USA earn a bronze medal at the international tournament.
However, he will be tasked with navigating questions surrounding his character after his social media blunder in March 2022. Ever since, he’s been working vigorously to repair his image to reassure NHL clubs that is not the person they would be drafting.
“We knew in taking Trevor (Connelly), and I think he knows and his family and advisory group and everyone is fully aware of all the questions that are going to come up in the future and all the issues he's going to have to face,” said Noreen.
“The big thing about him is he doesn't run away from any of it, but he's faced all of it head on. He'll talk about it. He admits his mistake. I think he's shown that he is truly remorseful for it. And I think he's taken numerous steps already and is going to continue to take steps to prove that that's not defining who he is as a hockey player,” Noreen continued.
Again, the talent is obviously there, but can Connelly do enough off the ice to be drafted in the first round of the 2024 NHL Draft? Only time will tell, and it’s certainly one of the more interesting storylines to follow not only in the USHL and all of hockey.
Stability In Net
As noted before, Wraneschitz fighting through injuries before ultimately being shut down left a huge hole in net, literally and figuratively. Tri-City acquired both Berzins and Korpi within a week’s time to bolster the goaltending room.
At the time, it was a considerable risk, given that Berzins had no experience in the USHL and to be thrown into the fire mid-season, so to speak, was a tough ask.
However, the Latvian netminder was a steadying force for Tri-City in 2022-23, posting a 2.66 goals-against average and a .890 save percentage with one shutout in 16 games.
Berzins was traded to Madison over the summer, but Tri-City will return Korpi, who posted remarkable numbers coming over from the Oklahoma Warriors of the North American Hockey League.
Committed to Western Michigan, Korpi recorded a 2.52 goals-against average and a .911 save percentage with one shutout in 21 regular-season games. He also backstopped the Storm for most of the team’s playoff run, with a 2.75 goals-against average and a .889 save percentage in four games.
Returning for the 2023-24 season, Korpi will be tasked with being the featured netminder, instead of alternating starts, something the team feels comfortable asking him to do.
“I thought both of those guys did a tremendous job,” Noreen said of the Berzins and Korpi acquisitions. “Obviously a big part of us feeling good coming into this year is just knowing that we have Cam (Korpi) back after the year he had last year. He's a guy that is just a calming presence back there.
“He's a guy that makes the saves. He kind of makes it look easy: not overactive, shows up every day to practice, shows up every workout always ready to go. Guys love him, and I think he's got the intangibles to be an elite level goalie. For any team, that's where it starts, and it gives us a good feeling about working from the net out, just knowing that we've got him back there.”
Experienced D Corps Returns
Looking at the group of returners for 2023-24, it’s hard to overlook the sheer quantity and quality of experienced blueliners that make up the roster. It’s quite a 180-degree difference from last season, where the Storm returned just one defenseman from their Anderson Cup Trophy-winning season.
Shaun McEwen returned after playing 42 games as a rookie during the 2021-22 season but did not make his 2022-23 debut until after Christmas. Until that point, Tri-City was operating with an entirely new D corps, some playing in unfamiliar situations.
Despite the temptation to acquire an established veteran, the Storm continued on with the guys they had.
“We made the decision that we were going to play those guys, we were going to play them through, and we were going to keep putting them in those situations. We weren't going to go out and acquire a veteran guy; we believed in that D corps. We knew it would just be a matter of time, when not if, those guys kind of turned the corner,” Noreen said.
McEwen finished with ten points (two goals, eight assists) in 33 games last season. He returns as a third-year player, bringing a ton of experience back to the Tri-City lineup, but he is not alone this time.
Philippe Blais-Savoie was a player Noreen identified as one that turned the corner late in the season last year, often defending teams’ top lines as a 17-year-old. The Colorado College commit finished with two goals and 11 points in 61 games and added two assists in the postseason as well.
Sebastian Törnqvist shined on the power play in 2022-23 and has moved on, but the Storm feel confident in Seth Constance’s abilities to quarterback the man advantage heading into this season. Constance had just one goal but proved to be an excellent puck distributor, finishing with 15 assists, with six coming on the power play, good for the third-most among defensemen on the Tri-City roster.
Charlie Kinsman played in all 62 games last year, recording 11 points (four goals, 11 assists) and became a more consistent player as the season progressed.
Aside from the experienced players, the Storm will also break in rookie defenseman Alex Bales, who played really well for Team USA at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup.
The Providence commit joined the Storm at the end of the 2022-23 season and not only got eight games of USHL experience under his belt but recorded his first goal against Lincoln in the team’s regular-season finale.
“We expect big things out of him,” Noreen said of Bales. “Then we have a couple other D coming in that we think should make this one of the strongest D corps we have ever had. So, we really think right now, if you look from the net through the D corps, that's really the strength of this group right now and that's the strength of any really good group when it comes to building a hockey team.”