By CHAT News Today

Clouston speaks about Rybinski trade request

Nov 2, 2018 | 5:29 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Medicine Hat Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston spoke out about Henrik Rybinski’s trade request during a media availability this week.

The team announced that Rybinski and the team had entered into a mutual agreement to seek a trade. The 17-year-old forward will not dress for the Tigers this weekend.

Clouston noted he spoke to Rybinski in person before the agreement was made.

“I think in general, his concern was that he didn’t want to be a fourth line guy,” he said. “We reassured him that he wasn’t going to be. I think the (Logan) Christensen trade made him nervous – (Rybinski) is out right now with an injury. For us, it was going to be status quo. He’s played lots. He’s played on the power play, I think he was off the power play for one game.

“We really like Henry. We liked him as a player, we liked him as a person. We had lots of opportunity for him here, right now and moving forward, and pictured him here for a long time.”

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According to the release from the team, Rybinski was looking for more ice time and a top-2 centre role. He had one goal and four assists in 14 games with the club so far this season.

Clouston says he believes the trade request was a decision between Rybinski, his parents and his agent. He believes the culture of the Western Hockey League has changed “drastically” from the time he was a player.

“I got here in ‘03-’04, and we had guys pooling money together to buy cars to get through the season,” he said. “That’s changed. The first couple of years, we used to do Bell’s Captain Clinics, and Bell was a sponsor, so Bell had some cellphone plans, and so we got three or four phones, and we passed the phones around so the guys could call home after the games. That’s not that long ago.

“We’re now reaching a time where parents are here at most of the games, where they know how many minutes the players have played. You go back to a previous time where some parents maybe saw just a handful of games, maybe one or two. It has changed. Everybody has an agent, and the parents are very involved. It’s very different.”

Clouston adds he believes a WHL career belongs to the player.

“They show up as boys, they’re 16 or 17 years old, legally they’re boys, and by the time they leave, hopefully they’ve matured and are ready to face life, whether it’s professional hockey, whether it’s CIS hockey, or it’s the work world,” he said.