Elsby in Awe

[Spence King 387]

It's hard for Spence Elsby to believe he's entering just his FOURTH VHL season.

 

"We technically have had 5 [training] camps, one at the start of last year, the following year where I surprised a lot of people and cracked the opening night roster, and this now being my FIFTH its really hard too believe ," said the Vancouver Canuck defenceman. "It does kind of feel like my fourth year as a Pro… a bit."

The 20-year-old Hughes joins forwards Superstar VHL forwards in Ola Vikingstad, 25, Valtteri Vaakanainen , 23, and Patrik Laine, 18, plus goaltender and fellow S72 Draft Class mate Zamboni Driver, 42, as the core of a Canuck team that opened the S76 season this week hoping to build off a successful offseason and training camp run last summer.

 

"We took a step last season," said Elsby, who was picked seventeenth overall by Helsinki in the S72 VHL draft. "For us, there's an excitement that we just have to keep going."

Elsby experienced an unusual rookie season. He had played 72 games and established himself as a Rookie of the year candidate by scoring 14 goals, 31 assists and 45 points, some pretty incredible numbers from a rookie defenceman in a league like the VHL. He followed the regular season up with a homecoming party going all the way  to the continental cup finals against Seattle. Elsby lead the playoffs for the entire VHL for Shots blocked for the majority of the playoffs and finished with an outstanding 5 goals, 7 assists and 15 points in just 17 Playoff games as a rookie.

 

'He shows a lot of maturity'

Veteran Helsinki defenceman Erik Summers had a front-row seat watching Elsby grow and adapt to the VHL.

"He was such a good player to even start out the year last year," his teammates said. "The things you see with with him, he developed a consistency you don't see too often in young guys, especially for his age.

 

Elsby has continued throughout his VHL tenure showing no signs of rust keeping strong when the VHL resumed this most recent week. Elsby  collected 11 assists and 12 points in 11 games, along with one goal to date. Elsby starts the season atop the Helsinki defensive depth chart full of promising youngsters and a solid mixture of veteran and experience to mix in with Rune and Summers.