Jaden Lipinski and the Giants took steps on road trip and aim to keep it going this weekend, which includes their Teddy Bear Toss game.
It feels like Jaden Lipinski took a step forward this weekend. The Vancouver Giants appear to have done the same.
The Giants moved on to Portland after that for a pair of games against the Winterhawks, and Lipinski had an assist in both Saturday’s 7-2 loss and Sunday’s 5-2 bounceback victory.
Lipinski, as it happens, was Vancouver’s Teddy Bear Toss goal-scorer last year, leading to the furry furor flying from the stands in a game against the Everett Silvertips at the LEC. He’s looking to become the second Giant after Bowen Byram (2017 and 2018) to score multiple Teddy Bear tallies.
Of course, the team stringing together some more successful outings is his main focus.
“We have to build off of it,” Lipinski said of the visits to Tri-City and Portland. “We’ve had a tendency of taking a step forward and then a step back. We have to move forward.”
Lipinski boosting his point total was a stride in the right direction, but it’s just part of the tale. He seemed more comfortable, seemed like he was around the puck more. He seemed more like the guy who had a strong second half last year with Vancouver, leading to him finishing with 24 goals and 66 points in 67 regular-season games and being named to the WHL B.C. Division second all-star team.
If Vancouver is going to make any noise this season, they need older players like Lipinski to drive the play. It’s no secret. That’s how the league works. He has three goals and 15 points through 19 games so far.
“I haven’t been as good as I’d like in terms of producing this year,” Lipinski admitted ahead of practice earlier this week. “As a 20-year-old, there’s a pretty high standard in the league. I feel like that was a big step for me this weekend.”
This a key year for him as well. The 6-foot-4, 210 pound Lipinski was a fourth-round selection of the Flames in the 2023 NHL Draft, and it looked for a time like the Scottsdale, Ariz., native was going to stick with their AHL Calgary Wranglers farm team this year, which he’s eligible to do as a 20-year-old.
He missed the first nine Giants’ games before Calgary reassigned him to junior from the Wranglers. That said, he’s still yet to sign his entry-level contract with the Flames — he played his two games with the Wranglers on an amateur tryout — and the Flames have until June 1 to ink him to a deal or he becomes a free agent.
“Just focus on my game, on my building blocks,” Lipinski said when asked about the feedback he’s getting from the Flames. “Being hard to play against, more physical, more of a presence. It still all ties into my strengths as a player.
“I’m not going to be a skill guy at the next level. I’m identifying my building blocks and the production will come with that.”
Schmidt’s status for the weekend will become clearer as Vancouver’s week of practice plays out, but Giants general manager Barclay Parneta sounded confident Wednesday morning that he would be ready to go. Vancouver is at Victoria on Friday (7:05 p.m.) and then follows up the Teddy Bear game Saturday with a rematch with Tri-City on Sunday (4 p.m.) at the LEC.
Schmidt, 17, has missed the past four Giants’ games, after leaving their Dec. 1 matchup against the Seattle Thunderbirds in the third period. He was sitting second in the WHL in goals as of Wednesday morning, trailing only Spokane Chiefs forward Shea Van Olm (26).
How Vancouver coach Manny Viveiros rearranges his forward lines when Schmidt returns will be interesting. Lipinski has been playing between Halaburda and London Hoilett and they’ve shown chemistry. Schmidt has teamed with Halaburda to flank Lipinski routinely in the past.
Meanwhile, the Giants’ trio featuring Chris Levis centring Adam Titlbach and Tyler Thorpe led the way in Sunday’s win over Portland, with three goals from Titlbach and four assists from Thorpe, who’s a Montreal Canadiens’ draft pick.
Titlbach, 18, is at 12 goals and 22 points through 28 games. The Czechia native had nine goals and 30 points in 66 games last year with the Giants.