The Pre-Draft Showcase that was held May 10-13 throughout Massachusetts turned out to be a productive scouting trip for the Twin City Thunder.
The Auburn-based team has added two more players after seeing them play at the showcase.
The Thunder announced Monday that they have signed forward Cooper Davis, who helped the Steamboat Wranglers of the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League to the league championship this past season. He had six goals and 10 assists in 37 games.
The Thunder will be his third junior team in three years. He spent the 2016-17 season with the San Diego Sabers in the Western States Hockey League, tallying one goal and two assists in 44 games played.
The 5-foot-10, 180-pound 18-year-old from Castle Rock, Colorado, is an all-around forward.
“He’s a really good winger, strong up the boards, smart with the puck and has great feet,” Twin City Thunder director of hockey operations Dan Hodge said. “I really like his Hockey IQ, his hockey knowledge and his in-game knowledge.”
Hodge said Davis also is a standout off the ice.
“You want to have good hockey players, but you want to have good young men,” Hodge said. “You want kids that are here for the right reasons. We want to win games, we want to move guys to the next level and want guys who are going to represent the organization well. Cooper is that kind of player. He’s a well-spoken young man with a great family.”
On Friday, the team signed David Martinek, a 20-year-old defenseman. The Czech Republic native is returning to the United States for his final year of junior hockey eligibility.
The 5-foot-9, 185-pound Martinek has played in his home country, Sweden and the United States. In 2017-18, he had six assists in 26 games with HC Zlin in the Czech Republic’s under-20 league. He spent time the previous season with the New Jersey Rockets of the Eastern Hockey League. for whom he had an assist in 12 games.
From 2014-2016, Martinek was a part of the Wings HC organization in Sweden, and played with the U18 and U20 teams. Prior to joining the Wings, he came through the HC Zlin’s U16 and U18 teams
Hodge likes how Martinek plays bigger than his size.
“He a real strong defenseman and he plays a real strong game,” Hodge said. “He’s not a big kid, but he plays like he’s 6-foot-2, 6-foot-3. He plays a strong game, he plays in all situations — power play, penalty kill — and he moves the puck well. He did everything. He’s an older guy, he’s 20, he’s not young. He knows how to play the game.”
Martinek believes the USPHL will allow him to showcase his skills to further his hockey career beyond 2018-19.
“I am very excited to play for the Thunder next season and work with the coaches to take my game to the next level,” Martinek said in a news release.
News and notes
The USPHL had its league-wide meeting last week at Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts. Hodge said it was a great chance for the organization to meet everyone. One thing that teams and executives worked on at the meeting was the league schedule, which Hodge said should be announced soon.
Another thing: Could the Twin City Thunder have an affiliation with the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs, who have a team in the USPHL’s Tier II league National Collegiate Development Conference?
In a now partially deleted Twitter conversation between the two team’s accounts, the Monarchs responded to the Thunder, saying they were excited to have an one-year affiliation agreement with their friends up north. The Monarchs later deleted that tweet when the Thunder account responded: “Geesh meeting out all the surprises ‘eh! Our bag of tricks is full but we need to save a little for the fans!”
When asked about this potential affiliation agreement, Hodge said it was the first heard about it.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Hodge said. “… They have different Tier III teams and a NCDC team, so I think their affiliation is already set.”
The Monarchs have teams in the Premier and Elite League in the USPHL, which are considered Tier III. The Thunder will play in the Premier League in the inaugural season.
Hodge believes the Twitter conversation was about the schedule and the amount of college commitments the league had as a whole during the 2017-18 season. The conversation was started when the Thunder responded to the Monarchs tweet on how many commitments the league had last season.
nfournier@sunjournal.com
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