"It Was Absurd": Bruins Forward Asham-Moroz Recounts Playing With U18 Gold Medalist – Discoverestevan.com – DiscoverEstevan.com

The World Under-18 Hockey Championships have long been an introduction to the wider hockey world for young players looking to make their mark. Winnipeg native Conner Roulette used it that way this year, but two members of the Estevan Bruins needed no introduction to him.

Forwards Griffin Asham-Moroz and Brandon Ambrozik played for the Winnipeg Thrashers in 2018-19 alongside Roulette. While both were talented offensive players and put up big numbers, they both trailed behind Roulette, who put up an astonishing 88 points in 43 games.

"It was absolutely insane," Asham-Moroz recounted. "I would watch the kid go out and have a four-point night and come off looking like he wasn't even sweating. It was absurd, absolutely absurd."

It's hardly surprising Roulette went to the Seattle Thunderbirds of the WHL not long afterward, where he put up 39 points in 54 games as a rookie. After posting 12 points in 11 games this year for Seattle, he put up five points in seven games at the U18s. One of his goals was fit to give anyone who played AAA with him deja vu.

"In AAA, no one would be able to take the puck off of him, and if you did take the puck off him, he would come back two seconds later, lift your stick, take it back, and go the other way," Asham-Moroz said. "I heard there was one goal where the defenseman was coming out of his own zone and he (Roulette) took the puck from him and just ripped it. My mom said it was exactly like he would do in AAA."

Asham-Moroz is no stranger to having teammates appear on Sports Centre ("Jayden Davis, thank you very much," he said). But having a former teammate go in the first round of the NHL draft would be a new experience, and there's a chance Roulette makes that happen.

"Honestly, it's not going to surprise me," said Asham-Moroz. "He's a pretty big name in Winnipeg, lots of people know him. It's been no surprise in Winnipeg for a while that he's going to do something in hockey."

If Roulette does become a first rounder, it would be the second year in a row a Bruins player has seen an ex-teammate go in the first round after Braden Schneider, a former teammate of Kade McMillen, went in round one of the draft last year. For Asham-Moroz, it would mean a former linemate (albeit briefly) had made the jump.

"I played with him for the first six games of the year, then our coach switched it up," he said. "It was insane. I've never seen a kid who is two years younger than everyone else he's playing against but is somehow better than them. He's just somehow better. He has two years on me and he's so much more developed than I am. He's got a gift for hockey."

See the original post:

"It Was Absurd": Bruins Forward Asham-Moroz Recounts Playing With U18 Gold Medalist - Discoverestevan.com - DiscoverEstevan.com