It’s just a part of being a junior hockey player. A handful of players are lucky enough to play close to home, and enjoy the support of family and friends at home and the rink. Many more move away at a young age to chase a dream. With so much of the year spent away from home, opportunities to spend time with family can be few and far between. Lethbridge Hurricane players enjoyed one such opportunity this past weekend, welcoming parents and siblings to celebrate Family Day together.

Pictured: Not Mike Simpson

Rich Preston made his second deal of trade deadline season on Wednesday, adding defenceman Mike Simpson from the Kootenay Ice in exchange for a 5th round pick in the 2013 bantam draft.

Simpson will add some size to the Hurricanes' young defensive corps whose depth has been regularly depleted by injuries this season. The 18 year old native of Semiahmoo, BC measures 6'4", 207 lbs and is playing his second season in the WHL. In 96 career games he has tallied 1 goal and 4 assists along with a -12 and 103 penalty minutes.

Trade deadline action is starting to heat up in the WHL, and on Rich Preston got in on the action Monday, trading 17 year old centre Jay Merkley to the Swift Current Broncos in exchange for 19 year old left winger Josh Derko and a 3rd round bantam draft pick.

Superficially it looks as if Swift Current gets the better of this deal, acquiring the younger player with greater offensive upside. As a sophomore this season, Merkley has collected 14 goals and 8 assists in 44 games. Meanwhile, Derko has accounted for 3 goals and 8 assists through 31 games, while adding 68 penalty minutes and a -4 +/-.

Strong Effort

Thursday nights game against the OilKings had the home town boys put in a strong effort, but not receive any rewards. Shut out 4 - 0, the game was lost more to the play of Brossoit, then to any sort of poor play. It always seemed like the boys were a fraction of a second behind where they needed to be, inspire of showing the effort we were hoping to see from them.

Disallowed

Back on the 13th of the month we were lucky enough to attend the unveiling of new signage in and around the locker room of your Lethbridge Hurricanes to honour the rich history of the hockey club, and reflect on the great things that our Alumni have achieved.

It is great to see Caniacs of the past being honoured by the club in this way, but also that it serves to inspire our current roster of talented players to work hard and be proud to wear the Jersey of our beloved hockey club, appreciating that they, as have former players, can achieve great things playing junior hockey in Lethbridge.

View our full set of photos from the event on Flickr

The Hurricanes released the following article after the unveiling ceremony:

Big/Brilliant Teddy Bear Contribution

Tonight's teddy bear tally was 4025. Those toys are headed off to tons of needy kids throughout the lethbridge area, and we at CanesCast cannot express how proud we are in the contribution given by this city and team.

No Lapse

The last couple nights have been wild in the Enmax.

As you probably know, we take plenty of photos at most of the Hurricanes' home games, and often we'll spend some time shooting from our favourite spot: between the benches. Tonight, Remi Laurencelle just about ended up sharing the box with me.

Ice level is always an adventure!

The night should have been about Jaimen Yakubowski. The recently honoured WHL player of the week is putting in a strong case for consecutive wins, but despite Yakubowski’s five goal effort, the Hurricanes could not hang on for a victory over their rivals from Medicine Hat.

A night after soundly beating the Edmonton Oil Kings 6-2, things seemed to all be going right for the Hurricanes against the Tigers. Russ Maxwell got things started with a powerplay goal less than seven minutes into the game, followed up by a pair of Yakubowski tallies to give the ‘Canes a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes.

Fans of the Lethbridge Hurricanes got their latest glimpse of the future on Wednesday evening, and once again optimism abounds. Against the backdrop of a convincing win over the Edmonton Oil Kings, Giorgio Estephan, the Hurricanes’ top pick of the 2012 bantam draft, made sure he was noticed in his WHL debut.