Spokane Chiefs season outlook: Young leadership emerges

This is the second of an seven-part online series wrapping up the Spokane Chiefs’ 2016-17 season, as well as looking forward to next year. Today: The leadership core.

Wednesday: The 20-year-old situation.

By the end of the season, the Spokane Chiefs’ leadership core was young. And while it wasn’t always conducive to winning this season, it could set up the Chiefs for success in the future.

Carter shipped away many of the Chiefs’ older players at the trade deadline this season. 20-year-old Markson Bechtold and 19-year-olds Curtis Miske and Tanner Wishnowski were all traded for either draft picks or younger players.

The Chiefs leadership was not impacted much by that, according to Carter.

“When I talked to the kids in their exit interviews, they said they really liked the leadership group that they had,” he said. “They said Tyson (Helgesen) is an excellent captain and did a great job, and I didn’t see anything different.”

Helgesen will likely return as the Chiefs captain next season as a 20-year-old. Jaret-Anderson-Dolan, 17, Ty Smith, 17, and Kailer Yamamoto, 18, also emerged in leadership roles as the season progressed.

Coming Saturday: Breaking down the goaltenders.