Coming off his stellar performance in the WLA Finals, I thought it would be a great time to revisit the Vancouver Stealth’s acquisition of Tyler Hass. Hass was just named WLA Playoff MVP and as Stealth President/GM Doug Locker touched on in our one-on-one, is going to be a very welcome addition to the team.
Entering the offseason, were transition, and offensive, particularly the left side, a priority in making some moves?
In all honesty, we are looking to improve in all areas this offseason. Certainly we want more goals in our lineup, and much has been made of that but additionally we want to be quicker and deeper on defense than we were last season and some additional offensive production can come from there as well. We are better with the return of Chris O’Dougherty back after missing a chunk of time last season and certainly better with the return of Tim Henderson and Mitch McMichael. Having the No. 2 selection in the draft will give us a player who will help as well, and we are going to continue in the coming weeks looking at other trade possibilities.
Why Tyler Hass?
Tyler is a player we have had strong interest in for some time. He is one of the best transition players in the league, is very solid defensively and plays tough hard-nosed lacrosse. Having Tyler in our lineup gives us a constant, proven, consistent scoring threat in transition.
What now do you do to try and replace a guy like Mike Grimes?
We actually added two important pieces in this trade. We picked up Dane Stevens to help us out offensively on the left side and added Tyler Haas, who in our opinion is one of the best transition players in the league. Tyler is a solid defender who replaces the goals Mike scored in transition and provides additional grit. We also are very happy to have signed Tyler Burton as a free agent earlier this summer to add additional experience as well. At the end of the day with Mike moving east to take a promising new job, we had the opportunity to add two BC-based players who we have wanted for some time.
How excited are you to see Tyler on the floor in a Stealth uni this season?
What should Stealth fans expect to see from his style of play? Extremely excited! Fans are going to love watching him play—he is very dynamic and runs the floor very well.
Fans can catch Tyler and the rest of the Vancouver Stealth at the Langley Events Center starting at their home opener on January 10.
