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Ottawa 67's healthy between the pipes

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Liam Herbst has every intention of being the go-to guy for the Ottawa 67’s this year.

The 17-year-old goalie — who turns 18 in a couple weeks — was acquired by Ottawa just before the deadline from the London Knights last season but played just eight games as he sat behind workhorse Philippe Trudeau on the depth chart.

Herbst, who suffered through major hip and knee injuries two seasons ago, says he is completely healthy and has big expectations for himself as Ottawa gets closer to kicking off its regular season.

“Last year was more so just a year to try to get my feet wet and get back into ... that routine, feeling comfortable in the net, feeling comfortable playing every day,” Herbst said following a scrimmage Friday at Fred Barrett Arena.

He calls this season “a big step for me.”

“It’s more of a performance year,” he said. “I’m 100% healthy and I’m ready to have a great season. Everything’s in place and I feel very comfortable and confident in myself and my hockey game right now.”

Herbsts said he is “thankful” to be in the position he’s in, considering what he’s gone through in his young career to date. He caught the attention of London after backstopping his Mississauga Rebels team to an OHL Cup and the Knights wound up picking him 22nd overall — the first goalie picked — in the 2012 draft. But the 6-foot-3 Etobicoke native wound up missing the entire 2012-2013 season with injuries, eventually having surgery on both hips and both knees.

Herbst doesn’t want there to be any question about who Ottawa’s top goalie is this year.

“I want to be the best goalie here, obviously,” he said. “I just want to win. I also want to be as successful as possible, personally, but the team comes first and winning games to me is by far the most important.”

With a number of highly skilled players returning from last year’s group, Herbst — who will be pushed by recent draft pick Leo Lazarev — is confident about the team’s chances of making a return to the OHL playoffs.

“I think it will be completely different team than what we had last year,” he said. “Everyone’s a year older, which in junior hockey is huge.

“I think we’ll be a very successful team next season, everyone in the organization expects nothing less.”

chris.hofley@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @chrishofley

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