The Reading Royals made more than one good pick-up this offseason that’s for sure. Winquist who this article is about and Bajkov come to mind to just name two. Last year Winquist played for the ECHL team with potentially the most fun name to say the Wheeling Nailers after playing 22 games in Slovak where he had 21 points. Then for the Nailers, he kept his hot streak going still producing at about a points per game pace having 27 points in 31 games. Winquist is a pass-first player as one of the ECHL’s best passers due to his awareness on the ice of always knowing where his teammates are or are going to be. This is what makes him the Dynamo he is. Winquist can pass with the best of them but also won’t back down if he needs to stand up for a teammate.
An underrated part of Winquist’s game is his shot due to the label of being a past first player. Royals fans saw it first hand Friday night against the Norfolk Admirals as he sniped one on the powerplay while later on just missing another snipe over the net. Plus he is a former 47 goal scorer for the Silvertips of the WHL while in juniors. Coach Kirk MacDonald told me they joke to him at times about shooting the puck mentioning that stellar junior season. So sure maybe Winquist can be over passive at times but that is because his dead-eye vision to find his teammates is darn near flawless. He is a player anyone would want to play with making his fellow linemate’s jobs easier. Just get to the spot and Josh is gonna put it on your tape and give you a chance.
On the season this year for Reading Josh Winquist has eight points in nine games played with two goals and six apples. He also, as Kirk MacDonald pointed out to me in the presser on Friday evening, is a great faceoff player on top of his wizard like passing skills. Plus as mentioned before has an underrated shot with the potential to have a 20 goal season if he fired the puck enough. Winquist already has an 18 goal season in 17-18 for the Solar Bears of Orlando. So for this Dynamo player in Winquist will this potentially be his best season of an already impressive ECHL and AHL career? We will just have to continue to watch this exciting energetic player and find out. All in all, Winquist was a heck of a pickup by the Royals as he quickly has become a team leader and has an energy everyone else thrives off of.
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