NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE RINKS

By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds

1. Pilon out: It took many around the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League by huge surprise when Weyburn Red Wings head coach and general manager Rich Pilon was announced as being “no longer with the club” last week. The former NHLer was a popular guy around the league, but that’s how these things go in the world of sports! No explanation was given by the club, so who knows what really happened. His 33-year-old assistant Cody Mapes, the former Notre Dame Hounds Junior A player, took over immediately, and just as immediately, former Wings’ defender Nick Dobson was brought back in from Cranbrook in the BCHL. Another Hound, Nathan Deck, was hired on as Mapes’ assistant a few days afterward, and so here we are. Pilon was a nice feather in the league’s cap, and a great guy to chat with around the rink.
2. Canada names coaches, but…: Jon Cooper, coach of the back-to-back reigning NHL champ Tampa Bay Lightning, was named the head coach of Team Canada for the 2022 Olympics Monday, with Boston’s Bruce Cassidy, Vegas’ Pete DeBoer, and fellow Notre Dame Hound (do I hear an echo?) Barry Trotz of the Islanders on his staff. They also named a management group led by St. Louis Blues GM Doug Armstrong, but with that, all being nice and good, I’m really unsure that NHLers will be even going to participate. The Chinese organizers allegedly released a long list of Covid protocols expected at the games, and with it all in the middle of the night for those in North America, remembering how little people paid any attention to the hockey in Korea in the last winter games, it’s not an easy sell. Still, does Hockey Canada naming this star-studded cast mean they know something we don’t? 
3. Eddie gets a spot: Was gratified to see outstanding Estevan Bruins 2000-birth year Eddie Gallagher has committed to NCAA D3 Northland College in Ashland, WI for the upcoming season. He was one of my favourite players in the SJHL since 2018, and a kid that with rocket feet and incredible vision could have parlayed a dominant 2020-21 season into a Division I spot. I know with the extra eligibility in the NCAA and USports, spots were pretty limited, but just like with Jared Hamm and Minot State, Northland is getting a guy who I expect to absolutely light it up. I’ll never forget a pre-season game before the 18-19 campaign at Notre Dame where Gallagher was absolutely dominant for the Bruins as a pure rookie, and the current University of Maine forward Nolan Renwick was equally dominant for the Hounds. That was a fun battle.
4. Holtby (not that one): I recently saw University of Regina goaltender Brandon Holtby, who burst onto the scene middle of the last Canada West season as a legitimate star No. 1 goaltender for the Cougars, play in a very good men’s league game and he looked absolutely spectacular. These types of games are always tough on goalies, especially ones involving NHL and high pro calibre shooters, as this one did, and he was magnificent. Now, what do you take from a game like that? Not much, of course, but still, if he can look something like that when the Cougars’ men’s hockey campaign kicks off in earnest in October, then there is no reason to believe he’ll be as good as anyone in the league, and a key cog as Regina seeks to return to legitimacy in a very difficult CanWest loop. 
5. Couple of UofR commits: The University of Regina has not released their commitments officially as far as I’ve seen, but I know of a couple through other sources. One is former Swift Current Broncos and Portland Winterhawks defenceman Christian Riemer, whose family I know fairly well and is from Regina. He’s a steady, smooth-skating kid built like an absolute brick; I expect he’ll do well. The other I’ll shout out is former Vancouver Giants, Tri-City Americans, and most notably, Estevan Bruins blueliner Austin King-Cunningham. AKC leaves the SJ with a certain reputation for being very tough to play against, but by all accounts, word out of Estevan was that he had taken huge steps forward in terms of contributing with the puck as well. They’re forming a little Bruins alumni club there at the UofR with Cunningham set to join fellow ex-Estevan men Turner Ripplinger, Bryce Platt, Jayden Davis, and Arthur Miller. The connection between the Regina Pat Cs U18s and Bruins has been a thing for a while, so it makes sense that local boys will continue that pathway to the UofR.
6. Kleiboer on the move: Speaking of Canada West, which is a league I absolutely adore, by the way, it looks as though Martensville, SK’s own and Battlefords North Stars great Levi Kleiboer has transferred from the University of Maine to Mount Royal University in Calgary ahead of the new USports campaign. Kleiboer was such as smooth, offensively dynamic playmaker as part of a string of incredible blueliners to come out of Battlefords the last number of years. I’m sure he’ll do well for an up-and-coming program like the MRU Cougars!
7. Dragic…who cares?: A quick pivot to basketball before we get back to hockey and many of the Toronto Raptors faithful were up in arms about a comment new Raptor Goran Dragic made in his native Slovenia, in Slovenian, basically about not really wanting to be a Raptor. Nobody can know what he meant by the comments, and while he found it in his heart to apologize (which I know for a fact many players of all sports would not even bother), I think it’s a great overreaction by fans of Toronto’s NBA club. Dragic won’t be a Raptor by Christmas at the latest, sooner I’m sure, given that he’s 35, the Raps want to go young, have plenty of guys they want to give key developmental minutes at the guard positions, and are really in need of a centre. He’s a trade-chip and nothing more, so calm down everyone. There are many things I’ve learned in my 15 years of working closely with sports teams: if a player really doesn’t want to be there, you don’t want them there either, doesn’t matter how good they are, it won’t work out. The only thing Dragic probably did wrong was saying what he did in the media, though anyone with half a brain knows people get traded to teams they don’t really want to go to all the time. 
8. Low risk, high reward Humboldt trade: Speaking of trades, the Humboldt Broncos dealt the rights of University of Vermont commit 2003 birth year Karter McNarland, who was great as a 16-year-old in the SJHL in 19-20, to Surrey in the BCHL for the CJHL rights of Lethbridge Hurricanes winger Jacob Boucher. I’m not sure what coach/GM Scott Barney has in mind with this, but he’s such a good wheeler and dealer, so you know they’ll probably end up with something good for a guy in McNarland who was probably never coming back in the first place. Whether that’s Boucher or not, we’ll have to see!
9. Camps around the corner!: SJ camps are just around the corner! Humboldt starts on Aug. 24 and plans to play about 100 pre-season games! That’s under two weeks from now! Notre Dame doesn’t start till Sept. 6, but either way, it’s so close I can smell it!
10. Personal note: I will be heading home to Toronto from Aug. 20 to Sept. 3 and plan to go see both the Blue Jays and the Canadian Men’s National Soccer team as they start the final round of World Cup qualifying for 2022 Qatar. Can’t wait to go watch live sports! Hopefully, the Blue Birds are still on a heater by then!

(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)