NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE SJHL
By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds
1. An Entertaining Dec. 1! – The Dec. 1 roster cut-down date to 25 spots (the specifics are little complex, so we’ll leave it at that) provided all sorts of entertainment, with 10 separate transactions, involving 15 players on that day alone. Of those 10 moves, two were bombshells. Let’s get into it.
2. Battlefords Gets Its Fish – The biggest fish to move, in terms of impact on this year, is the deal that moved Weyburn Red Wings captain, hometown boy, and superstar Ben Hiltz to the No. 1 team in the league, the Battlefords North Stars, in exchange for 2001-born forward Dace Prymak, and a promising 2001-born defenceman in Jordan Gagnon. The Stars get a proven goal scorer with almost 200 games of SJHL hockey under his belt, a guy with a bomb of a shot, and, his most impressive skillset, a guy who can protect the puck perhaps better than anyone in the league (Flin Flon’s Cole Rafuse and Humboldt’s Logan Foster are right up there too, among others). On top of the perennial all-star in Hiltz, the Stars added another top 6 forward in former Medicine Hat Tiger Jaxon Steele from Prince George in the BCHL. As if the No. 4 team in Canada wasn’t humming along nicely enough, their GM Brayden Klimosko has added two huge doses of skill to a forward corps that was more about grinding you to death than anything. They gave up some decent pieces in Prymak, Gagnon, and Gammer in the deal with PG, but overall, it’s an incredible job of loading up. The Stars got a lot more frightening, folks.
3. Big Kudos to Weyburn – The other side of that deal was Weyburn, and their coach Rich Pilon, who I believe deserve a ton of credit for this move. Hiltz, a local Weyburnite, played midget in Battlefords, so has familiarity with NB, but demonstrated incredible loyalty and consistency for his hometown club through the ups and downs the Wings organization has been through the last couple of campaigns. Loyalty in this game is so rare, and to reward Hiltz with a chance at a great run with this Stars team, and to get a real solid haul in return, is great stuff by Pilon and company.
4. A Win For Humboldt – Is Humboldt Broncos head coach and GM Scott Barney waking up with a big smile on his face this morning, or what? He already picked up former B.C. prep star Cade Cavallini from Nanaimo in the BCHL a couple days ago, and veteran Alberta Junior League defender Spencer McHardy from Okotoks, but his piece-de-resistance was bringing back the reigning SJHL Rookie of the Year Luke Spadafora from Melville. Spadafora’s chemistry with big-time Mils acquisition Zach Bannister had not clicked as well as they had hoped over their time together, but Luke was leading Melville in scoring by a mile at the time of the trade. Spadafora had been dealt FROM Melville TO Humboldt last year in exchange for 99-born WHL veteran Logan Foster, who is still playing fantastic for the Broncos, so to get him back for useful-if-unflashy pieces in Zach McIntyre and Spencer Weinkauf is a stroke of brilliance by Barney. A speedster with incredible vision and offensive instincts, the addition of Spadafora makes the Broncos a 1b winner of the day. As if all that wasn’t awesome for Humboldt, Scott should be even more proud of himself in that none of these effective additions are 1999-birth years, and as such, are all eligible to return next year.
5. Tough Spot For Melville – On the surface, the Spadafora deal is a tough look for the Millionaires, but one can never know what is going internally. More importantly for Kyle Adams, my guess is that there is a good chance that Spadafora was looking to go elsewhere next year anyway, so it’s at least a strong move by the Melville GM to get a couple kids that can return for 2020-21, instead of losing Luke for nothing. McIntyre is a very solid third-liner, an excellent penalty killer, and can be very good as a net-front presence on a power play. He’s a Yorkton minor hockey kid too, so not from too far away, so that’s an added bonus. Weinkauf is a hard-nosed kid that showed some offensive potential in minor midget and midget in his native Calgary, and both he and Zach are 2001s; aka, two more years of eligibility.
6. Blevins Makes Big Moves – Trevor Blevins and the Melfort Mustangs made a pretty big about turn from Ryley Lanthier, despite his decent 16 points in 21 games, sending him to Canmore in the Alberta League for their underachieving captain and Saskatoon native Tian Rask. They also brought in struggling former B.C. prep star Ryan MacLean, a right-shot 2001-born defenceman, from the Grande Prairie Storm. With Kyle Bosch, Rask, and when Austin Nault comes back from injury, on top of Kenzie Arnold, the Mustangs have essentially traded for a core of a veteran Top 6 forward after starting the year so young up front.
7. AKC – Notre Dame faced Estevan on Saturday night at Affinity Place, the home of the Bruins, and last year’s PIMs king (by a mile) Austin King-Cunningham was up to his old self. He had certainly toned it down this year from all accounts, but he clearly went at the head of two ND guys within minutes, and before you call me biased, check out the video. I don’t claim to know him off the ice at all, and would certainly shake his hand if I met him, but I can’t believe that a multiple repeat offender didn’t get at least some sort of suspension, after being handed a five-minute and game misconduct for a blatant elbow on a blind-sided Hound. Frustrating.
8. Give It Up For Sho – Speaking of those Hounds, gotta give huge props to 20-year-old former Japan U-20 National Teamer Sho Takai, who has been great all year, but really producing consistently this past November. He had a tough first season in the SJ last year, but he came in with a refreshed mindset, and is really clicking with line-mates Curtis Wiebe and Kenzie MacKinnon. I remember watching him in training camp two years ago thinking that ND really had a player here, so kudos to him because he’s finally showing those skills. A guy like him could have mailed it in this year, could have just ridden out his final year of junior, but he refused to and has been great, so great for him!
9. La Ronge – As December dawns the La Ronge Ice Wolves are in the thick of the race for a home-ice advantage spot in the standings, and with a couple of moves have filled in the one spot I was really curious about them: creativity from their D-Corps. Kevin Kaminski didn’t have to spend much to grab WHL veteran and elite powerplay quarterback Jake Hobson from Kindersley (whom had just dealt for him from Melfort), and before that had brought in November defender of the month James Philpott from Melville. They now have excellent goaltending in Liam McGarva, a balanced D-corps, and an experienced forward corps led by Daylon Mannon. Should be a fun team to watch as they continue to gel.
10. The Witch Hunt (bonus) – As a big-time Leafs fan, I’m the last guy to defend Babcock, so don’t take this like this…but how far will this witch hunt of all coaches go? What motivational tools will coaches have? I get not being a bully, I get treating people with respect, but I think this is heading too far the other way. Smarter people than I will get into this, but I just feel for coaches who now feel shackled.
(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)
