NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE SJHL

By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds

1. Big pick-ups (FF): The Flin Flon Bombers had at least two Major Junior veterans as part of their core the last couple years, so it should not come as too big of a surprise that Mike Reagan went out and secured the services of Zach Huber and his 189 Western Hockey League contests this past week. The centreman Huber, 20, recently of the Saskatoon Blades, is someone who is considered a 200-foot player, hard to play against, with a very heavy shot. According to Reagan he “plays like a Bomber”. It’s hard to know exactly what all Flin Flon will look like when the puck drops, but they recruited incredibly well, with loads of excellent young skill heading east across the border; so it’ll be nice to have Huber’s experience to help guide them. Haven’t seen Flin Flon ever have a “young team” in my time watching the SJ, so will it stay that way? …
2. Big pick-ups (La Ronge): Kevin Kaminski had an extremely veteran team last year as part of La Ronge’s major organization facelift, but he is working to fill those gaping holes. Many expect his latest add, the ‘01 forward Brendan Pigeon, to be a very strong piece of his Top 6 after he was considered a solid prospect for the West Kelowna Warriors of the BCHL last year. The Wolves added Mathieu Belanger from Weyburn this past week, who was one of the Wings’ more intriguing rookies a year ago. Either way, the Wolves of last season played their hearts out for Kaminski, so to expect them to be a soft-touch this year coming up would be a real mistake, whatever level of talent they put together.
3. Big pick-up (Humboldt): I wrote last week that no team has anywhere near the expected continuity that the Humboldt Broncos will have once we drop the puck on 2020-2021, but everyone’s caveat with calling Scott Barney’s team an absolute clear favourite was goaltending. Well, Barney hopes to have cleared that up by adding 20-year-old Tanner Marshall from the Merritt Centennials of the BCHL. Marshall, who will be 21 by the time the playoffs start (hopefully not by the time the season starts…), was the rarely used back-up for the Brooks Bandits in their 2019 RBC Cup championship. Other than that incredible opportunity, Marshall has not played behind very good teams, with no disrespect intended; so, to judge the Kelowna native by his career stats would be unfair. He certainly has the experience that no other of Humboldt’s net minders have by any stretch. Barney has already offloaded Noah Decottignies and Brendan Forman, so he still has three goaltenders hanging around, with returnee Michael Harroch and Charles-Anthony Barbeau vying to presumably try to steal minutes from Marshall. Can’t win without good goaltending, don’t care how good your team is. Is Marshall the answer? We’ll see!
4. Clarity Please: The rumour is that the Saskatchewan Health Authority keeps cancelling meetings on the SJHL and its Board of Governors, and have not said a word about why or what is going through their minds. Presumably these meetings are meant to hammer out a return to play, but as we stand rinks remain officially closed, and only practices/tryouts are allowed behind those closed doors. How long can we wait, then announce a season, and it still be this mysterious date of Oct. 9? No idea what the reasonable cut-off date for that would be. I wish the health authority would come out and let the people of the province know what’s going on in their mind regarding sports? Do they not realize how much hockey, the SJ, and sports in general mean to this province? I know it’s way down on their priority list, as it should be given the times, but surely, they’ve had enough time to mull this over? Am I wrong?
5. Stop Trashing Bill: That all being said, I think everyone needs to stop bashing league President Bill Chow and the SJHL regarding all this. He, his deputy Logan Fraser, and every club in this league badly want to get the season going, believe me. But they have absolutely no power or control over this. I would prefer them to be cautious with the information they devolve, then do what other leagues (cough…Alberta…cough) did, and say a date without being sure that it will be when we start. Really neither does Premier Moe have power over this, despite the fact people are making this conversation a political one over social media. It’s all up to the Saskatchewan Health Authority. I know, I know: that’s social media, it’s going to be crazy at the best of times, let alone when we’re all tired of twiddling our thumbs and watching paint dry. But, as I said in Point 4, would the Health Authority please take a second to address us, just a little bit?
6. More SJ Esports?: So it pretty much goes without saying that there won’t be a Warman Showcase this year, with it regularly coming in late September, but in talking to league Content Director Tanner Goetz (who is absolutely brilliant, by the way), he suggested that perhaps they would possibly look into an E-Sports, Sim-type Showcase as a replacement, since it was such a success over the course of the virtual playoffs last year. I really enjoyed being part of it, and hope you all enjoyed watching it! Especially loved Darren Dupont’s snack-hacks.
7. Kudos to Curtis: News is a couple weeks old, but I was thrilled to hear that forever Notre Dame and three-year Hounds Junior A man Curtis Wiebe committed to continue playing hockey at Briercrest College in Caronport, SK! The Clippers play in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference, which is a very good level of hockey, so I’m really happy for a great dude. Former Humboldt Bronco Reagan Poncelet had a very good rookie season there a year ago, while ex-La Ronge Ice Wolf Trey Doell is also one of their leaders. Look forward to making the hour-or-so trek west to watch Curt play this year coming up, if possible!
8. An SJ Destination in BC: It’s always a good day when a player uses hockey as a pathway to post-secondary education, and two-year La Ronge Ice Wolves defender Kevin Fillier is the latest SJHLer to do that, signing on with BC club-level Simon Fraser University. SFU is really becoming a destination for SJHLers, as head coach Mark Coletta is clearly paying attention to the league for the 20-year-old BC-natives. Notre Dame Hounds Sho Takai and Joe Santalucia are already heading there, while other recent SJ alums at the school include Andrew Henderson, Colten Gerlib, and Christian Bosa. May that relationship continue!
9. New Assistant in ND: Speaking of ND, bit of news as they have hired Mitch Paradis, New Brunswick native but Grand Prairie, Alberta resident, to assist Brett Pilkington. Paradis was an assistant with the GP U18s last year, but was the goalie coach for the Storm’s Junior A club at the same time. Seems like a good dude in limited interactions so far!
10. Hard to Handicap: Finally, I was just thinking how hard this season is to handicap long-term. Certainly Humboldt is heading in as consensus favourite, and Estevan has a ton of returning talent too, but they have a new coach and plenty of key departures, so who knows about them either. Teams will be so different in the second half of the year than the first, even more than usual, so it’ll be very interesting.

(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)