NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE SJHL
By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds
It’s almost August SJHL fans! That means training camps, and the season around the corner! Let’s go!
1. Any Chance of a Repeat? – Battlefords bench boss Brayden Klimosko, in a recent interview with the fine writer Dave Leaderhouse (check out his work on the SJHL website, among others), joked about being a bit spoiled with the players he inherited after taking over last off-season. He wasn’t wrong. So, that begs the question? What are the chances the Stars can repeat? Obviously, success in all sports can often by cyclical: players will want to play for a proven winner, and the wheels keep turning; but even in a league as parity-rich as the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, it is a big, big ask for Klimosko’s men. The good news as far as I can see is that the Loon-Stewardson boys aren’t going anywhere; the bad news is that they lost half the forward corps, maybe the best defenceman in the league, and maybe the best goaltender in the league. Other good news is that in truth the defence-corps was pretty young a season ago, with the aforementioned d-man, Cody Spagrud, the only 20-year-old, and the likes of Matt Fletcher, Noah Form, Seth Summers, and Ryan Granville receiving plenty of hard-fought experience. Throw in a very capable Dylan McCabe to that mix, and boy does Klimosko have an excellent blue line. Goals weren’t always that easy for the Stars to come by when they won the Canalta last year though, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to get easier next season. One never knows!
2. The Most Underrated Player of All Last Year… – There are lots of candidates for this, but I have to give that award (and probably most improved also) to La Ronge’s star Zach Bannister. The soon-to-be 20-year-old from Grand Prairie, AB scored and pested his way into the heart of this writer a season ago, upping his previous career high total in points from 37 to 70, and made sure that even during the dark days late in the season, the Wolves were never an easy out. As far as I can tell, Bannister will be back to lead the way in what their new brash-talking bench boss Kevin Kaminski is branding a new era up in La Ronge; so expectations will be sky high for the club’s lone all-star forward from a year ago. Let’s make sure we give him the credit he deserves for his time in the league so far.
3. Yorkton’s Sherwood Park Pipeline – The Edmonton suburb of Sherwood Park has long been a hockey factory, so it’s a great move by Terriers head coach and GM Matt Hehr to try to establish a pipeline with the AAA Kings there. Forward Steven Norum and goaltender Cooper Kennedy are already signed by Yorkton, while others including up-and-coming heart-and-soul d-man Brayden Blink will be attending camp trying to earn a spot. Hehr has also added a couple others out of Alberta midget as he works to fill the many holes left by the likes of Jared Legien, Brenden Klatt, Colby Brandt, and company, but a Kings-Terriers relationship is a good move.
4. The Broadcasters – Call it self-aggrandisement if you want, but I have to say, the play-by-play guys and broadcasters of this league are fantastic. When you tune in to a game, you know the guy calling it is really good! I’m sure two awesome dudes in Marty Martinson (Battlefords) and Matty Barrett (Melfort) had a blast calling the final last year, but you go down the list of all the teams in the league, and their radio guys/HockeyTV game callers are quality (if they have one). It isn’t true everywhere in the hockey world, so don’t take it for granted! Maybe the best one is La Ronge’s Braden Malsbury, who works his tail off even while the team has struggled! Great guys all around.
5. That Being Said… – I’m really hoping the quality of the video feeds on HockeyTV goes up across the board in the year coming up. Other leagues are ensuring that their games are in high definition, and have a broadcaster, and are fining teams if they don’t invest in that. I like to say that a team’s broadcast is the first door a fan or scout walks through to see a player and the league as a product, and in this area the league was behind last year. Every rink should have quality internet to run HockeyTV and the means to do so in HD, and every game should have at least one broadcaster. I’ve had many college scouts tell me they don’t give the SJ the time of day for the simple reason that a lot of the online broadcasts are extremely hard to watch. I am super lucky to have Schultzy, a great booth at the Duncan McNeill in Wilcox, and the tech to at least do my best! There are plenty of others doing great work in this area too, so I’m not calling out every team, but this is a big deal if you ask me.
6. NAHL – One of those leagues that is currently beating out the SJ in terms of eye-balls, and as a consequence in terms of scholarships, is the North American Hockey League. Is the quality of hockey across the board better in the NAHL than in the SJ? I would say no, and obviously with the NAHL being IN the United States, there is another advantage, but they are doing a great job marketing themselves on social media, in content production and broadcast quality in general. Now, I’ve talked a million times about the great, great work Tanner Goetz and his Munz Media does for the league, and deputy commish Logan Fraser is working very hard on these areas, with the evidence being the Facebook Live broadcasts at the Showcase, among others, but teams need to prioritize game broadcasts, I repeat.
7. Broncos Add The Lumber – The Humboldt Broncos made a nice move acquiring the skillful defenceman Timber Lewis last week, but it had me wondering, what are the other interesting names of players that have played in the SJHL and junior hockey over the years? I loved Drayton Thunder Chief of La Ronge a couple seasons ago. What do you guys have?
8. Big Shout Out to a New Hound! – Have to send a shout out to new ND Hound defender Bryce Fetzer, whose father was declared free of colon cancer a couple of weeks ago! Huge congrats to the Fetzer family! Pretty excited to have Bryce around this year coming up, seems like an excellent young man.
9. ND’s Size Revolution – Speaking of the 6’4, 235-pound Fetzer, I have to mention the size revolution that Phil Roy is bringing in to Wilcox. Fetzer, with Nolan Corrado (6’3, 195), Jayce Nikbakht (6’2, 185), Brandon McClintick (6’2, 190), and Braydon Iwaschuk (6’2, 200) are all big boys, while Jake Dale, who has been signed out of the ND midgets, is a rugby player in his spare time, and defender Olivier Lepine might not be big, but he levelled some of the biggest hits in the Saskatchewan midget playoffs last year. The Hounds brass clearly wanted more strength and size for the year coming up, and they went out and got it done. Much respect.
10. Mental Health in Junior Hockey (Bonus) – Always love hearing Michael Landsberg talk about mental illness, as he did recently on Rod Pedersen’s show, because he comes from such a place of sincerity, and knows that the two-headed monsters of anxiety/depression are constant companions that must be kept at bay on regular basis, not just fixed quick. Rod himself speaks a lot about that fight in what is a ‘macho-man’s world’, that to be real, honest, and to make oneself vulnerable in the right venue is the only way to really heal and live healthily when the monsters are around. These are so prevalent in junior hockey, where players are constantly under pressure, dealing with injury and concussions, and often far away from home. If you’re a junior player out there (or not) and you struggle, and I’m sure everyone does in some way, find a safe person, ask them to simply listen to you, and do it on a regular basis. You don’t have to wait for Bell Let’s Talk day, as great an initiative as that is!
(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)
