NEUGSIE’S AROUND THE SJHL

By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds

Last call for July! Thanks so much for following along my Around the SJHL so far this summer!

1. Son of NHLer the Answer in Battlefords? – Always cool to see hockey bloodlines continue, and especially Sask ones, as the Battlefords North Stars will at least give a shot to Austin Schwab. He is the son of Battlefords native Corey, the former New Jersey Devil, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canuck, and Toronto Maple Leaf net-minder, and Austin has followed in his dad’s footsteps, signing on to try to fill the considerable skates of the departed Joel Grzybowski in the Stars net after a year dominating the Arizona high school and Tier III Junior circuit in the states. The elder Schwab is the goalie coach for the Coyotes, so Austin probably has some pretty good tutelage. Time to prove it on his own up here!

2. Best D-man in the League Next Year? Call Me Biased If You Want… – And I’m sure you will, but from the potential I saw last year, I see no reason why Notre Dame’s Newfoundland-born defender Kyle Robinson can’t be the crème of the SJ defender crop in the season coming up. He’s not a big guy, granted, but he rarely gets beaten in his own end, and even more rarely makes a mistake with the puck. His hockey IQ is absolutely special, perhaps unsurprising given that his dad is a high-level coach back home, and he’s as agile on his edges as I’ve seen in a while. If I know Kyle, and I like to think I do, I know he’s working hard on getting stronger and faster this off-season, but the skill, the intangibles: the character, and the work ethic, are all there in abundance. I thought he had an outside-though-unflashy shot at rookie of the year last year, and I hope Scott Barney gives the Team Canada West staff something to think about regarding Robinson ahead of the World Junior A Challenge this winter. I know Jake Hobson of Melfort is probably the popular pick for Top D coming up next year, with Estevan’s Tylor Ludwar likely to be up there as well, but give me Robby any day.

3. Nipawin Boldly Grabs Toronto Boy – Interesting move by the Nipawin Hawks to acquire big right-shot defender Dylan DiTomaso from the St. Michael’s Buzzers of the Ontario Junior Hockey League. The Buzz are one of the nation’s storied Junior A franchises, with a hockey program stretching back to the early part of the 20^th Century, and a classic rink (my favourite to watch a game in on earth) from the 50s, so it was neat for me to see them as part of a deal with an SJ squad. DiTomaso had a mostly nondescript rookie year in Junior last year with the middle-of-the-pack Buzzers, and jumped from the classic Toronto Jr. Canadiens bantams, to a different league with the solid Brampton 45’s for minor midget, then back to the Greater Toronto league with the Toronto Marlboros for major midget. As with any kid from Southern Ontario dealt to Sask, I’ll believe he’s coming when I see it (or if Doug Johnson were to tell me so…), but still, cool stuff.

4. Kindersley Dips Into Bonnyville Sell-off – One deal I know is for sure is that Gary Childerhose and the Klippers have dipped into what is continuing to be a sell-off of epic proportions by the AJHL’s Bonnyville Pontiacs, by picking up 2000-born forward Scott McKenzie. A hard-worker, who had a bigger offensive role with his previous club, the Calgary Canucks, McKenzie should fit well into Kindersely’s make-up from what I have heard. But how about Bonnyville this off-season? That’s seven deals to send players elsewhere, but who’s counting?

5. ND Adds Two League Scoring Champs – Phil Roy has made 14 signings this off-season for the Notre Dame Hounds Junior A, clearly refusing to be caught shorthanded like the club was far too many times last year due to injury and suspension, especially considering the key departures of Marshall Wilton, Charles Martin, and Conor MacLean to graduation, and Nolan Renwick, Tim Gould, and Jakob Breault to clubs elsewhere. So, why not add a couple league scoring champs, among others? Evan Easton, who will turn 20 during the campaign up-coming, posted over a point-and-a-half per-game for Kerry Park in the Vancouver Island Junior league last year, taking the league title by five points. He only hit the scoresheet 15 times the year before for the same club, so the Hounds are banking on his continued development. More recently, the one-time Wenatchee Wild (BCHL) affiliate Jackson Tillinghast did the same number on the North American Prospects Hockey League for the Wenatchee Wolves, and will hope to keep sniping up at the Duncan McNeill Arena.

6. Cameron’s Quest – Great story out of Calgary is that Graysen Cameron is hoping to be the last Humboldt crash survivor to return to the Broncos line-up. Cameron, who turned 20 in May, was an in-and-out of the line-up energy-type for Darcy Haugen’s squad a couple years ago, but has worked extremely hard to recover from his broken back and other injuries, according to the Canadian Press article. Incredible perseverance by this young man, and I hope he makes it back. From the quotes I’ve read, I also have to commend Graysen for a real lack of entitlement to a spot on the club because of what happened, as I’m sure many would have in his place. Speaks even more to what is clearly immense character on his part.

7. Where Do The ‘Stangs Go From Here? – Read the recent article by Dave Leaderhouse on the SJHL website about the Melfort Mustangs and Trevor Blevins, and like Dave (and Trevor, it sounds like) I’m curious where the ‘Stangs go in the post-Ball-Albrecht-Tosh era. You’d think Jake Hobson will dominate, and in Shawn Parkinson they have as fine a goaltender as any in the league, so those are great pieces to start with. They’ve added three interesting (and big!) defencemen in Kevin Bachul, Jaden Callan, and Camden Gallagher – so I expect it won’t be easy to score on Melfort…but where their goals will come from, I’m not sure. Zach Anderson and Kenzie Arnold can come back to try to lead that charge, so we’ll see! They went all-in last year, clearly.

8. New Stuff From Munz? – Cannot wait to see the new promo videos and content from Munz Media coming soon for the league! I saw a couple of my fellas Hardy Wagner and Qaritaq Kusugak were helping out in Regina, with a couple other capital-based players from around the league, so I can’t wait to see what Tanner Goetz and his crew pulls out! Stay tuned!

9. A Home for Morty – Speaking of my fellows, I’m happy to see that Phil Roy found hard-nosed forward Tanner Mortensen a home with the British Columbia Hockey League’s Merritt Centennials. Morty is a great kid, with that huge competitive fire in his heart that you want on a winning squad, so I’m happy he’s heading there! Just needed a change of scenery after four years in Wilcox, and I know he’s leaving a piece of his heart at ND! I have loads of time for this guy and hope he does great out there.

10.  Goodbye Stroman (Bonus) – Being a Toronto guy, and a lifelong Jays fan, I have to write my piece to say goodbye to Marcus Stroman. If you aren’t aware, the Blue Jays sent the all-star pitcher to the New York Mets for two prospects who I cannot attest to knowing much about, but from what I can gather from people that do is that at best they are expected to be “ehhh…alright…”. Obviously, I’ll reserve my judgement of Mark Shapiro and Russ Atkins until I see either of those guys in three years, or whatever it’s supposed to take for the Jays to not suck, but the deal doesn’t look great on the surface. Anyways, Stro seemed to clearly love Toronto, and playing in Canada, and embraced it fully. He also wasn’t really old, and seemed to be content to stay…so I’m not sure why you move him instead of extend him, unless they really hate Manager Charlie Montoyo and want to see him squirm even more in the area of managing the tire fire that is the Jays pitching situation this year (not that it matters in the slightest). I’ll keep paying attention to the team though, because after 31 years I’m addicted to pain.

(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)