NEUGSIE’S CHRISTMAS AROUND THE SJHL
By: Jamie Neugebauer
Voice of the ND Hounds
Happy Holidays, readers! It’s been a huge honour to write and cover the SJ the last couple of years, and I appreciate everyone who’s clicked on my column. I can’t wait for action to kick off again soon.
Instead of doing another 10 things this week, I am going to go through the 12 teams of the league, and give a couple thoughts on how their first half went from my perspective, and where they might go moving forward.
I will do it in order of the standings, as of Christmas Day:
1) Battlefords North Stars – Brayden Klimosko’s men have only lost eight of their 38 contests, with two of those coming in overtime, and three of them coming against the Yorkton Terriers with the best player in the league (more on that later). A balanced attack got even deeper with the additions of WHL experienced scorer Jaxon Steele, and SJHL veteran power forward Ben Hiltz at the Dec. 1 deadline; and with the league’s best D-Corps in tow, this is a finely-tuned machine. I’ve said it once, I’ll say it again, there is no forward in the league I’d take ahead of Quintin Loon-Stewardson if I’m building an SJHL team to win right now; yes, even ahead of Chantz Petruic. Captain Matt Fletcher gets a ton of credit for how good he is in all three zones as a defender, but could the hulking Seth Summers be their most complete D-man when you include his physical element? Boy, has he been good on the Stars’ recent three-game win streak. They were also the one-time No. 1 ranked team in Canada, then hit a tiny funk that has left them at a paltry No. 8 in the nation, at time of writing.
2) Flin Flon Bombers – This team scores well-over 4.5 goals-per-game, but only three teams in the league have given up more as well. Major Junior veterans Cole Rafuse (a Memorial Cup champion in Regina with Acadie-Bathurst), and Alec Malo were expected to dominate, and to say they have delivered is a huge understatement, with both pushing 1.75 points-per-contest. It hasn’t been all them though, as UMaine-commit Donovan Houle-Villeneuve might be the purest goal scorer of the group, the Alberta-trained Haygarth twins have been excellent, and the speed-demon Tristan Lemyre might end up the rookie of the year. Their power play has also been nasty, sitting at 28.4 per cent at time of writing, an incredible seven percentage points ahead of No. 2 Humboldt. Mason Martin and Dane Hirst have been excellent on the back end as well. If you want to beat the Bombers, follow these simple two steps: 1) don’t take penalties, ever 2) don’t turn the puck over, ever.
3) Yorkton Terriers – Who are we kidding? Sports writers love to play the ‘I told you so’ game, but I wrote early in the year, when the Terriers were scuttling, that their head coach and GM Matt Hehr would add some quality pieces to take advantage of both Chantz Petruic in his last year (the league’s best player), and a weak Viterra Division. Getting last year’s playoff hero Ryan Ouellette to be their No. 1 net minder back from the North American Hockey League has by far been the league’s biggest acquisition to date, and with the likes of Ryan Granville and Tyson Janzen playing minutes with a solid-though-not-flashy blue line, this Yorkton team is no joke. Petruic has 44 goals and 79 points in 39 games, and plays both sides of the puck too…as I’ve written before, I’ve never seen a more dominant player in a Junior A league. The team’s second-leading scorer, BCHL veteran Jordan Guiney, has 30 fewer points than Petruic. Incredible.
4) La Ronge Ice Wolves – What a job by Kevin Kaminski, a first-year coach in the league with a team that hasn’t gone anywhere but the SJHL basement in years. Their team chemistry is clearly incredible, something Kaminski put top priority on coming into the season, and after starting the year 0-5, they have gone 21-9-4 since. Their star, Daylon Mannon, is so much fun to watch, because he plays with this pond-hockey style freedom to create and try things. The move to keep him, and first-year Junior A man Kyle Ford together on a line all year so far has paid off, in terms of some awesome chemistry between the two. They are also a team with clearly defined roles, as Jake Gudjonson, who is putting up points as well, has been an underrated and excellent two-way centreman for a while in this league, and along with Grant Longtin, they can shut anyone down. The blue line has elite creatives in James Philpott and Jake Hobson, and shutdown types in Ben Manson and Rowan Barnes. The net has been on lockdown with Liam McGarva as good as anyone in the league…long-story somewhat short, I love how this team is put together. That northeast swing should be called ‘Murderers Swing’ now…oy vey.
5) Melfort Mustangs – All told, the post Justin Ball, Carson Albrecht-era in Melfort has been pretty consistent, as long as Trevor Blevins’ men can stay healthy, which they have struggled at times to do this year. Clearly Blevins is getting a lot out of his group, making an interesting about-turn from staying the course with a young forward corps, and getting veteran AJHLer Tian Rask, as well as long-time Kindersley Klippers Kyle Bosch and Austin Nault to compliment the awesome season Kenzie Arnold is having. Big Shawn Parkinson still might be the best in the league in net (lots of options there, though), and with the steady veterans Nolan Kadachuk and Alex Rondeau playing massive minutes on the blue line, nobody will find beating the Mustangs an easy task on a given night. I still believe young Marco Lopez will be a superstar in this league in a year or two.
6) Nipawin Hawks – A sixth-place spot by Christmas has the Nipawin fans – who always expect Doug Johnson teams to be at the top – in a bit of a tizzy, and fair enough, as the team has been exceptionally inconsistent, especially on the road this year. Nevertheless, they still have a forward corps with an insane amount of experience and talent, boasting a Top 9 that can honestly rival anyone in the SJHL. Their star defender Jack Lenchyshyn has struggled to stay in the line-up of late, putting huge minutes on Max Johnson while Coach Doug continues to try to figure out his back end. I still expect that this group, with this much talent and experience, still has the time to figure out how to come together in Johnson’s system, and make noise. I don’t think this is a championship group, to be honest, but a second-round run at least would not surprise me at all.
7) Humboldt Broncos – What to make of this Humboldt group? They are a very talented, very young team, and as such are prone to on-nights and off-nights. Head coach and GM Scott Barney has done a masterful job winding this group into a swarming pack of players, who skate fast and work hard, and getting reigning rookie of the year Luke Spadafora back from Melville is almost a lock to pay off sooner AND later (he’s a 2000, so he can come back next year). With all that supposed inexperience up front (outside of Logan Foster, who has been awesome) they have the fourth-most goals-for in the league, and the most inconsistent element in this team has to be the goaltending. There are nights that the 1a, 1b tandem of Michael Harroch and Brendan Foreman have been very good, other nights not so much. The power play has been great though, and I don’t expect the Broncos to stay down in seventh for very long. One element to remember: Barney was away and busy assisting with Team Canada West at the World Junior A challenge for a while, so I expect them to come out all-guns blazing in the new year.
8) Kindersley Klippers – Getting goaltender Matt Sankner from the Flin Flon Bombers was an excellent move, as the New Jerseyan has been very good against teams not named the Notre Dame Hounds. Offensively, they rely an awful lot on Liam Fraser and Scott McKenzie, and while the Tyler Traptow-Jacob Schnapp combo keeps the puck deep in the O-zone a lot of their shifts, there isn’t a ton of finishing touch between those two. That being said, I’d take either one of them in an absolute instant; I love them! Their D corps is very young around captain Brenden Borbely, but nabbing 03-born Michael Neumeier out of the Notre Dame Hounds Midget AAA was an awesome move; he’s a real player, and he gets to play with big brother Brett next year as well if he wants to! I don’t think they’ll be an easy out for anyone, as I’ve written before, but I just don’t see Larry Wintoneak’s crew moving too far up the standings from where they are.
9) Notre Dame Hounds – Obviously I could write a book about what I think of this group so far this year, as I see them many times a week, but let me start with this: I have only on very few occasions been around a group of young men as tight-knit, quality, mature, and fun to be with as this one. There is character up and down the roster, and on their night, they can parlay that grit, and guts, and the elite, incredible, sometimes unimaginable goaltending ability of Riley Kohonick, into wins against anyone. The club’s star up front, Jared Hamm, has either been hurt, or gaining sharpness, for a lot of the year, but when he’s on, he’s as shifty and creative as anyone in the league. Big winger Jarrett Penner has a great nose for the net, and is a real problem for any defender in the league below the hashmarks and in. One of the Telus Cup champs from a couple years ago on this team, big centreman Cole Stevenson, has been so consistent in all three zones of the ice this campaign, and is as good a penalty killer as there is in the SJ, while 20-year-old Sho Takai has taken a big step forward in all areas. The D-Corps, when healthy, is a very complete unit, led by minutes machine Joe Santalucia, and the smooth-skating creator Hardy Wagner; so with Kohonick, and the great 1b work being provided by veteran Logan Dyck, there is a lot to like on this ND team. They just need to find consistency that comes with confidence, and the confidence that comes with consistency; which one comes first? I’m biased of course, by Kohonick is the SJHL’s best goalie. Also look out for Oli Lépine the rest of the year: the shifty D-man is the reigning rookie of the week, and is on a mission.
10) Estevan Bruins – As I’ve written in previous columns, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a group consistently put in good performances, but come up empty as much as this Estevan Bruins club. Outside of Kade McMillen, I’m sure Chris Lewgood would agree that his pretty-experienced D-Corps hasn’t provided the consistency of performance that their pedigree, and their very youthful forward group, needs from them to win on a regular basis. From Keenan Rancier they have gotten outstanding, elite goaltending (is he the league’s best? Could also be argued), so it’ll be interesting to see which direction the Bruins, often a buyer at the trade deadline, will go. This is especially true given that Estevan will be hosting the 2022 Centennial Cup at their beautiful Affinity Place. So, could the likes of Jayden Davis or Tanner Manz be on the move? I have loved the diminutive playmakers Isaiah Thomas and Eddie Gallagher since I first saw them in the young guns pre-season game two years ago – I’m sure Lewgood wishes he could keep them an extra year past next season for the National Championship run.
11) Weyburn Red Wings – Whatever you can say about this Weyburn roster, which, to be kind, isn’t built for this season, you have to say they play hard for their first-year bench boss Rich Pilon. They’ll clog it up, and turn any game into a gutter brawl, and it takes a certain type of group to survive in a game like this – and Pilon has it. Young hometown boy Braden Birnie has a huge future ahead of him, and I love the return of Dace Prymak and Jordan Gagnon they got in return from Battlefords for their captain Ben Hiltz. Rhett Frey is also having a solid breakout season, showing an offensive touch that I personally didn’t see him having. I truly believe the Wings see 2001-born Regina native Joseph Young as their future in net, and not the sometimes great, sometimes not 2000-born Calgarian Noah Decottignies. Be interesting to see what they do for next year!
12) Melville Millionaires – Unlike the Wings, Melville head coach and GM Kyle Adams steadfastly believes in the win-now ability of his group. To his credit, there are only six points behind his last-placed club and the playoffs, and Berk Berkeliev has been magnificent in net since returning from his highly publicized concussion. His forward corps has a lot of spunk and grit to it, with 2000-born speedster Luke Nkwama the real leader offensively with touted rookie Nic Porterfield, who has great goal-scoring instincts, alongside. For the record, I still don’t love the big trade they made with La Ronge sending Philpott and Booker Chacalias north in exchange for 99-born Zach Bannister and defender Dylan Thackeray, but that’s old news. The group does play hard for Adams, and for that they all deserve credit, and I sound like a broken record in this parity-rich league, but they are no easy out on their night for anyone either.
(Follow Jamie on Twitter at @Neugsie)
