Love looks to make his mark as Blades new head coach

Colin Priestner, left, welcomes Mitch Love to the Blades as head coach.

    Mitch Love is looking forward to placing his stamp on the Saskatoon Blades after he finally received his long awaited opportunity to be a WHL head coach.

    The Quesnel, B.C., product, who will turn 34 in June, was announced as the Blades new head coach on Wednesday at a press conference at the SaskTel Centre. He takes over from Dean Brockman, who was released as the club’s head coach on March 18.

    Love signed a four-year contract with a club option for a fifth year with the Blades.

    “What I want our players to understand here is as a staff we are going to have their backs,” said Love. “We’re going to work every day.

    “We’re going to work a 200-foot game. We’re going to check people. We are going to be a hard team to play against.”

    Love joins the Blades after spending seven seasons on the staff of the Everett Silvertips. He joined the Silvertips in 2011 as an assistant coach and strength and conditioning coach. He was an assistant coach and an assistant to the general manager this past season.

    As one of the Silvertips bench bosses, Love helped Everett finish third overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 47-20-2-3 mark this past season. In the playoffs, the Silvertips advanced all the way the WHL Championship series, where they fell 4-2 in the best-of-seven set to the Swift Current Broncos.

    During his playing days in the WHL from 1999 to 2005, Love appeared in 320 regular season games as a tough and rugged defenceman for the Moose Jaw Warriors, Broncos and Silvertips collecting 33 goals, 66 assists and 901 penalty minutes.

Mitch Love manned the Silvertips bench as an assistant coach.

    In the 2002-03 campaign, Love appeared in 70 regular season games with the Broncos and set a new team record for most penalty minutes in one regular season at 327. That record still stands today.

    Love joined the Silvertips for their inaugural season in 2003-04 and helped them make it to the WHL Championship series, where they were swept by the Medicine Hat Tigers 4-0.

    During his overage campaign in 2004-05, Love was the Silvertips captain.

    “As an ex-player to a long-time assistant coach in this league, I eat, breathe and live the Western Hockey League,” said Love, who stands 6-feet and weighs 175 pounds. “I’m real excited to be here.

    “I’m real excited to be part of the city of Saskatoon.”

    From 2005 to 2011, Love played six seasons in the minor professional ranks in the AHL, ECHL and CHL before joining the Silvertips coaching staff.

    During his years with the Silvertips, Love was also an assistant coach for a couple of Canadian teams at the Under-17 World Hockey Challenge in 2015 and 2016.

    Blades general manager Colin Priestner received permission from the Silvertips to speak to Love, when they were in the second round of the playoffs. Priestner met Love at the Vancouver International Airport between Games 2 and 3 of the Silvertips series with the Portland Winterhawks.

    Priestner said Love made a good impression. After checking with a number of hockey contacts, Priestner was sold on bringing Love to the Blades, but the Silvertips run through the post-season had to conclude before anything on that front could happen.

    “We really feel Mitch is one of the best young coaches in the country,” said Priestner. “That has been echoed by dozens of people I’ve spoken to.

    “Hockey Canada strongly advocated for him.”

Mitch Love makes a speech at a Blades press conference.

    Priestner said he had been contacted by a few former NHL head coaches that were reaching out to see if they could come to Saskatoon to finish out their careers there. The Blades general manager wanted to go in the direction of hiring someone younger who worked their way to the point in the WHL that they needed to make the step to become a head coach.

    WHL teams have been turning toward that trend since the Lethbridge Hurricanes hired Brent Kisio as head coach at age 32 back on June 4, 2015, and the Hurricanes have had three successful campaigns since that time. Before Kisio was hired, WHL clubs filled head coach vacancies by hiring former head coaches from other clubs on the circuit or former NHL coaches.

    “We want a young, hungry guy,” said Priestner. “Not to say that you can’t be a hungry 60-year-old former NHL coach.

    “We wanted someone with the passion that is going to be like dying to make his name here and hang a banner up there. It has been a long time since a banner has been hung up there.

    “I wanted someone that is not coming here to play out the stretch. I wanted someone who is extremely hungry.”

    Love likes the roster of players he will oversee. The Blades had the 15^th best record in the WHL last season at 35-33-3-1 and missed the playoffs playing out of an ultra-competitive East Division.

    They are set to return a talented group of forwards including Kirby Dach, Eric Florchuk, Josh Paterson, Chase Wouters and Max Gerlach. On defence, Saskatoon is set to bring back a healthy veteran group in Jackson Caller, Seth Bafaro, Dawson Davidson and Jake Kustra along with 16-year-old rookie Aidan De La Gorgendiere. 

    In goal, the Blades will be looking to see how standout Nolan Maier can improve on a sensational rookie campaign in his 17-year-old season.

    Love gave credit to the former staff under Brockman for bringing the players a long way.

Mitch Love meets media members at a Blades press conference.

    “I don’t want to take anything away from the coaching staff that was here before,” said Love. “They’ve improved the last two seasons as a group.

    “I think there is still some more to give there. I think we will just work towards that. There are some really good pieces in place.”

    Love’s teams are best known for their tough defence, and last season, the Silvertips gave up the fewest goals in the league during the regular season at 167. The Blades equaled the Calgary Hitmen for giving up the third more goals in the regular season on the circuit at 276.

    Going forward, Love said he wants his players to put in an honest effort, and there will be work to do at the rink. He added that there will be fun that goes along with the work to keep everyone motivated to come to the rink.

    “This has got to be a place that they want to come and enjoy and be at,” said Love. “They spend a lot of time here.

    “They spend time away from their families. This is their second home coming to the rink, and I want them to have fun doing that.”

Back in the Express with Labach

Julie Labach is a track star with the Huskies.

    I was back in the pages of the Saskatoon Express this week with a feature story on Julie Labach.

    Labach is a star with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Track and Field team. She originally came to the U of S to play on the Huskies women’s soccer team before competing in both soccer and track and field for the past four seasons.

    This past season, Labach had a banner year personally. She capped it winning gold in the 1,000-metre race and bronze in the 600-metre race at U Sports nationals.

    Due to her stellar season, she was named the winner of the Mary Ethel Cartwright Trophy as the female athlete of the year for Huskie Athletics.

    In the classroom, Labach was named a U Sports academic all-Canadian in her first three years with the Huskies and will likely be awarded that designation again, when those awards are handed out in September. She will enter the College of Law in the fall.

    With law being an intense program, Labach plans to only compete in track and field for the Huskies in her final campaign of U Sports eligibility.

    The story on Labach can be found right here.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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