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| Jesse Shynkaruk (#14) celebrates scoring a goal for the Blades last season. |
Jesse Shynkaruk and the University of Saskatchewan Huskies
men’s hockey team would be a great match for each other, if that ultimately
comes to pass.
The 21-year-old centre exhausted his WHL eligibility last
season playing for his hometown Saskatoon Blades. He had a breakout year
netting career highs in goals (31), assists (25) and points (56) in 58 regular
season games. Shynkaruk came through in the clutch as 10 of his tallies ended
up being game winners.
In his first three major junior seasons split between the
Kamloops Blazers and Moose Jaw Warriors, Shynkaruk appeared in 196 regular
season games recording 23 goals and 25 assists.
Recently, Tyler Wawryk, who is the Blades manager of
communications and community relations, caught up with Shynkaruk and inquired
if the speedy forward was going to join the Huskies. Shynkaruk said he was one
of three players battling for two spots on the Huskies.
It would be great if both Shynkaruk and the Huskies could
make things work out. Shynkaruk did so well last season with the Blades you
almost wish he had one more season to play in the major junior ranks.
With that said, a number of factors come into play when it
comes to a major junior player joining a U Sports team. Thanks to two strong
recruiting classes from the past two seasons, the Huskies have a fairly deep
team. They came up just short of winning a Canada West title and dropped a 5-3
decision to the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds in the U Sports
championship game.
Shynkaruk, who stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 171 pounds, would
bring a number of good intangibles to the Huskies. One is the fact he would
likely really appreciate being on the team. Heading into training camp last
season, Shynkaruk was without a major junior home after being released by the
Warriors.
Had he not made the Blades as a walk on player, the
likelihood was high Shynkaruk’s time in major junior hockey would have been
over.
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| Jesse Shynkaruk (#14) sets up for a scoring chance for the Blades. |
With the Blades, Shynkaruk rediscovered some of offensive
touch from his final midget AAA season, when he netted 22 goals and 29 assists
in 43 regular season games with the Saskatoon Contacts in the 2012-13 campaign.
Shynkaruk helped the Blades make a serious push for a playoff berth.
The Blades ultimately finished ninth overall in the WHL’s
Eastern Conference and five points back of a playoff berth with a 28-35-7-2
record. Shynkaruk became a fan favourite, and he was also a good representative
for the team at community events.
When the Blades were on the road, he consistently left a
good impression with the media that worked in other WHL cities. That has to be
viewed as impressive, because Shynkaruk doesn’t get to interact with media
members in other WHL centres on a regular basis like he does with the media
members in Saskatoon. He always left a good impression with the hometown media
members as well.
After his final home game on March 17 when the Blades downed
the archrival Prince Albert Raiders 5-3, Shynkaruk gave a heartfelt final
post-game press scrum to the media in attendance. From that press scrum, it was
easy to tell Shynkaruk generally cared about what was going on.
Under the WHL scholarship plan, Shynkaruk doesn’t have to
play with a U Sports team to use the four years of paid post-secondary schooling
he has earned. If he wanted to, he could just attend a post-secondary
institution and focus just on classes.
For every season a player plays in the WHL, that player
receives a scholarship package that sees all his tuition, compulsory fees and
textbooks paid for a school year. Shynkaruk has four school years of paid
tuition, compulsory fees and textbooks to use.
As it stands, Shynkaruk would be a great addition to the
Huskies or any other U Sports team. The hometown fans have to hope he will wear
the “green and white” in the fall.
Blades pump out Monday updates
For a little over a month the Saskatoon Blades have been
pumping out Monday updates on their website, and they have been pretty well
done.
Tyler Wawryk, who is the team’s manager of communications
and community relations, has been crafting the updates. The writing part
reflects a style you once saw in WHL notebooks, which were commonly produced in
mainstream media outlet newspapers. With these outlets often being cut to one
or two staffers, the WHL notebook is rarely seen these days.
The Blades update gives a roundup of various happening with
the team and the club’s alums. The notebook points are usually accompanied by
graphics.
With most mainstream outlets in Canada having undergone
severe cuts, the pressure falls on teams like the WHL’s Blades to do more
coverage on themselves through their own website and social media platforms.
The same holds true for every high level competitive sports program in Canada
that is not an NHL franchise.
Ultimately, Canadian sports leagues need to follow the lead
of NFL teams, which have been covering themselves on a league and individual
franchise basis for at least two decades. The NFL was pretty much the first
league that did a lot of media coverage on itself on the Internet in the late
1990s.
While most to almost all Canadian elite sports teams or
groups do not have anywhere near the money the NFL brings in, the cold reality
is they have to cover themselves, if they want to have a bigger presence in the
public. Fans will read and view what is posted.
The Blades have done a good job in trying out different
tweaks on their website and social media platforms. The Monday update is a nice
addition. I imagine creating all this content makes Wawryk extremely busy, so
here is hoping he can keep it up.
The last Monday update can be round
here.
Love the vintage look
When the Saskatoon Blades put out their Twitter post
announcing their home opener against the Swift Current Broncos, you had to love
the graphic that contained the classic logos.
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| Braylon Shmyr looks to make a pass for the Blades. |
Actually during the off-season, the Blades have gone full
out using their vintage blue and goal “Pac-Man” logo that was the team’s
primary look through the 1980s and early 1990s. The team’s website was changed
to use the retro blue and gold colour scheme as a primary look as well.
The Blades have used the retro jerseys with the old “Pac-Man”
logo as an alternate for some time. Among the team’s fans, that has always been
the most popular look, and there has been a longing to make the retro jerseys
the club’s full-time look once again.
While official word hasn’t come yet, it seems with all the
hints this will come to pass.
Actually over the last decade, a number of pro teams in all
sports and major junior teams have reverted to a past look, which has been
received with a lot of praise. The Blades face one of those teams opening the
regular season against the Broncos on Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.
Before the start of the 2014-15 campaign, the Broncos
ditched their black and blue modern looking jerseys for their classic blue,
green and white look with the horseshoe, bucking bronco logo. The Broncos had
this look when the franchise returned to Swift Current in 1986 after spending
12 seasons in Lethbridge. The switch to the retro look has been popular with Broncos
fans.
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| Tyler Steenbergen zips into the offensive zone for the Broncos. |
This past season, the look was part of many pieces coming
together for a Broncos revival. Other things that have powered the revival is
the fact Sheldon Kennedy, who was the captain of the Broncos 1989 Memorial Cup
winner, has been back to Swift Current a number of times in recent years and
labelled as a real Canadian hero for his public work on the child advocacy
front over the years.
The small city also built a beautiful monument to remember
players Trent Kresse, Scott Kruger, Chris Mantyka and Brent Ruff who died in a team
bus crash on Dec. 30, 1986. The monument
is located near the crash site on the outskirts of town.
All of these things have come together to give the Broncos a
new level of support the team likely hasn’t seen in some time. The Credit Union
i-Plex, which is the Broncos home rink, was likely the loudest building in the
WHL playoffs last season. Swift Current advanced to the second round and lost a
heartbreaking seven-game series to the Regina Pats.
It is always cool when a team brings a popular past look
back into the future.
Brooks showing small guys can still play
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| Adam Brooks signed with the NHL’s Maple Leafs |
Recently graduated Regina Pats captain Adam Brooks had a
moment which seemed at one point in time it might not come to pass.
On Thursday, Brooks signed a three year NHL entry-level
contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 21-year-old Winnipeg product was
selected in the fourth round and 92nd overall in the 2016 NHL Entry
Draft by the Leafs.
Brooks graduated from the Pats as one of the club’s most
beloved heart and soul players. Over five seasons, he played in 317 regular
season games collecting 119 goals and 216 assists. His 335 career regular
season points make him the 10th all-time leading scorer in Pats
history.
The skilled centre stands 5-foot-10 and weighs 175 pounds,
and for a while, it seemed like the NHL started drifting away from players that
didn’t stand at least 6-feet in height and be at least 200 pounds in weight.
Brooks topped the WHL in scoring as a 19-year-old in 2015-16
netting 38 goals and 82 assists playing in all 72 regular season games. Despite
his stellar season and being arguably one of the top three forwards in the league, it was conceivable Brooks might not be drafted. The fact
the Leafs picked him was a big milestone.
He returned to Regina to captain the Pats as an overager
collecting 43 goals and 87 assists to finish a point behind teammate Sam Steel
for the WHL scoring lead. Brooks helped the Pats top the WHL’s overall
standings at 52-12-7-1 and advance to the WHL Championship series, where they
fell 4-2 in a best-of-seven set to the Seattle Thunderbirds.
The fact Brooks signed NHL contract is another big
milestone. With the Leafs having Mike Babcock as head coach, Brooks a real look
to one day make the NHL.
His story has to give confidence to other players that are
short in stature. In this year’s NHL Entry Draft, the Edmonton Oilers selected
Spokane Chiefs winger Kailer Yamamoto in the first round and 22nd
overall. Yamamoto, who turns 19 in September, stands 5-foot-7 and weighs 146
pounds. Despite being small, he piled up 42 goals and 57 assists in 65 regular
season games this past season with the Chiefs, who are his hometown WHL team.
The winger established himself as one of the WHL’s most
exciting players. He might get to duplicate his accomplishments in the
professional ranks one day.
Getting Semenko a piece of video history
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| Dave Semenko, back row centre, in an old Oilers team picture. |
The world let along the sport of hockey lost one of its best
characters on Thursday when famed Edmonton Oilers enforcer Dave Semenko passed
away from pancreatic cancer at age 59.
I never met Semenko, but I was still sad to hear of his
passing. I also got a chuckle remembering the various colourful interviews he
did over the years.
In a round-about way, I helped contribute indirectly of
getting him a piece of hockey history. During my first year living in Medicine
Hat cover the WHL’s Tigers in the 2004-05 campaign, I met former Tigers and
Winnipeg Jets standout Morris Lukowich at an old timers’ charity game.
I had a VCR copy of the last contest ever played in the
history of the World Hockey Association, when the host Winnipeg Jets defeated
the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the WHA title series to win the Avco Cup.
Lukowich was a member of that winning Jets team.
When I handed him the tape in order to get the cover
autographed, he asked if that tape really had a copy of the game on it. I said
it did, and he asked if I could mail him a copy of that tape to his place. I
made a copy of that game and sent it to Lukowich.
Later on that season, I ended up calling Lukowich for a
throwback story for the Medicine Hat News. When the interview was done, we
ended up talking about that tape. Lukowich thanked me for sending it to him.
Having a few video machines at his place to use for
coaching, Lukowich told me he made copies to send to all his former Jets
teammates and coaches. He then told me he made a copy and sent it to Semenko,
who was on that Oilers team that lost to the Jets.
I laughed and couldn’t believe it. The Jets won that contest
in a 7-3 romp at the old Winnipeg Arena, and I thought Lukowich might have been
trying poke some fun at the legendary pugilist.
Lukowich laughed and said they were good friends. He added
Semenko scored the final goal in that contest, which was the final goal ever in
the history of the WHA. Lukowich thought it would be a nice keepsake.
With that knowledge, I contributed to delivering a memory to
Semenko about one of his historic hockey moments.
Huskies duo completes Banff Marathon
Lauren Zary and Kaitlin Willoughby showed their athletic
prowess isn’t limited hockey, and they went to Banff to display that fact.
Back on June 18, the pair completed the Banff Marathon.
Zary, who just exhausted her eligibility with the University of Saskatchewan
Huskies women’s hockey team, crossed the finish line in four hours, 25 minutes and
30 seconds, and Willoughby, who is a star centre entering her final season with
the Huskies, finished officially one second back of Zary.
For anyone to complete a race that is 42.2 kilometres in
length is impressive, so a big congratulations is passed on to the pair. Both Zary
and Willoughby accomplished something most people in the world won’t do. As an
added bonus, they did it in the scenic mountain terrain of Banff.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
