2023-24 Blades brought Saskatoon together

Fans came to SaskTel Centre in droves for playoff run

Fraser Minten gives a souvenir stick to a fan at a May 3 home game.

In an agonizing defeat, the Saskatoon Blades fans ensured their team got a thank you.

On May 7, the Blades faced the Moose Jaw Warriors in Game 7 of the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series and a campaign high crowd of 13,240 spectators poured into the SaskTel Centre. The teams would go to overtime locked in a 2-2 tie. It marked the sixth time the two sides went to overtime in what has been viewed as the greatest post-season series ever played in the history of the WHL.

Just 36 seconds into overtime, Warriors 17-year-old sophomore right-winger Lynden Lakovic drove down the right wing into the Saskatoon zone. From a bad angle, Lakovic backhanded the puck toward the Saskatoon net.

Warriors star overage right-winger Atley Calvert drove towards the Saskatoon net while being covered by Blades utility winger Tyler Parr. The puck from Lakovic’s backhand deflected off Parr’s skate into the Saskatoon net to deliver the Warriors to a 3-2 victory in the extra session.

Fans at the SaskTel Centre cheer on the Blades.

The Warriors went on to sweep the WHL Championship Series 4-0 over the Portland Winterhawks. Moose Jaw is currently playing in the Memorial Cup tournament in Saginaw, Michigan, that determines a CHL champion.

In the Game 7 encounter between the Warriors and Blades, Moose Jaw had a sizable contingent of supporters that filled five fan busses that made the jaunt to Saskatoon. When Lakovic’s OT winner went in, the Warriors fans in attendance broke into a joyful, cloud nine type of feeling celebration.

After the initial momentum of the celebration of the Warriors fans died down, the Blades supporters, who filled the vast majority of the building, showered down a salute to their heroes who were trying to process at that point what happened.

Following the traditional post-series handshakes, the Warriors were presented with the Eastern Conference championship trophy and departed the ice to the applause of their fans that gathered around their bench area.

Some of the signs Blades fans brought out at warmups.

Once the Warriors departed, the Blades did a sticks raised lap to salute their supporters in attendance and the fans returned their own heartwarming salute. Captain Trevor Wong, who had just played his final career WHL game, skated around giving applause to the fans and motioning to the chest that he took them to heart.

Some of the Blades players would linger on the ice for a lengthy stretch processing the end of their campaign before finally making their way to the team’s dressing room.

In the days that followed, fans were phoning into radio shows and commenting on various public forums that they were proud of the team. They were saying everyone with the team from players, coaches and management could hold their heads high for how they played in the post-season run and especially in the epic series clash with Moose Jaw.

The reaction was much different compared to post-season runs the Blades made in the early 1990s. When the Blades made the WHL Championship Series in 1992 and 1994 and lost both of those trips in seven games to the eventual Memorial Cup champion Kamloops Blazers, the fans were proud of those runs, but there was an undercutting undertone.

Trevor Wong salutes the SaskTel Centre crowd on May 7.

You would have fans phoning into sports call in shows, TV shows and sending feedback to the Saskatoon StarPhoenix newspaper that then general manager Daryl Lubiniecki was the lead weight that was holding the Blades back. Throughout the 1980s and most of the 1990s, Lubiniecki was with the Blades full-time mainly as the general manager, and the team won about 60 per cent of its games and made numerous long runs in the WHL Playoffs.

The long runs didn’t result in any WHL titles or Memorial Cup championships. Back in those days, the general manager of the Blades in Saskatoon was usually treated like the general manager of the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders as being hated by the fans, or at least the ones that were vocal and there were a lot of those.

If you run into Lubiniecki these days, he often makes jokes of the fact the fans wanted him to be fired when he was the Blades general manager. He adds in the present day everyone in Saskatoon loves him now, and he always gets a warm reception when he attends Blades games as a fan.

When Mike Priestner’s family bought the team before the start of the 2013-14 campaign, team management put an emphasis on attracting new fans and creating links to the community. That continued as the Blades were moved under the umbrella of the newly created Sask Entertainment Group with the Priestner family having purchased the NLL’s Saskatchewan Rush in May of 2021 and an expansion franchise in the Western Canadian Baseball League in March of 2023 that has become the Saskatoon Berries, who just embarked on their inaugural season.

Charlie Wright was reliable on the back end for the Blades.

The Blades faithfully kept up their school visits, visits to minor hockey teams as guest coaches and various other works in community outreach. That has resulted in the team drawing more new and younger fans with their long post-season runs the past two seasons, and those fans have fallen in love with the team.

In 2022-23, the Blades averaged 4,506 spectators per game over 34 home dates and 8,780 spectators per contest over 10 home post-season dates. 

During the 2023-24 campaign, the Blades averaged 5,166 spectators per game over 34 home dates and 9,332 spectators per contest over nine post-season home dates.

The Blades average attendance for the regular season was the highest it had been since the team drew an average of 6,040 spectators to 36 home dates during the 2012-13 campaign, when the club hosted the Memorial Cup tournament. The squad’s post-season average attendance figures are believed to be the best they have been since those runs in 1992 and 1994 to the WHL final, when capacity at the SaskTel Centre was configured for around 11,300 spectators for hockey games.

The new supporters carry their fandom in a more healthy way. They usually have busy lives and that includes families who have children working their way through minor hockey. For those members of the Blades faithful, jaunts to the SaskTel Centre for Blades games are a break from those lives.

Easton Armstrong became a Blades fan favourite in 2023-24.

For the young kids at the games, they see players like Wong, Egor Sidorov, Brandon Lisowsky, Fraser Minten, Easton Armstrong, Vaughn Watterodt, Alexander Suzdalev, Tanner Molendyk, Charlie Wright, Ben Saunderson John Babcock, Evan Gardner and Austin Elliott as their heroes. Blades head coach Brennan Sonne said it has been cool to drive to work in the mornings and see kids going to school wearing Blades jerseys and Blades gear.

Blades general manager Colin Priestner said he had fans coming up to him in the concourse during the Game 7 loss to the Warriors passing on thank you messages for the post-season run.

It should be noted the Blades do have a good block of legacy fans that follow the team through thick and thin. There are some legacy fans that base the happiness of their lives around the Blades winning or losing and do moan the fact that the team has never won a league title or a Memorial Cup since being formed in 1964. The grips on that front have faded more to the background.

Reminders that the Blades have never won a league title or a Memorial Cup come loudly from the fans of the club’s archrivals in the Prince Albert Raiders. Raiders fans ensure that those non-successes by the Blades are always remembered.

Egor Sidorov had 50 goals and 88 points in the 2023-24 regular season.

Still, the 2023-24 campaign was a special one for the Blades. They topped the WHL’s overall standings with a 50-13-2-3 record for 105 standings points. Saskatoon won 50 or more games in a regular season for just the third time in team history and hit 100 or more standings points for the sixth time since the franchise first hit the ice in 1964.

Wong led the Blades in regular season scoring with 101 points coming off 15 goals and 86 assists. Sidorov had a memorable campaign setting career highs in the regular season for goals (50), assists (38) and points (88).

Wong hitting 100 points and Sidorov collecting 50 goals marked the first time Blades players had realized those accomplishments since the 1995-96 campaign.

In the WHL Playoffs, the Blades took out the Raiders in five games in the first round and swept the Red Deer Rebels 4-0 in a WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series.

Brandon Lisowsky has been a consistent point producer.

Tonnes of great memories were made.

Any sadness that came resulted from the realization that an end of an era likely had come for a core group of Blades players. 

Wong, Armstrong and Wright were in their 20-year-old seasons and have now exhausted their major junior eligibilities.

It is expected Minten, Sidorov, Lisowsky and Suzdalev will all be in the professional ranks next season. They all have NHL entry-level contracts and will be in their 20-year-old seasons. 

Molendyk could be back as a 19-year-old player, but there is a very real chance the Nashville Predators could elect to keep him in the NHL.

Wong, Sidorov and Lisowsky were basically one of the Blades forward lines for the last three straight seasons. It will be different not seeing them together on the ice together as a unit wearing the “Pac-Man” jerseys.

With all that in mind, there are lots of young child aged fans that attended games at the SaskTel Centre over the past two seasons that will remember watching this generation of Blades as a childhood highlight years from now.

The Blades celebrate an OT victory on May 3.

These were “smile because they happened” times in Saskatoon that brought a lot of much needed good feelings to the city in a world today when it seems there is lots to complain about in seemingly every walk of life.

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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Blades had memorable 2023-24 campaign with bittersweet end

Members of the Blades dwell on the end of their season on May 7.

All involved with the Saskatoon Blades thought they would be preparing right now to play in the Memorial Cup tournament.

Instead of competing for a CHL championship, they are coming to the realization they had a spectacular campaign in 2023-24 that came to a heartbreaking end. The Blades topped the WHL’s overall standings with a 50-13-2-3 record for 105 standings points. Saskatoon won 50 or more games in a regular season for just the third time in team history and hit 100 or more standings points for the sixth time since the franchise first hit the ice in 1964, which was two seasons before the WHL was formed.

For large stretches of the campaign, the Blades top the CHL’s Top 10 Rankings and were rated sixth in the final edition of those ratings.

In the WHL Playoffs, the Blades downed their archrivals in the Prince Albert Raiders in five games in a first round series and swept the Red Deer Rebels in four games in an Eastern Conference semifinal series.

The Blades proceeded to play in an epic Eastern Conference Championship Series against the Moose Jaw Warriors that went to seven games with six contests being decided in overtime. The six overtime games played in one seven game series is a WHL record.

Trevor Wong salutes the SaskTel Centre crowd on May 7.

The series deciding Game 7 of that set was played on Tuesday, May 7, before a campaign high crowd of 13,240 spectators at the SaskTel Centre. The Blades and Warriors went to overtime locked in a 2-2 tie. The contest had a devastating end for the host side.

Just 36 seconds into overtime, Warriors 17-year-old sophomore right-winger Lynden Lakovic drove down the right wing into the Saskatoon zone. From a bad angle, Lakovic backhanded the puck toward the Saskatoon net.

Warriors star overage right-winger Atley Calvert drove towards the Saskatoon net while being covered by Blades utility winger Tyler Parr. The puck from Lakovic’s backhand deflected off Parr’s skate into the Saskatoon net to deliver the Warriors to a 3-2 victory in the extra session.

The Warriors went on to sweep the WHL Championship Series 4-0 over the Portland Winterhawks. Moose Jaw begins playing at the Memorial Cup tournament in Saginaw, Michigan, taking on the OHL’s host Spirit on Friday at the DOW Event Centre (5:30 p.m. Saskatchewan time, TSN).

The Blades after losing what many consider was the best post-season series in the history of the WHL were left to wonder about what might have been.

Charlie Wright goes for a final lap at the SaskTel Centre on May 7.

Captain Trevor Wong, who exhausted is major junior eligibility with the Game 7 loss to the Warriors, came to the Blades in a trade with the Kelowna Rockets on September 28, 2021, which sent centre Colton Dach to the Rockets. Wong was thankful he got to be a member of the Blades for three full seasons and that owner and governor Mike Priestner and general manager and president Colin Priestner had been outstanding to him since his arrival in Saskatoon.

“It is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my hockey career so far,” said Wong, who led the Blades in regular season scoring with 101 points coming off 15 goals and 86 assists. “I can’t thank the organization in CP (Colin Priestner) and Mike (Priestner) and the coaching staff and teammates who brought me in when I was 18.

“I was pretty bummed out when I got traded to be honest not knowing much about Saskatoon and coming to the cold. Just being a Blade is everything to me and embracing the culture and what it means to truly be a Blade and not just on the ice but being a great person in the community and being a great teammate. The organization here wants to build great men and not just hockey players.

“I thought I have kind of embraced it. I’ve tried to put it throughout the boys and throughout the locker room to the younger guys.”

Easton Armstrong processes the end of his WHL career on May 7.

Along with Wong, dependable defenceman Charlie Wright and star left-winger Easton Armstrong also used up their major junior eligibility playing out the 2023-24 campaign as 20-year-olds. Wright was a career member of the Blades joining the squad on a full-time basis in his 16-year-old season. Armstrong was acquired in a trade with the Wenatchee Wild early in the 2023-24 campaign.

Colin Priestner was proud of work everyone with the franchise did for the team. He admits the conclusion of the campaign was bittersweet.

“The run we went on is something you dream of,” said Priestner. “It just ended in kind of a nightmare.

“To think of how close we got, and I still feel like we have the best team in the country I truly do. I feel like we deserved to win (in Game 7 versus the Moose Jaw Warriors). I feel like we were in an unbelievably great series with another great team.

“I feel like we outplayed them substantially (in Game 7) and out chanced them on a two-to-one ratio. For whatever reason, it goes off one of our player’s skates and in and that is it. The plug is just pulled so fast from the season.”

The Blades welcomed lots of new fans to the SaskTel Centre.

The Blades have been strong in each of the past two seasons. In the 2022-23 campaign, the Blades finished fourth overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 48-15-4-1 mark. In the WHL Playoffs, they won two series in seven games over Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats and the Rebels before being swept in the Eastern Conference Championship Series 4-0 by the Winnipeg Ice.

Saskatoon has drawn more new and younger fans with their runs the past two seasons. In 2022-23, the Blades averaged 4,506 spectators per game over 34 home dates and 8,780 spectators per contest over 10 home post-season dates. During the 2023-24 campaign, the Blades averaged 5,166 spectators per game over 34 home dates and 9,332 spectators per contest over nine post-season home dates.

Priestner said it has been amazing to a younger generation of fans who have fallen in love with the team come out to games and the people of Saskatoon and area get excited for the team. He was in awe seeing the 13,240 spectators that came out for their Game 7 campaign ending loss to the Warriors.

“You see there are 13,000 people there, and people were coming up to me in the concourse and saying thank you so much for this run,” said Priestner. “I just wish that I was able to deliver a championship to these people in this city, because everybody believed in us.

Egor Sidorov had 50 goals and 88 points in the 2023-24 regular season.

“We did everything we could to bring this city a championship, and they deserved it. They supported us like unbelievably.”

The Blades hit the ice with a number of stars that included import right-winger Egor Sidorov, left-winger Brandon Lisowsky, centre Fraser Minten, defenceman Tanner Molendyk and netminders Evan Gardner and Austin Elliott. Blades fans took a number of other players to heart who brought a high level effort to every game including forwards Vaughn Watterodt, Rowan Calvert, Lukas Hansen, Parr, Misha Volotovskii and William James along with defencemen Ben Saunderson, John Babcock, Grayden Siepmann, Nicholas Andrusiak and Morgan Tastad.

Sidorov, who played his third full season with the team, had a memorable campaign setting career highs in the regular season for goals (50), assists (38) and points (88).

Blades head coach Brennan Sonne said the biggest thing for him that stood out for the 2023-24 squad was how tight the players were.

“They just care about each other,” said Sonne. “They love each other.

Fraser Minten was a big play performer for the Blades.

“They’re brothers. That is what produces the heart – the level of heart you see. The lack of quit.

“They just don’t stop, so that is probably the biggest thing.”

Sonne said it has been a joy to see the players truly enjoy becoming part of the community of Saskatoon and the surrounding area.

“I’m the hockey coach of a junior team, so the hockey side is obviously the main focus,” said Sonne. “But, me and our staff, ownership and management, our priority is helping young men grow into be great citizens, husbands, fathers and I will say this group, these 20-year-olds, the guys graduating from this program are like the best of the best citizens.

“They’re going to be the leaders of our society in the future.”

While the Blades wish they could have pulled out a victory in Game 7, Wong was pleased his squad went down fighting.

“I think as a team we’re very proud of ourselves,” said Wong. “Six games went to overtime in a seven game series.

The Blades react to their season coming to an end on May 7.

“It could have gone either way, and one bad bounce kind of our season is over just like that. We’re very proud of the way we pushed back and played the whole game. We’re very proud of what we accomplished this season.

“There are no heads hanging, because we are proud of ourselves.”

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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Blades’ Priestner one day should get executive of the year nod

From left, Colin Priestner with Trevor Wong and Steve Hildebrand.

Colin Priestner is a hockey guy.

Actually, he has been a hockey guy for some time now.

There was a time Priestner was known for being a folk-rock singer and songwriter, a high level tennis player, and a car dealership owner. Those were all roles he had filled at one point before his family bought the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades before start of the 2013-14 campaign, where father Mike assumed majority ownership of the club. Colin, who was 29-years-old at the time, became a managing partner of the team in early September of 2013.

Fast forward to the current day, and the now 40-year-old Priestner is the veteran general manager and president of the Blades. His Blades topped the WHL regular season standings in 2023-24 with a 50-13-2-3 record. They have made the Eastern Conference Championship Series for a second straight year.

The Blades open the best-of-seven conference championship series against the Moose Jaw Warriors this coming Friday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre. It will mark the first time since the 1993 post-season the Eastern Conference Championship Series will be an all-Saskatchewan battle. Back in 1993, the Swift Current Broncos swept away the Regina Pats 4-0 and advanced on to win the WHL Championship Series in seven games against the Portland Winterhawks.

This year’s Eastern Conference final has the potential to be a classic with the Warriors having finished fifth overall in the WHL regular season with a 44-21-0-3 mark. Both the Blades and Warriors are in search of their first WHL championship.

One day, Priestner should be tabbed as the winner of the Lloyd Saunders Memorial Trophy as the WHL’s executive of the year. It is actually too bad he didn’t win that honour last year or was named to be up for that honour this year.

Colin Priestner pictured in the Blades dressing room in 2016.

With that said, Seattle Thunderbirds general manager Bil La Forge took that honour on a league level a year ago and Warriors general manager Jason Ripplinger is the nominee for the East Division, which the Blades play out of, this year. Both are long time good executives, and you can’t argue against their respective nods.

Still, Priestner in the current day is best known as being the general manager of the Blades, and he has built a reputation of being an outstanding executive. When he became the Blades general manager before the start of the 2016-17 campaign, you can bet there was some skepticism around that move.

At that time, Priestner was still viewed as more of a hockey outsider and was thought of being a folk-rock singer and songwriter, a high level tennis player, and a car dealership owner. Of course, the thought was out there Priestner was able to hold the role of Blades general manager because his father was the majority owner of the team.

Colin’s younger brother, James Priestner, was known as the hockey guy in the family. James was a goalie in the WHL suiting up for the Kamloops Blazers, Brandon Wheat Kings and Prince George Cougars from 2007 to 2011. These days James is the frontman and chief songwriter Vancouver based band Rare Americans.

As the Blades were stuck in a lengthy rebuild due to the fact the Priestner family bought the team after hosting the CHL championship tournament – the Memorial Cup - in 2013, the club turned heads trying new things on the business promotion side with theme nights, which included a Star Wars Night on November 28, 2015. There were people around the WHL that didn’t know at the time what to make of the Blades trying out new things on the promotional side.

Early on in his time as Blades general manager, you could sense Colin had a pretty good grasp of what he was taking on. He grew into his role quite quickly, and it safe to say he learned lessons observing various general managers he saw during his time on the circuit.

During his first season in the league in 2013-14, Lorne Molleken was still serving as the Blades general manager. While the Priestners would move in a new direction parting ways with Molleken following the 2013-14 campaign, Colin likely learned what it was like to have a strong and good passion for the team and how to treat people with class.

Colin Priestner, left, with Aidan De La Gorgendiere in 2017.

Molleken, in the roles of head coach and general manager, tried his hardest to see the Blades become WHL and Memorial Cup title winners. The Blades had a lot of great teams under Molleken’s watch, but they weren’t able to achieve those two much desired championship wins. No matter where Molleken goes in life, he will always be a member of the Blades, and Priestner got see what it was like when a team is more than a team.

Priestner got to see how former Brandon Wheat Kings head coach, general manager and owner Kelly McCrimmon, who is currently the general manager of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, built a team. McCrimmon is best known for being the master when it comes to making trades.

During his second season as the Blades general manager in 2017-18, Priestner showed how skilled he could be on the trade front leading and on the WHL Trade Deadline of January 10, 2018. The Blades at the time were trying to end a playoff drought that spanned four consecutive seasons. They were battling for a playoff spot in an East Division when that division might have been the toughest it has ever been.

Priestner made a series of deals that allowed the roster to still compete for a playoff berth that season, but really set the club to take off the following season. The Blades two best players in star centre Cameron Hebig and Czech import defenceman Libor Hajek were sent to the Memorial Cup hosting Pats as 19-year-old veterans.

On top of various draft picks that came back, the Blades landed 19-year-old offensive-defenceman Dawson Davidson and 16-year-old forward prospect Tristen Robins from the Pats. Saskatoon also acquired 19-year-old star centre Max Gerlach from the Medicine Hat Tigers and centre Eric Florchuk from the Victoria Royals.

The Blades would finish with a 35-33-3-1 record finishing seventh overall in Eastern Conference, but with the playoff rules at the time mirroring the current NHL post-season rules, the Blades missed the playoffs by three points.

Colin Priestner, left, with Mitch Love in 2019.

The moves Priestner made were the right ones as Davidson, Gerlach, Florchuk and Robins would play key roles helping the Blades finish fourth overall in the WHL standings in 2018-19 with a 45-15-8 mark. Robins would become one of the Blades top players for the next three seasons. Priestner had found lots of success on the trade front since that time.

Another person Priestner likely picked up tips from came from observing Lethbridge Hurricanes general manager Peter Anholt.

One day after the 2017-18 campaign ended, Priestner released head coach Dean Brockman, who was about 16 years older than Priestner. While Brockman was a great coach with a lengthy resume of success at the junior A level with the Humboldt Broncos, things just didn’t work out with him and Priestner. Those things happen in the world of hockey and no hard feelings are kept.

At a time when WHL teams often recycled veteran head coaches, Anholt out in Lethbridge hired 32-year-old Brent Kisio to be his head coach with the Hurricanes before the start of the 2015-16 campaign. Kisio had been a long time assistant coach with the Calgary Hitmen and was more than ready for a head coach opportunity.

Anholt went back to a previous era in the WHL, when the circuit saw a lot of good younger head coaches move on to the professional ranks. The Hurricanes experienced a fair amount of success with Kisio as head coach before he moved on to join the Henderson Silver Knights of the AHL as an assistant coach.

Priestner went the younger route and hit grand slams with his next two head coach hires. In May of 2018, Priestner hired then 33-year-old Mitch Love to be the Blades head coach.

Love had been a long time Everett Silvertips assistant coach before joining the Blades. The Blades were one of the WHL’s top tier teams in the three seasons Love served as head coach before moving on to the professional ranks. He is currently an assistant coach with the NHL’s Washington Capitals.

Colin Priestner speaks at a press conference in 2019.

After Love left for the professional ranks, Priestner hired the Blades current head coach Brennan Sonne on July 21, 2021. Sonne was 34-years-old when he came to the Blades. He has been a Silvertips assistant coach for three seasons and head coach of the Angers club in the professional league in France for four seasons.

Before Sonne became Saskatoon’s head coach, the last time the Blades were in the Eastern Conference final was back in 1994, when Molleken was guiding the team as head coach. It is a safe bet to believe Sonne is going to get a professional opportunity sooner than later, but Blades fans can hope Sonne decides he could be to the Blades what Brian Kilrea was to the Ottawa 67’s.

Priestner likely picked up some lessons studying Medicine Hat Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins. The biggest lessons there would be invest in and have empathy for your players.

Arguably the best work Priestner did as general manager was helping a pair of his best players in Aidan De La Gorgendiere and Egor Sidorov navigate rough waters there are no textbooks for.

De La Gorgendiere had to deal with the passing of his mother, Marla Meginbir, due to cancer on November 12, 2019 at age 51. At the time, De La Gorgendiere was skating through his 17-year-old sophomore season.

In the past, it was common that careers for WHL players that deal with the passing of a parent don’t end up being as successful as they should have been. The passing of a parent is a lot for a teenage aged player to deal with.

From left, Les Lazaruk, Colin Priestner and Lorne Molleken in 2022.

With Priestner’s help in that situation, De La Gorgendiere went on to become the Blades captain in his last two seasons with the club in 2021-22 and 2022-23 before graduating from the major junior ranks. He still has the potential to be in the NHL one day but at the moment is looking after his schooling playing for the storied University of Alberta Golden Bears Men’s Hockey Team in the U Sports ranks.

Sidorov is current the Blades star 19-year-old right-winger from Belarus, who posted 50 goals, 38 assists and a plus-eight rating in 66 contest in the 2023-24 regular season for the Blades. Late in Sidorov’s 17-year-old rookie season with the Blades, Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022, and Belarus supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Due the instability in that part of the world, it was decided that Sidorov would remain in Canada. Priestner went the extra mile dealing with immigration to allow Sidorov to remain in the country.

With the support of Priestner and the Blades, Sidorov had a stellar 2022-23 campaign recording 40 goals, 36 assists and a plus-25 rating in 53 regular season games. He posted nine goals, 10 assists and plus-three rating in 16 appearances in the 2023 WHL Playoffs.

That resulted in Sidorov being selected in the third round and 85^th overall by the Anaheim Ducks in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. He signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the Ducks on April 3.

Once he was drafted by the Ducks, Sidorov made it back to Belarus to visit his family.

If you’re a parent and you saw how spectacularly Priestner handled De La Gorgendiere’s and Sidorov’s situations, you would want your kid to play for the Saskatoon Blades.

Colin Priestner hugs Blades star RW Egor Sidorov.

Once viewed as the hockey outsider, Priestner has grown into an elite level general manager. On the side, he could still craft a good song or show off a few tricks on the tennis court when those opportunities present themselves too.

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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Urban passes Rush torch to Priestner family

Blades ownership buys NLL powerhouse club

The Rush celebrate winning the NLL title in 2018.

Shockwaves were sent through Saskatoon’s sports scene, and it would be safe to say Saskatchewan’s sports scene on Monday.

During the morning hours, news broke that the NLL’s powerhouse Saskatchewan Rush had been sold by Bruce Urban to the Priestner Sports Corporation, which has owned the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades since 2013. Mike Priestner leads the Priestner Sports Corporation along with owing the Go Auto automotive dealership chain.

The official announcement of the sale of the Rush was made Monday afternoon.

Colin Priestner becomes the new president and governor of the Rush while continuing his role as the president and general manager of the Blades. Jared Priestner takes on the role as the alternate governor for the Rush, and Steve Hildebrand, who is the associate general manager of the Blades, will be part of the Rush’s leadership team.

The Rush enjoy an NLL title winning goal by Jeff Cornwall, centre.

All of the lacrosse operations of the Rush will continue to be run by the team’s current all-world general manager in Derek Keenan.

Following the official announcement, Colin Priestner made the media rounds talking about the sale.

A thank you letter by the Urban family to the fans of the Rush was released on the team’s website. It was signed by Bruce, his wife Cindy and son, Brandon.

Brandon served as the director of media relations for the Rush Since January of 2017 and added the title of director of business development in September of 2017. He held those roles until the Rush were sold.

A crowd of 15,182 celebrate a Rush NLL title win in 2016.

He was very active during game days ensuring everything ran smoothly behind the scenes.

Until the sale was announced, it wasn’t really on anyone’s radar. It came out of the blue.

For anyone that has interacted with Bruce Urban, you always got the feeling that the Rush were his baby. He had owned the Rush since they were born as an expansion franchise in 2005 and first began playing in Edmonton.

The Rush won an NLL title in 2015, while calling Edmonton home. Playing out of Rexall Place, the Rush ran into issues where they were unable to promote their branding in that facility by the NHL’s Edmonton Oilers, who also called that building home.

The Rush celebrate winning the NLL title in 2016.

Unable to secure a long term lease deal for the brand new Rogers Place in Edmonton, Urban relocated the Rush to Saskatoon and the club was branded as the Saskatchewan Rush for the 2016 campaign.

The Rush won NLL titles in 2016 and 2018 and gained massive popularity. 

In the four complete seasons and a fifth partial campaign played in Saskatoon, the Rush have averaged 13,482 fans per game during the regular season and 13,425 fans per game in the post-season.

The Rush got to play 10 games in 2020 before the rest of the NLL campaign that year was cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The 2020-21 campaign ultimately got cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic too.

Captain Chris Corbeil raises the Champion’s Cup in 2016.

Like the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Rush draw fans from all across the province of Saskatchewan.

The Rush also had the best game day presentation out of any sports team in Saskatchewan. Going to a Rush game was an event and a party.

Music played throughout the game by a DJ. The Rush had an extremely talented dance team that performed during stoppages, an official mascot in Bruiser the Bulldog, an unofficial mascot in Rush Hulk and tonnes of fun things happening around the game to add to the entertainment aspect.

All the fun elements allowed the fans to even be more engaged in the game, and they gave the Rush an incredible home floor advantage.

Their most famous fan in Joyce Souka, who is best known as “Grandma Rush,” is one of the club’s diehard fans from Edmonton who traveled to Saskatoon for every Rush home game.

Tailgating at Rush playoff games was a common sight.

Captain Chris Corbeil, high scoring forward Mark Matthews and gritty transition player Jeremy Thompson have all become household names in “the Wheat Province.”

Urban enjoyed every perk that came with owning the Rush while the team called Saskatchewan home.

Both the Urban and Priestner families are from the Edmonton area. The Urbans call Calgary their home base now with Bruce owning the Western RV Group of Companies.

With both the Rush and Blades calling the SaskTel Centre home, personnel from both teams would converse from time to time.

Over the past year, Urban and the Priestner family had a series of friendly conversations.

Mark Matthews is a top scorer for the Rush.

During an online media conference on Monday, Colin Priestner said his family reached out to Urban asking if there ever might be a desire to retire or move on from owning the Rush. Things progressed organically from that point to where the Priestner Sports Corporation ultimately bought the Rush.

As the owners of the Blades, the Priestner Sports Corporation entered a massive rebuild with that team, which was devoid of prospects and WHL Bantam Draft picks after hosting the 2013 CHL championship tournament – the Memorial Cup.

After missing the playoffs for five straight seasons, the Blades finished fourth overall in the 2018-19 WHL regular season with a 45-15-8 record. The Blades have remained one of the WHL better franchises posting a 16-5-2-1 mark in their recently completed developmental regular season.

Now, the Priestner Sports Corporation owns a team in the Rush that is responsible for one of the most iconic moments in the history of the SaskTel Centre.

“Grandma Rush” is the Rush’s most famous fan.

On June 4, 2016, the Rush were looking to win Game 2 of the NLL championship series at the SaskTel Centre against the Buffalo Bandits and sweep the best-of-three set to take the league title.

Locked in a 10-10 tie with under 25 seconds to play in the fourth quarter, the Bandits had possession in the Rush zone. A hard point shot from a Bandits player rebounded high into the air off the back boards and was collected by Rush defenceman Jeff Cornwall near the edge of exiting the defensive zone.

With a clear path to the Buffalo goal, Cornwall dashed down the rink on a breakaway. He tucked home a shot low stick side with 12 seconds to play to put the Rush in front 11-10.

Derek Keenan has led the Rush to three NLL titles.

At that point, the SaskTel Centre became a madhouse going bonkers in a good way. The cheers might have been the loudest the building had experienced in its history.

The final 12 seconds ticked away allowing that 11-10 score to hold up as the final as the Rush swept the series 2-0 to capture the Champion’s Cup.

Cornwall’s goal would go down as one the most iconic moments in the history of the SaskTel Centre along with John Slaney’s golden goal that won Canada top spot at the world junior hockey championship on Jan. 4, 1991 and Bret “The Hitman” Hart capturing the WWE heavyweight title on Oct. 12, 1992.

One key thing Urban did to allow the Rush to have success was bring in someone who knew the lacrosse game well and let them run the team. After not being able to win more than six games in each of team’s first four seasons, Urban brought Keenan in to be the Rush’s head coach and general manager in June of 2009.

Captain Chris Corbeil lifts the NLL Cup in 2018.

With Keenan as head coach and general manager, the Rush franchise posted a 116-66 record during the regular season and a 15-8 mark during the post-season.

After the 2020 campaign was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Keenan turned over the head coach role to Jeff McComb, who has been the Rush assistant coach responsible for offence for seven seasons.

The Priestners plan to follow that same blueprint.

“Our goal is to continue that winning culture with the same great group of people who made it happen,” said Colin Priestner in a statement. “Derek Keenan is a big reason we made this investment.

“His track record is simply unparalleled, and we want him running this franchise for years to come. To any Rush fan reading this: we’re keeping the players you love and the people who worked so tirelessly to build this organization.”

Bruce Urban raises the National Lacrosse League Cup in 2018.

Colin and his wife, Alanna, live in Saskatoon, which will allow the new ownership group to be a little more hands on locally with the business side of things. The Urban family continued to live in Calgary, while the Rush played in Saskatoon.

While the NLL is hoping to return to play in the upcoming 2021-22 season, an era has come to an end for the Rush franchise.

Bruce Urban and his family set the bar incredibly high when it came to operating the team.

Now it is the turn of the Priestner family carry the Rush franchise torch. They have learned a lot when it comes to running a sport franchise in owning the Blades, so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them carry the Rush torch well.

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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Number retirement fitting honour for Blades’ Wouters

Chase Wouters signs autographs for young fans in March of 2019.

In a final Zoom post-game press conference, general manager and president Colin Priestner ensured his outgoing captain Chase Wouters had a top tier moment with the Saskatoon Blades.

On Wednesday, Wouters had just helped the Blades down the Brandon Wheat Kings 5-2 in a contest that closed a shortened developmental WHL regular season for both sides. The Blades and Wheat Kings were two of seven clubs that participated in the WHL East Division bubble at the Brandt Centre in Regina, Sask.

The shortened season and the bubble in Regina were all brought on due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world.

Chase Wouters played in 280 career WHL regular season games.

Wouters, who is well known as one of the WHL’s best men in the faceoff circle, had the winning goal, an assist, was a plus-three in the plus-minus department and won 19-of-32 faceoffs that night. That win over Brandon was the 21-year-old centre’s final game in the WHL.

After media members fired questions Wouters way during a post-game Zoom press conference, Priestner jumped in at the end to deliver a career highlight to the product of Lloydminster, which is a centre that sits on the border of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

“I’m so proud of you,” said Priestner. “You embody everything we want in a Blade.

“I want you to be the first to know that nobody is going to ever wear number forty-four for this club again. We can do ceremonies and stuff in later years. As far as I’m concerned, forty-four belongs to you for not only what you did on the ice but off the ice for our community, for the fans and for everybody.

Chase Wouters (#44) battles for the puck as a rookie in 2016-17.

“I couldn’t be more proud of you. I wish I was there to give you a big hug.”

Priestner thanked Wouters for everything he did for the team.

Wouters fought back tears in giving a response.

“Thanks Colin, I appreciate all the words,” said Wouters. “It was just an honour being drafted here when I was 14 there.

“It is just crazy how fast time flies by. I know we all wish we could be together right now.”

Chase Wouters on a rush as a rookie in 2016-17.

Wouters’s #44 will be the sixth number the Blades have retired in their history. The numbers the Saskatoon side has retired include the #7 of Brent Ashton and Gerry Pinder, #10 of Brian Skrudland, #12 of Bob Bourne, #15 of Bernie Federko and #22 of Wendel Clark.

It is a fitting tribute by the Blades to Wouters to retire his #44. Since being selected by the Blades in the first round and 19^th overall way back in the 2015 WHL Bantam Draft, Wouters has been the perfect player you want representing the Blades on and off the ice.

Besides being talented on the ice, it doesn’t take you long to see he was raised well by his parents in father, Scott, and his mother, Janice. It would be safe to add in that older sister, Ally, played a role too in helping Chase become a humble, polite and classy young man.

Scott, Janice and Ally provided an outstanding support system for Chase.

Chase Wouters has been the Blades longest serving captain holding that role since the beginning of the 2018-19 campaign. On the ice, he has been perfect in that role as he never gets too high with the highs or too low with the lows.

Chase Wouters in action in 2017-18.

He always has a steady emotional tone, and that helps his teammates to not get too rattled when adversity hits during a game. During times that need a little extra emotional kick, Wouters is able to bring that kick when it is needed.

Off the ice, Wouters has seeming done every community appearance the Blades have asked of him. The Blades could have let Wouters permanently keep the team’s community service award and likely no one would put up an argument.

Wouters tenure will always be remembered for the time the Blades rose back to being one of the WHL’s better teams and for being the captain when the club entered these crazy COVID-19 pandemic times.

When Wouters was drafted by the Blades, they were still in the midst of a major rebuild from making a major trade to acquire Brayden Schenn in the 2010-11 season and making a number of deals to strengthen the team’s roster to host the Memorial Cup tournament in May of 2013.

The team also went through an ownership change following the 2012-13 campaign, when Jack Brodsky sold the club to Mike Priestner. Colin, who is Mike’s son, joined the team immediately as a minority owner and managing partner and became general manager before Wouters rookie campaign in 2016-17.

Chase Wouters jets up ice as a sophomore in 2017-18.

Wouters first two campaigns marked the first times in the rebuild that the Blades had a legitimate shot to make the playoffs. A late season slump in each of those campaigns saw the Blades just miss qualifying for the post-season having fallen out of a playoff position in March.

A day after the Blades season ended in March of 2018, Colin Priestner made a coaching change removing Dean Brockman as head coach and hired Mitch Love to fill the head coach role in May of 2018.

Even with the disappointments of missing the playoffs in 2017 and 2018 and the Blades going through a change at the head coach position, Wouters kept focused on controlling what he could control and continued to work to get better.

It would be human for Wouters to have some frustrations, but if he did have them, he didn’t show them. He handled himself professionally over that time period.

Chase Wouters became the Blades captain in September of 2018.

That likely caught the eye of Priestner and Love as Wouters was named captain before the start of the 2018-19 campaign, which turned into a dream season for the Blades.

In 2018-19, the Blades finished fourth overall in the WHL with a 45-15-8 record and made the post-season for the first since 2013. From wire to wire in 2018-19, the Blades were one of the WHL’s elite teams.

As the Blades continued to experience various successes they hadn’t seen in some time, Wouters didn’t get too high with the highs. With that said, he seemed to enjoy watching his teammates take in all the positives along with the Blades coaches, management and staff.

Chase Wouters (#44) and Max Gerlach (#9) enjoy an OT win.

Shortly after becoming captain, Wouters often displayed a best buddy type relationship with his teammates, and he seemed to soak in talking way more about his teammates than himself. Overall, the Blades had a great vibe.

In the Blades first post-season game of 2019, Wouters had a big highlight moment on the ice scoring the overtime winner on a backhand shot to give his Blades a 3-2 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors. 

The crowd of 5,193 spectators at the SaskTel Centre was super engaged in that contest, and the noise they made on that overtime winner made you think the building was full that night.

You could tell in the eyes of the Blades players that this playoff thing was pretty cool. 

Chase Wouters celebrates a goal in January of 2019.

They would sweep the Warriors 4-0 in that best-of-seven opening round series.

The only problem for the Blades that season was the fact their arch-rivals in the Prince Albert Raiders were enjoying one of their best campaigns ever. 

The Raiders topped the WHL standings with a 54-10-2-2 record, and they faced the Blades in the second round of the playoffs due to the fact both clubs play out of the same division.

The rivalry between the sides fired up to new heights during that campaign. 

Janice, left, and Scott Wouters cheer a playoff goal from son, Chase.

The best-of-seven series was tied 2-2 after four intense contests.

The Raiders were just a little bit deeper and better and hit the gas to win the next two contests to take the series 4-2. Prince Albert moved on to capture the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL champions.

After going through a little bit more off-season player turnover than expected including losing star centre Kirby Dach to the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks, Wouters led the Blades through what became a reloading year.

The Blades improved steadily as the 2019-20 campaign went on and had a second consecutive playoff berth clinched with a 34-24-2-3 record before the season was halted and the rest of the campaign was ultimately cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chase Wouters recorded 75 goals and 106 assists with the Blades.

With all the players in the WHL sent home, Wouters often took part in doing videos for the Blades social media channels offering positive vibes to fans and showing how he was training back in Lloydminster.

As the players seemed to wait and wait to see if there would be a campaign in 2020-21, Wouters stayed even emotionally as best he could and on course with his training.

When the Blades were confirmed to play a 24-game regular season in a bubble environment in Regina in March and April, Wouters returned for a last tour. 

He appeared in 21 games collecting 10 goals, 12 assists, a plus-12 rating and won 310-of-559 faceoffs.

The Blades finished third in the East Division with a 16-5-2-1 record to sit two points behind the second place Winnipeg Ice (18-5-1) and three points behind the division winning Brandon Wheat Kings (18-4-2).

Chase Wouters (#44) was well known for his faceoff skills.

Including two games he played as an associate player call up in February of 2016, Wouters appeared in 280 career regular season games with the Blades collecting 75 goals, 106 assists and a plus-22 rating.

It seem right that his final goal would be a game winner that came from tipping home a point shot from defenceman Rhett Rhinehart after winning an offensive zone faceoff clean back to Rhinehart. Wouters goal gave the Blades a 3-2 lead over the Wheat Kings with 1:22 remaining in the second period.

The Blades scored twice in the third to cement a 5-2 victory.

After Wouters sent appreciation Priestner’s in that final post-game Zoom press conference for the number retirement announcement, Priestner wrapped up the night perfectly with some great vibes sent back in Wouter’s direction.

Chase Wouters enjoys his playoff OT winner on March 22, 2019.

“I know everybody is thinking of you,” said Priestner. “You represented us so proudly and with class.

“You’re going to have a great career and a great and a great life ahead of you. Just keep doing what you are doing, because we are all so proud of you.”

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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If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.