 |
| Chase Wouters (#44) enjoys an OT winner in the 2019 WHL playoffs |
It appears questions on those fronts will be pushed off until this coming May.
Wouters and Paddock are slated to get the chance to hit the ice again.
The WHL’s five teams based in Saskatchewan along with the two clubs in Manitoba will each play a 24-game regular season schedule in a bubble environment at the Brandt Centre in Regina without fans. Team will be able to practice in the neighbouring Co-operators Centre.
Those seven clubs make up the WHL’s East Division for this coming season, and they are slated to hit the ice on March 12.
At the moment, the WHL’s Central Division containing the league’s five teams based in Alberta are set to hit the ice on Feb. 26 with club’s playing in their home centres. The U.S. Division will begin play on March 19 with all games expected to be held in the state of Washington.
The teams in those divisions will each play a shortened 24-game regular season.
Plans are still in the works to get the B.C. Division back into action.
 |
| Max Paddock protects the Raiders goal in 2020. |
With anything right now, there is always a possibility the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic can throw a wrench into things.
The overages won’t play in front of a physical crowd. In the case of Wouters and Paddock, they won’t get to play one last time in their home centres.
The returning overagers will get a chance to put on a WHL jersey again. Back on March 12, 2020 when the 2019-20 WHL campaign was paused and the remainder of the season was later cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there seemed to be a real chance the overagers for the 2020-21 campaign wouldn’t hit the ice in the WHL again.
All the returning WHL players watched as the overagers from the 2019-20 campaign basically all saw their major junior careers come to a sudden end at the same time. Teams did tribute videos and pieces for the departing overagers on team websites and social media platforms.
There was still a sting those graduating overagers took that they actually didn’t expect their respective WHL careers to end when they last stepped off the ice.
The same fate could have happened to this year’s overage class. It does feel good to know that they won’t have their careers come to a sudden end.
In Wouters case, he was selected in the first round and 18th overall by the Blades way back in the 2015 WHL Bantam Draft. After playing two games as a 15-year-old call up in 2015-16, Wouters has been a career regular on the Blades roster since.
He has appeared in 259 regular season games posting 65 goals, 94 assists and a plus-10 rating in the plus-minus department.
 |
| Chase Wouters has played 259 regular season games for the Blades. |
Wouters has represented the Blades with class for his whole career and done seemingly every community appearance that was asked of him. It is heartwarming to know he will get to wear Blades colours once again.
Paddock got his start WHL start with the Regina Pats. As a 17-year-old rookie in 2017-18, Paddock was in goal when the Pats made it to the championship final as the host team of the 100th Memorial Cup tournament, which determines a CHL champion.
Paddock turned away 41-of-43 shots as the Pats were blanked 3-0 by the QMJHL champion Acadie-Bathurst Titan.
The Brandon, Man., product proceeded to play through a 2018-19 season where the Pats were going through a major rebuild after hosting the Memorial Cup.
Paddock remained with the Pats until he was traded to the Raiders on January 9, 2020 for sophomore left-winger Jakob Brook, a second round selection in the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft and a conditional third round selection in the 2022 WHL Bantam Draft that depended on Paddock suiting up with the Raiders as an overager.
In 114 career regular season games with the Pats, Paddock had a 44-49-10 career record, a 3.27 goals against average, a .901 save percentage and four shutouts.
In just over two months with the Raiders, Paddock appeared in 19 regular season games posting a 13-3-3 record, a 1.67 goals against average, a .935 save percentage and three shutouts.
With Paddock’s help, the Raiders were sitting first in the WHL’s East Division with a 36-18-6-4 record before the rest of the 2019-20 campaign was called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 |
| Max Paddock in goal for the Raiders in March of 2020. |
Paddock is expected to be back with the Raiders when the East Division starts regular season play on March 12.
Along with getting to make a final bow, Wouters, Paddock and the other overagers will get to compile recent game footage of themselves in action. They could use that football to potentially attract opportunities in the professional or Canadian university ranks.
While they will have that footage as a tool to attract future opportunities, they will get a change to be with their WHL teammates once more and get to create more of a proper closure to their junior careers.
Cozens on shaky ride in NHL COVID-19
campaign, other notes
 |
| Dylan Cozens in action for the Hurricanes in 2019. |
The former star centre with the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes began the 2020-21 season serving as an alternate captain for Canada’s world junior team. At world juniors played in a bubble environment at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alta., Cozens topped Canada in scoring posting eight goals, eight assists and a plus-11 rating in the plus-minus department in seven games.
Canada fell 2-0 in the gold medal game to the United States on Jan. 5.
Cozens then joined the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres for his rookie season as a professional. The product of Whitehorse in the Yukon Territories suited up for nine regular season games collecting two goals, one assists and a plus-one rating.
At that point, COVID-19 protocols came calling.
Cozens, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 188 pounds, dressed for the Sabres as they dropped a 5-3 decision at home to the New Jersey Devils on Jan. 31. Due to issues with COVID-19, the Sabres wouldn’t play a game again until this past Monday, when they dropped a 3-1 decision at home to the New York Islanders.
Cozens was placed on the NHL’s COVID-19 “protocol list” on Feb. 6. He returned to practice with the Sabres this past Tuesday, which means he is off the “protocol list.”
At this point, Cozens still hasn’t suited up for a game since that Jan. 31 encounter with the Devils. The Sabres travel to New Jersey on Saturday to face the Devils.
The Devils actually didn’t play any games between downing the Sabres on Jan. 31 and dumping the Rangers in New York 5-2 this past Tuesday due to issues with COVID-19.
Through Monday, the NHL has postponed 35 regular season games due to COVID-19, and all those postponements have been in the United States.
The NHL has been changing its protocols to try and prevent even more postponed games.
That included a change on Feb. 11 that said all players, coaches, training staff, equipment staff and other members of the team’s traveling party on the road will be required to remain at home during home games.
They can’t leave their place of residence except to attend practices and games, exercise outdoors on an individual basis, perform essential activities like going to the doctor or deal with family or other emergencies and other extraordinary circumstances.
The NHL also strongly recommended that household members limit their activities outside the home as well and is encouraging teams to provide way for household member to be tested for COVID-19 regularly.
As you can see, completing an NHL campaign where teams aren’t confined in bubble environments has been very challenging in the United States in these COVID-19 times. Players like Cozens have experienced highs and pitfalls of these present day moments.
- Tickets are on sale for the February jackpot for the Saskatchewan Amateur Football Mega 50/50 lottery. The funds from this 50/50 lottery will go to support the CJFL’s Saskatoon Hilltops and Regina Thunder and the WWCFL’s Saskatoon Valkyries and Regina Riot. One prize will be drawn per month, and the remaining draw dates are Sunday, February 28, 2021, March 31, 2021, April 30, 2021 and May 31, 2021. Tickets can be purchased by clicking right here, and purchasers must be in Saskatchewan in order to buy tickets.
- There has been a sizable grouping of minor hockey parents in Saskatchewan that have been saying if their kids in minor hockey can’t play than the WHL shouldn’t play. Those parents are trying to compare two different spectrums. In order to play, WHL clubs are providing private PCR testing through DynaLIFE Medical Labs as far as the COVID-19 testing component is concerned. Plus, the five Saskatchewan based clubs and two Manitoba based teams are playing in a bubble environment in Regina. Minor hockey bodies don’t have that type of money to afford those types of things. I guess if minor hockey players could play in a bubble environment where associations provide regular weekly COVID-19 testing, then you could have minor hockey in Saskatchewan.
- On Feb. 12, the junior A Manitoba Junior Hockey League cancelled the remainder of its 2020-21 campaign including regular season and playoffs due to continuing government restrictions brought in to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
- In many Saskatchewan media outlets over the last few days, Saskatchewan Hockey Association general manager Kelly McClintock said there was really no hope of playing any more competitive minor hockey for the 2020-21 campaign. Those comments came after the Government of Saskatchewan decided on Tuesday to extend current Public Health Orders and restrictions to battle COVID-19 to March 19. Teams are still allowed to continue training with players in groups of eight.
- On Monday, the Saskatoon Blades acquired 2001 born right-winger Blake Stevenson from the Tri-City Americans for a conditional fifth round selection in the 2023 WHL Bantam Draft. In 2019-20, Stevenson appeared in 47 regular season games with the Americans collecting 10 goals and 10 assists. He is eligible to play in the WHL as an overager in 2021-22.
- On Tuesday, the Red Deer Rebels announced Troy Gillard would be the team’s play-by-play voice for the club’s shorted 24 WHL regular season schedule. Gillard will work the Rebels 12 home games with colour analyst Mike Moller. The Rebels open the regular season on Feb. 19 hosting the Medicine Hat Tigers.
- On Tuesday, the Everett Silvertips announced overage left-winger Cole Fonstad and overage defenceman Gianni Fairbrother were named the team’s co-captains for the 2020-21 season. Fonstad helped the Prince Albert Raiders win the WHL title in 2019 before a trade early in the 2019-20 campaign brought him to Everett. In 60 regular season games split between the Raiders and Silvertips in 2019-20, Fonstad had 15 goals, 59 assists and a plus-39 rating. This season, he had five goals and five assists in six games with the Estevan Bruins in the junior A Saskatchewan Junior Hockey league before play was halted due to government restrictions to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019-20, Fairbrother appeared in 37 regular season games for the Silvertips posting five goals, 20 assists and a plus-six rating.
- On Thursday, the Regina Pats dealt 17-year-old defenceman Daylan Weigel to the Swift Current Broncos in exchange for a fifth-round selection in the 2021 WHL Bantam Draft. In 2019-20, Weigel dressed in one regular season game for the Pats. He played 42 regular season games in the Saskatchewan Male Under-18 AAA Hockey League collecting six goals and 20 assists with the Saskatoon Blazers. He suited up for the Blazers in four games this season collecting one assist before play was halted due to government restrictions to battle the COVID-19 pandemic.
- On Thursday, the Brandon Wheat Kings announced 19-year-old defenceman and Prince Albert, Sask., product Braden Schneider was named the team’s captain. In 2019-20, Schneider appeared in 60 regular season games for the Wheat Kings posting seven goals, 35 assists and a plus-nine rating. This season, he was a member of Canada’s silver medal winning team at world juniors appearing in six games collecting one goal, two assists and a plus-eight rating. He dressed for two games with the AHL’s Hartford Wolfpack posting one assist and a plus-two rating.
If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
-------
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.
