Avoiding early WHL season over reaction is cool

The Raiders and Regina Pats faceoff to start a WHL game last month.

For some legacy followers of WHL teams, the sky is falling.

For some legacy followers of other WHL teams, it is time to make travel plans to attend the Memorial Cup in Rimouski, Quebec, which runs from May 22, 2025 to June 1, 2025.

At this point in the 2024-25 campaign, it is way too early to head out on any of those extremes. Still, some fans do let their passions fly high to the point it feels like they are cheering for a favourite CFL or NFL team. Those leagues have short seasons, and early stumbles are a lot more difficult to recover from on those circuits.

A WHL regular season is 68 games long, which means all teams will go through times when they stumble and times when they are red hot. Over the first couple of weeks of the regular season, games for most WHL teams are spread out with sizable chunks of off time.

The schedule is usually set up like that because most clubs are still getting players cycled back from professional training camps. When players return to WHL clubs, those squads usually have to then assign younger players to under-18 AAA or junior A clubs.

Doing a quick glance over social media lines, it seems like Prince Albert Raiders fans are doing well riding the wave. They realized the Raiders shuffled the deck as the team’s roster goes from how it looked in 2023-24. The Raiders also just got some players back from the NHL ranks in Tomas Mrsic (St. Louis Blues), Lukas Dragicevic (Seattle Kraken) and Norwin Panocha (Buffalo Sabres), and the fans seem to realize there will be an adjustment period.

This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.

It's sweet Wouters, Paddock, overagers will get final bow

Chase Wouters (#44) enjoys an OT winner in the 2019 WHL playoffs

So what would it have been like had Chase Wouters never suited up again as captain of the Saskatoon Blades or Max Paddock never put on the pads again to play goal for the Prince Albert Raiders?

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.

For the overage players from 17 teams that have been cleared to return to play, they will get the chance at the moment to have a final bow.

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 18^th 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 had a memorable playoff moment scoring the overtime winner to lift the Blades to a 3-2 victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors at the SaskTel Centre in Game 1 of a first round series in 2019. The Blades swept the best-of-seven set 4-0 before falling 4-2 in a best-of-seven second round series to the eventual WHL champion Prince Albert Raiders.

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 100^th 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.

At the moment, Paddock is with the AHL’s Stockton Heat on an amateur tryout contract. The Heat are playing out of Calgary, Alta., due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

Dylan Cozens showed he was ready for the NHL until COVID-19 protocols took him off the ice.

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.

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Adult meeting with Hawerchuk was special

Jets legend passed away too soon at age 57

Dale Hawerchuk on a Jets all-time all-star team poster.

    I admit I had a misplaced fear that my adult meeting with Dale Hawerchuk wouldn’t go well.
    Way back when Hawerchuk was skating through his rookie season with the Winnipeg Jets in the 1981-82 season, I first met Hawerchuk at an autograph session that was held at the Athletes World sports store in Winnipeg. At the time, I was five-years-old, and I can’t remember anything about that meeting except for vivid memories of being inside that sports store.

    I received an autograph wood mini stick, which I still have to this day.

    Throughout most of the 1980s, my family lived in Winnipeg outside of one-year move to Regina for the 1982-83 school year and a two-year move to Edmonton starting in the summer of 1989.

    Due to being located in Winnipeg, Hawerchuk was my favourite NHL player, and he was the first athlete hero I had during my childhood years.
    I had the opportunity to see numerous Jets games in my youth, and I have lots of good memories watching Hawerchuk live in action.

A Dale Hawerchuk card from 1989.

    As I grew up, I continued to keep tabs on Hawerchuk’s playing career including his days with the Buffalo Sabres, St. Louis Blues and Philadelphia Flyers. I kept tabs on his life after his playing days were finished.

    It was cool to see him have a number of good seasons as the head coach and director of hockey operations for the OHL’s Barrie Colts over nine campaigns starting in 2010 and running through to 2019.

    He took a leave up absence from the Colts to battle stomach cancer before the start of the 2019-20 season. Hawerchuk was given a clean bill a health in April, but the stomach cancer returned and he passed away from his battle with the disease last Tuesday.

    On Dec. 2, 2006, I got to interview Hawerchuk for a story in the Medicine Hat News. He was in town for an oldtimers’ game that was played at the Kinplex.

    At the time, I was in my best years working as a sports reporter for the News, and the outlet’s sports department was really kick butt. That was a time where I was in really good spirits.

    Leading up to the interview, I had talked to a few friends who mentioned they had disappointing experiences when as adults they met their sports heroes they looked up to as children.
    Before I headed out to the Kinplex to see Hawerchuk that day, one thought that ran through my head was, “Please don’t let this encounter suck.”

    During that game, Hawerchuk made some fancy plays. You could tell that at one time he did play hockey at its highest level.

A Dale Hawerchuk rookie card.

    Right when the game ended, I happened to be in the hallway where the players came off the ice.

    When Hawerchuk came off the ice, I think he might he might have thought he should have known me from somewhere. He actually immediately came over to shake my hand and went out of his way to be personable.

    The next part of the ice breaker was mentioning I lived in Winnipeg through most of the 1980s. Hawerchuk went on and on talking about city and how fond he was of it.

    It was crazy how much he knew about the city. He knew about the neighbourhood I lived, and talked about some of the businesses he had shopped at in my neighbourhood.

    He mentioned how cool it was that no matter where he went on the oldtimers’ circuit he always met people who lived in Winnipeg and always got to see Jets fans.

    I told him I wanted to interview him for the paper, and I said I had some time and that he could shower up first if he wanted to. As there wasn’t a Sunday edition of the paper to file for, I was hoping to do the interview in a more relaxed setting.
    Hawerchuk showered up and gave me all the time that I needed. I remember the interview went great. Actually, it was just an overall great visit.

    When that interview happened, the first version of the Jets had moved out of Winnipeg 10 years previous and the current version of the Jets were still another five years off from moving to the Manitoba capital from Atlanta, Georgia.

A Dale Hawerchuk card from 1987.

    Naturally, Hawerchuk campaigned that Winnipeg is a great hockey town and the NHL needed to back there.

    When the visit wrapped up, I got him to sign my poster of the Winnipeg Jets all-time all-stars.

    That visit helped to restore the childhood faith in the hockey hero. Hawerchuk lived up to the hero expectations.

    Over the years leading up to that visit, I met people in hockey and outside of the sports who knew Hawerchuk. All of them said he was a genuinely nice person, and he was a real quiet guy too.

    He was the superstar who enjoyed being out of the spotlight and his downtime, but he always wanted to be good and genuine.

    On the ice, the fact that Hawerchuk was a key member in helping the QMJHL’s Cornwall Royals win Memorial Cup titles in 1980 and 1981 as major junior hockey champions or that he played in 1,188 regular season games piling up 518 goals, 891 assists for 1,409 points are a small part of his story.

    The same goes with Hawerchuk playing for Canada and winning the draw that allowed Wayne Gretzky to set up Mario Lemieux for the goal that won the 1987 Canada Cup tournament in the final two minutes of the event’s deciding game.

    The outpouring of tributes that have poured in for him over the past week showed the 57 years he lived on this world were meaningful ones.
    Many sympathies were passed on to Hawerchuk’s wife, Crystal, the couple’s children in sons Eric and Ben and daughter Alexis.

A display of Dale Hawerchuk memorabilia.

    Even if you just had one memorable visit with Hawerchuk, you realized the world just lost one of its great good guys.

    That fact he had a positive influence on so many lives should definitely be celebrated.

    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.

Familiarity adds to fun of cheering on Roughriders

Fans need to adjust to flood of new faces at training camp

Roughriders receiver Mitchell Picton catches a pass off the jugs machine.

    Looking out at the Saskatchewan Roughriders practising at Griffiths Stadium, you end up asking yourself, “Who are these guys?”

    For myself personally, I know offensive lineman Brendon LaBatte, and it drops off to no one else after that. I do admit I have had one long talk with long snapper Jorgen Hus, who is a graduate of the Saskatoon Hilltops of the Canadian Junior Football League and the University of Regina Rams from the U Sports ranks.

    I have said “hello” to Rob Bagg on a couple of occasions thanks to the fact he has been with the team since 2008. I remember former franchise quarterback Darian Durant telling me that if I wanted to see someone that was really good at interacting with the fans I should just watch Bagg.
    The veteran signal caller, who is now a member of the Montreal Alouettes, hit that bang on as usual.

OL Brendon Labatte (#57), see here in 2015, is a well-known Riders player.

    Entering the fourth season since the Roughriders won the Grey Cup in 2013, only three players are held over from that squad including LaBatte, Bagg and offensive lineman Dan Clark. With Chris Jones taking over before the start of the 2016 campaign as general manager and head coach, it has been well documented on how players have gone in and out through seemingly a revolving door.

    Traditionally, one of the best perks that comes from cheering on the Roughriders is the fans get to know the players on some sort of personal level for a time. That comes from the fact Regina is in between being a midsize city and a large city with a current population of just over 236,000.

    The population of the province of Saskatchewan has usually hovered around 1-million and sits at just over 1.15-million in the current day.

Roughriders QB Bryan Bennett, right, calls a play during a drill.

    By those figures alone, you can tell it is hard to go anywhere in the province without meeting people, and it is hard to stay anonymous, if you play for the Roughriders. When I was a first-year university student in “the Queen City” at the University of Regina, I often met Roughriders players working part-time in retail.

    The level for knowing players in the CFL changed a lot for myself after being involved with the Regina Rams especially for four seasons spanning from 1997 to 2001. As players from those Rams teams spread out through the CFL, I began to cheer a lot for the individuals I knew. Eventually, a number of Rams grads ended up on the Roughriders rosters for about four to five years.

    That development made cheering for the Roughriders that much more personal. Looking back, I often told a few people the one season I would have loved to have worked in the Roughriders communications department was in 2009. 

Former NFL QB Vince Young (#8) avoids the rush during a drill.

    It would have been a joy even knowing how that season would end with a heartbreaking Grey Cup loss in Calgary to the Montreal Alouettes thanks to that infamous too many men penalty call on the game’s second last play.

    There were six Rams graduates on that Roughriders team in Jason Clermont, Neal Hughes, Chris Getzlaf, Tamon George, Nick Hutchins and Joel Lipinski. Through them, I ended up meeting and getting to know a number of other players on the club’s roster that year. A number of great memories were made.

    That Roughriders team also overcame any adversity they faced that season to finish first in the West Division. It was a great season outside of how the final two plays went in that year’s Grey Cup game, which resulted in the deciding points in a 28-27 loss.

The now retired Nate Coehoorn was a fun CFL player to pull for.

    As the years went on, I began to pull for individuals I met on other CFL teams that didn’t have any links to the Rams. The most notable include recently retired Edmonton Eskimos receiver Nathan Coehoorn, Calgary Stampeders offensive lineman Dan Federkeil and Hamilton Tiger-Cats long snapper Aaron Crawford.

    I met those three during the 10 years I worked for the Medicine Hat News in Medicine Hat, Alta.
    One of the best parts of the CFL is most of the individuals in the league are down to earth, because they won’t be able to retire off the money they make in that circuit. They all have to move on to other careers after their football playing days wrap up.

    For me, I liked remaining around the CFL on a fan level, because I enjoyed getting to immediately visit my friends after games.

    In recent years, a lot of the players in the CFL that I know have retired. It has changed my interest in that circuit.
    That is just one of the realities that happens in sports over time.

The Roughriders huddle up after a training camp session.

    As far as the Roughriders go, I believe there is potential in the current group to bond with the fans.

    When I have walked around the U of Saskatchewan campus during training camp to go workout, work on a project or visit, all the players I run into always seem to say hello in a well-mannered way.
    It is really noticeable.

    I take that intangible as a good sign. While it might be hard to identify the Roughriders players at the moment, they might just become household names like a lot of the team’s former greats of the past. 

    That type of link is what makes cheering for the Roughriders and the CFL great.

Estephan would be a good addition for an NHL team

Giorgio Estephan brings the puck up ice for the Hurricanes.

    The NHL dream has hit a bump in the road for Lethbridge Hurricanes star centre Giorgio Estephan.

    The Edmonton, Alta., product, who has been a career member of the Hurricanes, was selected in the sixth round and 152^nd overall by the Buffalo Sabres in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft. The Sabres elected not to sign Estephan by Thursday’s deadline to ink drafted players from 2015.

    Thanks to that development, Estephan, who is still eligible to play an overage season in the WHL, will be allowed to enter the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, which will be held June 23 and 24 in Chicago, Illinois.

    In one of those head-scratching developments that can happen in the professional ranks, the Sabres likely came to the conclusion Estephan, who stands 6-feet and weighs 191 pounds, wouldn’t fit into their future plans.

    Since being drafted by the Sabres in 2015, Estephan has done enough to earn an NHL contract. He has continued to progress and has grown into one of the WHL’s elite centres.

Giorgio Estephan speeds into the offensive zone for the Hurricanes.

    This past season, he recorded 35 goals, 54 assists and a plus-three rating in the plus-minus department in 68 regular season games. His goal and assist totals were career highs.

    Estephan took his game to another level in the 2017 WHL playoffs piling up 11 goals, 13 assists and a plus-five rating in 18 games. He played a key role in helping the Hurricanes advance to the Eastern Conference championship series for the first time since 2008.
    The Hurricanes fell 4-2 in this year’s best-of-seven Eastern Conference championship series to the Regina Pats.

    Estephan and heart and soul overage linemate Tyler Wong proved they could be ironmen playing seemly every second shift in their seven-game second round series win over the Medicine Hat Tigers, when injuries nearly crippled the Hurricanes post-season run.

Giorgio Estephan cuts to the net for the Hurricanes.

    Anyone that saw Estephan and Wong, who was the Hurricanes captain, play over that stretch would think an NHL team would want to sign them.

    On the intangible side, you had to love how Estephan reacted to playing on the road in the playoffs in Medicine Hat. He laughed off some creative heckles from Tigers supporters and made sure to give high fives to Hurricanes fans in attendance, when he left the ice. He took all those aspects of the game in stride.

    If Estephan doesn’t get drafted or signed, he would really give the Hurricanes a boost going into next season as an overager. In that scenario, you can expect him to play well enough to be deserving of another NHL shot.

Pats create season ticket waitlist

Pats season tickets are in high demand from their faithful.

    The Regina Pats are still feeling a surge in popularity thanks to their incredible 2016-17 campaign.

    On Thursday, the Pats opened up season ticket sales to everyone for the 2017-18 campaign, when they will play host to the 100^th Memorial Cup. The surge in demand was so high that the club decided to create an online waiting list to add some order when it comes meeting the demand.

    On Friday at 9 a.m. Regina time, fans can sign up on the waitlist through the team’s website www.reginapats.com. The Pats will contact those on the list on a first come, first serve basis. The team said everyone on the waitlist will be contacted prior to July 31.

    In 2016-17, the Pats set a franchise record for regular season victories finishing first overall in the WHL with a 52-12-7-1 mark.

The Pats and their fans celebrate an Austin Wagner (#27) goal.

    They were rated first in the final Canadian Hockey League top 10 rankings that were released on March 22. The Pats held top spot in the CHL’s top 10 rankings for much of the campaign.

    In the playoffs, the Pats advanced to the WHL Championship series for the first time since 1984 and they fell 4-2 in that best-of-seven series to the Seattle Thunderbirds.
    Between the regular season and playoffs, the Pats sold out a record 26 home dates at the Brandt Centre.

    Next season, the Pats should return enough parts to create the potential for another dream campaign.

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