Last dance tour on for Robison as WHL commissioner

Outgoing executive reflects fondly on time in the league

Rob Robison, centre, drops the ceremonial faceoff in P.A. on Dec. 15.

For outgoing WHL commissioner Ron Robison, the 2006-07 campaign stood out better than all the rest when it came to highlights on the ice.

That season concluded with epic post-season encounters between the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Vancouver Giants. The two clubs met in a WHL Championship Series that needed a series deciding Game 7.

In Game 7 played on May 14, 2007 before a sellout crowd of 4,006 spectators at The Arena in Medicine Hat, Tigers talented centre Brennan Bosch scored in double overtime to deliver his squad to a 3-2 victory in that contest. The win allowed the Tigers to win their fifth WHL championship in team history.

The two sides would move on to the Memorial Cup Tournament that determines a CHL champion. Medicine Hat entered that event as the WHL champions, and Vancouver was in as the host team.

On May 27, 2007, the two sides would meet in the Memorial Cup championship game played before a sellout crowd of 16,281 spectators at the Pacific Coliseum. The teams entered the third period locked in a 1-1 draw.

With 4:55 remaining in the third, Michael Repik scored the winner for the Giants, and Spencer Machacek scored into an empty net inside the final 50 seconds of the third to round out a 3-1 final. The win allowed the Giants to capture their first Memorial Cup in team history.

The WHL Guide for 2007-08.

The championship wins of both teams were commemorated on the cover of the WHL Guide for the 2007-08 campaign. Serving as the WHL’s commissioner, Robison was pretty proud two of the circuit’s member teams could go head to head in classic encounters like that where each side captured a major championship trophy.

“I have a lot of great memories,” said Robison. “When we talk about a certain event I go back to 2006-07 season when Medicine Hat and Vancouver went seven games in the (WHL) championship series, and then they met again in the Memorial Cup championship.

“In the WHL championship, Medicine Hat won at home, and then Vancouver won at home in the Memorial Cup. I think that was a pretty special year.”

In the current day, Robison is serving out his final days as commissioner of the WHL, which was a position he stepped into on September 15, 2000. Last June, Robison, who is an alumnus of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Men’s Hockey Team, announced the 2023-24 campaign would be his last as commissioner of the WHL.

Before coming on board with the WHL, Robison worked in various roles for Hockey Canada from 1981 to 2000. The 68-year-old had been a Huskies assistant coach and a faculty member of the Physical Education department at U of S before coming on board with Hockey Canada.

On November 30, the WHL hired Dan Near to be the circuit’s next commissioner. Near’s tenure in the WHL office will begin on January 1, 2024 as he transitions into the role of commissioner. He will officially take over the full responsibilities as WHL commissioner on February 15, 2024.

At that point, Robison will transition to an advisory role providing support and guidance to Near.

The 43-year-old Near served as the global head of Adidas Hockey and was responsible for leading Adidas’s entry into hockey managing their global business since 2016. Prior to his time with Adidas, Near, who is a product of Markham, Ont., spent 10 years with the NHL’s head office in New York specializing in marketing, retail development and consumer product licensing from 2006 to 2016.

Ron Robison, right, is pictured with Mathew Barzal (#13) in 2017

Robison is making a tour to visit every WHL centre one last time while he is commissioner. The Indian Head, Sask., product stopped in Prince Albert on December 15, when the host Raiders fell 4-3 in overtime to the Kelowna Rockets at the storied Art Hauser Centre.

One night later, Robison dropped into Saskatoon as the host Blades fell 5-4 in overtime to the Rockets at the SaskTel Centre.

During his time as commissioner, Robison wanted to oversee a circuit that had good competitive balance where any team could win, and it didn’t matter if you came from a big, medium or small sized market. He believes the fact that Swift Current Broncos won a WHL title in 2018 and the Raiders captured a WHL championship in 2019 as small market clubs shows the league has come up with a formula that works in that area.

Robison believe the Raiders, who have a storied history, are in a really healthy spot, and he praised the team’s leadership for the work they’ve done.

“I think the credit is due to the people on the ground here in Prince Albert led by (Raiders president) Gord Broda,” said Robison. “I think they have community leadership like Gord (Broda) provides for this franchise is incredible.

“He has been dedicated for many years and continues to be. Then when you look at the job that Curtis Hunt has done as general manager has really I think done a great job of acquiring a lot of assets to put this hockey program in a really good place moving forward combined with Mike Scissons on the business side. When you are getting buildings in the small markets you need to be over 90 per cent sold out on a regular basis.

Ron Robison takes part in a WHL title presentation in 2019.

“They are doing that here in Prince Albert, so we couldn’t be more delighted. We think the franchise is in a really good place, and we’re looking forward to having a new facility here real soon.”

During his time in the WHL, Robison said the thing he liked most was meeting people in all the league’s centres over the years. He made sure to give credit to a number of people that work behind the scenes to make the league run including education advisors, security network personnel, team doctors and billet families.

“If I look back, I think that is the area we have so much respect for,” said Robison.

Robison was pleased with the growth the league made in two areas in particular while he was commissioner.

“I think we’ve really worked at two things extremely hard,” said Robison. “One was our facility standards to make sure that at all times the players and the fans have as much of a world class experience as we can possibly deliver.

“The standards to make sure that those facilities are always delivering a good environment for the players was really important. I think the player experience overall has been enhanced significantly when you look at our scholarship program. Over the 30-year period of the scholarship (program), we’ve had close to 8,000 players benefitting in investment by over $30-million by our ownership.

Ron Robison does a ceremonial faceoff in Saskatoon on Dec. 16.

“It is incredibility an important program, because the players can commit to us at a young age and focus on their hockey, but also have that education opportunity when it is all over.”

Going forward, Robison said the league will be in good hands with Near. The outgoing commissioner said the strength of the new commissioner will be on the business side of the game. Robison believes Near will quickly adapt to all aspects of his new position.

Looking at his own future after his time with the WHL wraps up, Robison said it will be different not seeing the staff in the league office in Calgary adding you become close with the staff you work with on a day-to-day basis. He said he will miss WHL lifers in vice-president of hockey Richard Doerksen and senior director of officiating Kevin Muench.

Robison said it will be strange to no longer interact regularly with Greg Gardner, who is the WHL’s chief operating officer, and added Near is fortunate he will joining a great group of people who are great to work with.

When Near takes on full responsibilities as WHL commissioner, Robison is going to focus more on enjoying time away from the game, but he believes he will still be attached to the circuit.

“I’m going to be slowing down for sure,” said Robison. “I’m going to step back, and I think I will still be available to help the league in any way they need me.

Ron Robison, right, shakes hands with Rockets captain Gabriel Szturc.

“You don’t just walk away. After all these years, you need to be able to support the league, and I’m prepared to do that for sure. I think it is about going from 100 miles an hour maybe down to 40 or 50 miles an hour about and try to spend a little bit more time with family.”

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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X (formerly Twitter) worst social media platform of all-time

Connor Bedard in action for the Pats this past April.

X – formerly known as Twitter – is the worst social media platform of all-time.

If I never used what I now call Platform-X ever again, I would be perfectly fine with that. Due to working in media and communications, I still have to be on that social media platform. With the toxicity that exists on that platform, I have limited my posts to the courtesy sharing of information on the sports world.

For my blog, I mainly cover the happenings with the WHL, the Saskatoon Hilltops of the CJFL, the Saskatoon Valkyries of the WWCFL and U Sports.

Thanks to how toxic Platform-X has become, I find people that look for information on those leagues and teams I listed are mainly no longer on that social media platform anymore. The ones that are on that platform are usually saying something quite awful and cutting using an anonymous account.

My best interactions on Platform-X come from fan talk about pro-wrestling specifically WWE and AEW with the Era of Bliss fan account and one of the best persons to come from the province of Quebec in Patrick Mercier. Even with that, you can run into toxic accounts that wants to jump into your fun chat and ruin your day.

Last week, Platform-X continued to prove why it is the worst social media platform of all time. Early last week on November 27, I was putting a house keeping sports information post on Platform-X.

At that time, two days had passed after the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks announced right-winger Corey Perry would take an indefinite leave of absence from the team for personal reasons. I encountered an endless line of posts regarding the family of Blackhawks 18-year-old rookie superstar centre Connor Bedard and Perry.

Having dealt with Bedard and his family when he played in the WHL for the Regina Pats, my first thought was, “This is utterly ridiculous.”

After scanning those posts for 30 seconds of my time I will never get back, I created the posts I set out to create and got off that social media platform.

As the week progressed, it was easy to follow how that story developed without putting in much effort as it regularly came up on sports talk shows and sports news shows. The Blackhawks placed Perry on unconditional waivers on November 28, and after he cleared waivers the following day, the NHL club terminated his contract.

Of course, it came out the rumours were garbage. Perry came out with an apology for an incident that got him released and said he was seeking professional help for substance abuse.

Last Friday a day before playing the Jets in Winnipeg, Bedard met the media in the Manitoba capital. The question about the rumours came up and also how the rumours affected his family and himself.

Bedard handled the queries with a maturity way beyond his years. He said what happened wasn’t fair to him or his family, but they can’t control those things and they just go on and live life.

A picture of the front login page to Platform-X.

Bedard also added what happened with Perry was serious and the first concern was that he is OK and his family is OK. Paul Friesen of the Winnipeg Sun actually did a terrific job with his piece on what Bedard has dealt with in his NHL rookie year, and that piece can be found by clicking right here.

The fact Bedard, who doesn’t have a Platform-X account, and his family had to deal with this was an absolute joke. To show how stupid Platform-X and society of today has become, Edmonton Oilers superstar centre Connor McDavid never had to deal with anything like that as an NHL rookie in 2015-16.

Believe it or not, I found Platform-X to be a good social media line at one time. The first few years after I created an account on it back in 2010 it was great.

The mechanics of the social media platform worked well. You also knew that platform was a social media line where you posted things out in public which the whole world could see.

I found Platform-X took a turn for the worst around the time of November 8, 2016, when Donald Trump won his election race to become president of the United States. That started the rise of the extreme right holding the notion that, “If you aren’t with us, you’re against us.”

The extreme left has responded with similar rhetoric and positioning. On Platform-X seemingly through anonymous accounts, that type of rhetoric played out like promos you would see on WWE shows.

That type of positioning spread to discussion on all sorts of subjects including the happenings in the sports world and entertainment world. Platform-X was and still is the spot where all the bashing occurs.

For a lot of people, the endless toxicity has chased them away from Platform-X.

For myself, I found the 2018-19 sports season where the Prince Albert Raiders won the WHL championship was the last campaign where my posts regarding the amateur sports world that I cover saw a lot of action on Platform-X. When a post does get noticed now, it usually has idiots taking it on a tangent that goes to a dark place that was not intended.

Unfortunately, more stupid will come sooner than later.

On Friday at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre, the Saskatoon Blades host the Red Deer Rebels in a WHL regular season contest, and the Blades will be holding their “Pride Night” promotion for a third straight season. In the building, that promotion is a healthy and warm celebration that honours LGBTQ+ community that is well received by those in attendance.

The Blades use that night to spread a message that hockey is for all. Unfortunately in the past two years on social media, the worst of society has made the most horrible of comments on the team’s social media lines in posts promoting their “Pride Night” game.

A Blades “Pride Night” post on Platform-X.

The Blades came out with their first posts this week on Tuesday leading to that promotion. I feared what I would find on Platform-X, because it seemed like the worst comments came out there the past two seasons.

The comments on Platform-X and Facebook have been good so far. I found numerous cringe comments on the Instagram post on Tuesday afternoon.

Still, Platform-X is the place that constantly turns discussions into a match in a UFC cage. The behavior of the baddies won’t change on there.

Unfortunately, that means for a lot of people it is time to kick that social media platform to the curve, and lots have done that. I wish I could follow suit, but limiting my time on that platform as much as possible is working for me.

Blades pair off to Canada’s world junior selection camp

Tanner Molendyk will try and make Canada’s world junior team.

Two members of the Saskatoon Blades will have a chance to make their world junior dreams come true for Canada.

On Tuesday, Blades offensive-defenceman Tanner Molendyk and centre Fraser Minten were named as two of the 30 players invited to the selection camp for Canada’s world junior team. The selection camp runs from December 10 to 13 in Oakville, Ont.

The upcoming world juniors are slated for December 26 to January 5, 2024 in Gothenburg, Sweden.

In 23 games with the Blades this season, Molendyk, who has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the Nashville Predators, has recorded four goals, 23 assists and a plus-20 rating in the plus-minus department.

Minten, who was recently acquired in a trade with the Kamloops Blazers, has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He appeared in four NHL regular season games with the Leafs before being returned to the WHL. In 11 combined games with the Blazers and Blades, Minten had four goals and nine assists.

A total of nine players from the WHL were invited to the selection camp for Canada’s world junior team. Brayden Yager, who is from the Saskatoon area, was the only player with a hometown in Saskatchewan to be invited to the selection camp.

In 25 games with the Warriors this season, Yager has recorded 17 goals, 22 assists and plus-14 rating. Yager was selected in the first round and 14^th overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL Entry Draft held this past June.

Blazers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston will serve as an assistant coach for Canada’s entry at this season’s world juniors. Lethbridge Hurricanes general manager Peter Anholt serves as the under-20 lead for the Program of Excellence management group.

One player who was omitted from the selection camp for Canada’s world junior team is WHL leading scorer Riley Heidt. Heidt, who is a Prince George Cougars centre, has recorded 53 points coming off 14 goals and 39 assists to go with a plus-10 rating in the plus-minus department in 26 regular season games.

The Saskatoon area product was selected in the second round and 64^th overall by the Minnesota Wild in last June’s NHL Entry Draft.

Near named incoming WHL commissioner, other notes

A WHL Instagram post welcoming Dan Near.

Dan Near has been tabbed as the WHL’s next head person.

Last Thursday, the WHL announced that Near will be the incoming commissioner of the circuit. The announcement was made by Ron Toigo, who was the chair of the WHL Commissioner Search Committee and governor of the Vancouver Giants on behalf of the WHL board of governors.

Near’s tenure in the WHL office will begin on January 1, 2024 as he transitions into the role of commissioner. He will officially take over the full responsibilities as WHL commissioner on February 15, 2024.

At that point, current WHL commissioner Ron Robison will transition to an advisory role providing support and guidance to Near.

The 43-year-old Near served as the global head of Adidas Hockey and was responsible for leading Adidas’s entry into hockey managing their global business since 2016. Prior to his time with Adidas, Near, who is a product of Markham, Ont., spent 10 years with the NHL’s head office in New York specializing in marketing, retail development and consumer product licensing from 2006 to 2016.

Last June, Robison, who is an alumnus of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Men’s Hockey Team, announced the 2023-24 campaign would be his last as commissioner of the WHL. He took over that role on September 15, 2000. The 68-year-old product of Indian Head, Sask., will depart as the longest serving commissioner in the history of the WHL.

Before joining the WHL as commissioner, Robison spent about 19 years with Hockey Canada.

• On Tuesday, Gunner Kinniburgh, who is a third-year defenceman with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Men’s Hockey Team, was named to the U Sports all-star team that will face Canada’s world junior hopefuls in a pair of exhibition games as part of Canada’s selection camp to pick its world junior team. Kinniburgh has two goals, four assists and a plus-14 rating in 16 games with the Huskies. The exhibition games between the U Sports all-stars and Canada’s world junior hopefuls will be held December 12 and 13 in Oakville, Ont. Former Saskatoon Blades members in defenceman Scott Walford, who played for the McGill University Martlets, and forward Eric Florchuk, who plays for the University of Alberta Golden Bears, will also be members of the U Sports all-star squad.
• A total of three WHL squads cracked into the latest CHL Top 10 Rankings, which were released on Tuesday. The Prince George Cougars were rated second, the Saskatoon Blades were ranked sixth and the Wenatchee Wild came in at eighth.
• It appears the odds of 18-year-old forward Zach Benson being returned to the NHL have decreased. Benson has played in 16 games for the Buffalo Sabres collecting two goals and five assists. Once he hit his 10^th game played in the regular season for the Sabres in the current campaign, the Sabres committed to burning the first year of Benson’s three-year NHL entry-level contract. The Sabres selected Benson in the first round and 13^th overall in last June’s NHL Entry Draft. Benson’s WHL rights belong to the Wenatchee Wild.
• Saskatoon product and 19-year-old defenceman Kevin Korchinski has two goals and five assists playing 24 games this season for the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks. The Blackhawks selected Korchinski in the first round and seventh overall in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft. Korchinski’s WHL rights belong to the Seattle Thunderbirds, who won the WHL championship last season. Korchinski could be returned to the WHL, but he will be owed the entirety of the first year of his three-year NHL entry-level contract.
• The WHL’s trade deadline is set for January 10, 2024.
• Christine Sinclair’s career with Canada’s National Women’s Soccer Team was the ultimate “smile because it happened” time. It was fitting Canada blanked Australia 1-0 in a friendly on Tuesday night in Vancouver in Sinclair's final game with the Canadian national team. Kudos to the management at B.C. Place to change the name of the venue to Christine Sinclair Place for the night of the game. She deserves all the tributes that come her way.

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.