Still puckin’ around


By
June 4, 2014

It may be June but there are hockey stories to be written.

Take yesterday — June 3 — for instance when HockeyNewsNorth.com posted five separate stories all relevant to the moment.

Take a summer vacation from hockey?

Nah.

There are too many potential stories out there.

Like, when the new Canadian International Hockey League begins to officially announce who its member teams will be and where the footprint will lead to. (I have seen the preview list and who is on it and I like what I see.)

Then there is the matter of where plum defenceman Owen Headrick from Garden River First Nation will play in 2014-2015. Will the 1997 birth-year blueliner stay with the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League for a second season? Or will he move up to one of the North American Hockey League, United States Hockey League or Ontario Hockey League? Factoring into the decision is that Headrick has a full-ride offer on the table from the Lake Superior State University Lakers of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

With the attendance-leading Espanola Rivermen having left for the new CIHL, how many teams will the NOJHL have in 2014-2015? Without Espanola, the NOJHL has gone from eight to seven teams. But expansion to Elliot Lake — which had an NOJHL team the past two seasons only to have it relocate to Cochrane for 2014-2015 — remains a possibility. And knowing his passion, I suspect that NOJHL commissioner Rob Mazzuca has fishing lines in the water.

MCPHAIL SHOWS SPIRIT

Sault Ste. Marie product Adam McPhail has officially signed with the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League.

The 6-foot-2, 175 pound, 1997 birth-year right winger was taken by Saginaw in the ninth round of the 2013 OHL draft after scoring 46 goals in 38 games for the Soo Thunder minor midgets in 2012-2013.

McPhail played major midget for the Waterloo Wolves of the Ontario Alliance loop in 2013-2014 and had 13 goals in 25 regular-season matches.


What you think about “Still puckin’ around”

  1. Another news worthy story. From the Soo Eagles website…

    The Soo Eagles are pleased to announce the resumption on the Rollie King Cup. There will be a two-game series against the Soo-Thunderbirds of the NOJHL will be played at the Pullar on September 5th and 6th. Tickets are available by calling the Soo Eagles office at 906-259-0522.

    Very cool to see!

  2. Why is Espanola still listed on the NOJHL website? Are they still holding out hope that somehow the CIHL isn’t going to materialize and Clayden comes running back to them?

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