All posts by Randy Russon
Saginaw forward a free Spirit
Building through the draft and buoyed with a surplus of early-round picks, general manager Dave Drinkill is carefully constructing the Saginaw Spirit into a looming Ontario Hockey League contender. …[read more]
Wolves add overage d-man
Looking to fill the void created by the departure of a den of graduated defenders, Sudbury Wolves have acquired overage defenseman Kyle Rhodes from the Guelph Storm. …[read more]
Nickel Capital Wolves to RBC
Rayside-Balfour Canadians of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League have signed 2000 birth-year goalie Matty Mayhew from the Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves of the Great North Midget Hockey League. …[read more]
Kap at Soo to start season
First pucks that drop on the 2017-2018 Great North Midget Hockey League season will include a slated opening weekend between the Kapuskasing Flyers and the Soo Major Greyhounds. …[read more]
Be-Leaf in Flint defenseman
He moved to Toronto from Russia at age seven and could not speak a word of English. A little more than 10 years later, after adapting to life in Canada and becoming a big fan of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Fedor Gordeev is living a dream. …[read more]
Hartsburg to coach Erie
The head coach position with the Erie Otters is about to be filled and speculation has turned to confirmation that former assistant coach Chris Hartsburg will be returning to take the helm of the Ontario Hockey League team. …[read more]
Ups, downs from NHL draft
Of the 217 players who were selected at the 2017 National Hockey League draft, 42 were picked from teams in the Ontario Hockey League. Following are one writer’s list of ups and downs relative to the OHL presence at the weekend NHL draft. …[read more]
Spirit lurking in Saginaw
It was no also-ran team that missed the Ontario Hockey League playoffs in 2016-2017. To be sure, Saginaw Spirit had more points in finishing ninth in the Western Conference than three teams that made the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. …[read more]
New capitaine for Kap Flyers
Hearst native Jacob Comeau has been tapped as the new captain of the Kapuskasing Flyers of the Great North Midget Hockey League. …[read more]
Setting the stage in Sudbury
They returned to the playoffs in 2016-2017 after sitting them out for two successive seasons. As the stage is set in Sudbury with new direction and a fresh script, the Wolves are emerging from the Ontario Hockey League wilderness. …[read more]
Soo Eagles to Morrisville State
High-scoring forward Roman Gaudet has parlayed parts of two seasons with the Soo Eagles of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League into a Division 3, National Collegiate Athletic Association commitment. …[read more]
New associate in Flint
Fifteen years after graduating from the Ontario Hockey League as a player, Paul Flache is returning to it as associate coach of the Flint Firebirds. …[read more]
Rising Spirit catches another
Two drafts after taking a sixth-round flyer on Caleb Everett, Saginaw Spirit has the 6-foot-2, 185-pound defensemen signed to an Ontario Hockey League standard player agreement. …[read more]
Great North to set schedule
Slated to increase membership from seven to nine teams, the Great North Midget Hockey League will hold its schedule meeting this Saturday ahead of the 2017-2018 season. …[read more]
Rap, yap coming out of Kap
Kapuskasing Flyers of the Great North Midget Hockey League know how to take care of business, even during the summer. …[read more]
Hockey rise at Sault College
A varsity athletics fixture in basketball and volleyball for decades, Sault College is working towards further establishing its men’s and women’s hockey programs. …[read more]
Top goalie commits to Flint
Luke Cavallin, who was selected by the Flint Firebirds in the second round, 28th overall, at the 2017 Ontario Hockey League minor midget draft, has made an official commitment. …[read more]
Soo minor midget update
Summer skates for 2002 birth-year players interested in playing for the new Soo minor midget entry in the Great North Midget Hockey League have been finalized. …[read more]
Tully an OHL GM in waiting
He’s a former Ontario Hockey League star defenseman who went on to captain a Team Canada, world junior, gold-medal champion. And now as the general manager of a national champion junior A team, Brent Tully has aspirations of returning to the OHL. …[read more]
Sault midget hockey scene
As it now stands, Sault Ste. Marie will be represented by two teams effective the 2017-2018 Great North Midget Hockey League season. But there is a condition to having both a major midget and minor midget entry in the Great North loop. …[read more]
Liking the look of the 67’s
As the Ottawa 67’s will mark their 50th anniversary and Canada’s 150th birthday in the same year, the iconic Ontario Hockey League franchise could have more to celebrate in the months ahead. …[read more]
Spitfires hire from within
Trevor Letowski has been duly promoted from associate coach to head coach of the 2017 Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires. …[read more]
Gretz key to Flint Firebirds
Okay, so someone had to write this headline about Gretz key. As in Gretz being a key signing for the Ontario Hockey League Flint Firebirds. …[read more]
Major ink for Flint Firebirds
Flint Firebirds of the Ontario Hockey League have confirmed the signing of big defenseman Marcus Gretz, who was their second-round pick, 23rd overall, at the 2017 minor midget draft. …[read more]
Beau and the Voodoos
Move one good coach on. Move another good coach in. Powassan Voodoos of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League have moved quickly to replace head coach Scott Wray with the equally-reputable Beau Moyer. …[read more]
New gig for David Matsos
David Matsos is headed home to continue his Ontario Hockey League coaching career as the Hamilton Bulldogs have hired the Burlington native as associate coach. …[read more]
Tyler Bertuzzi, MVP
Grand Rapids Griffins are the champions of the American Hockey League and the top affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Detroit Red Wings got a most valuable player performance from a gritty northern Ontario kid. …[read more]
Quiet on the OHL trade front
It has been almost two weeks since trade season opened in the Ontario Hockey League but unlike last year there has been no activity to date. …[read more]
Hunt is over for Ottawa 67’s
It’s double dip day in the nation’s capital as the Ottawa 67’s of the Ontario Hockey League have both a new general manager and head coach. …[read more]
New GM for the Ottawa 67’s
The new general manager of the Ottawa 67’s has spent more than half of his life within the Ontario Hockey League. …[read more]
Vendramin to Sault College
Ryan Vendramin will be staying home this fall to continue his athletic career at Sault College of Applied Arts and Technology. …[read more]
Big hire for Bradford Rattlers
Former Soo Greyhounds all-star defenseman Ric Jackman, who went on to play on a Stanley Cup championship team, has been named head coach of the Bradford Rattlers of the Greater Metro Jr. Hockey League. …[read more]
Wray to Battalion via Voodoos
Scott Wray will be leaving his position as head coach of the reigning Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League champion Powassan Voodoos to join the North Bay Battalion of the Ontario Hockey League as an assistant coach, multiple sources have told HockeyNewsNorth.com. …[read more]
Soo Eagles hire video coach
As hockey evolves in the statistical sense it is the off-ice preparation through video and analysis that has become a difference maker between winning and losing. …[read more]
Interest in Mario Culina
Mario Culina aspires to return to the Ontario Hockey League for a third term in 2017-2018 and the overage goalie who has spent the past two years with the Windsor Spitfires should have little difficulty finding work. …[read more]
OHL coaching vacancies
Both the Memorial Cup champion Windsor Spitfires and the runner-up Erie Otters have joined the growing Ontario Hockey League coach search. …[read more]
Gooch, Peever and Beer
As president, general manager and head coach, they represent the new age of the old mining town that houses the Timmins Rock of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League. …[read more]
Overagers? Culina, Headrick
A pair of Sault Ste. Marie area products who played on teams that made it to the recent Memorial Cup final could return to the Ontario Hockey League in 2017-2018 as overage players. …[read more]
Rayside signs four rookies
Four young skaters — including a pair from the north — have signed with Rayside-Balfour Canadians of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League. …[read more]
New gig for Moe Mantha
Moe Mantha, who has coached in the Ontario Hockey League and Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League among other stops, is returning to the North American Hockey League. …[read more]
Catching up with Joe Shawhan
A day after being named the new head coach of the Michigan Tech Huskies of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, Joe Shawhan was driving to Cedar Rapids, Iowa on a recruiting mission. …[read more]
Soo Eagles to Chatham U
Chris Lutz, a 1997 birth-year forward who put up 14 goals, 27 assists, 41 points in 65 games — regular season and playoffs included — for the Soo Eagles of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League in 2016-2017, has himself a National Collegiate Athletic Association commitment. …[read more]
Flint signs first-rounder
Power forward Ethan Keppen, who was taken by the Flint Firebirds in the first round, 10th overall, at the 2017 minor midget draft, has signed on with the Ontario Hockey League team. …[read more]
Beer arrives in Timmins
Corey Beer has been hired as the new head coach of the Timmins Rock of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League, team president Ted Gooch has confirmed. …[read more]
New gig for an old coach
A reputable Sault Ste. Marie native has become the 22nd head coach in the storied history of the Michigan Tech Huskies hockey program that was established back — way back — in 1919. …[read more]
Don’t stop believing
Some will win, some will lose. Windsor Spitfires went from losing in the first round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs almost two months ago to winning the 2017 Memorial Cup championship on Sunday. …[read more]
Cain is an able manager
Never far away from the game that is his passion, one of the most successful general managers to ever operate within the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League is working on a new gig, this time at the Great North Midget Hockey League level. …[read more]
From Beavers to Kangaroos
Smooth, slick defenseman Cole Peck is taking his game from the Blind River Beavers of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League to the SUNY Canton Kangaroos effective the 2017-2018 season. …[read more]