New commish for Great North
Darren Potvin is leaving his position as president of the Kapuskasing Flyers to take over as commissioner of the Great North Midget Hockey League.
HockeyNewsNorth.com has confirmed the appointment of Potvin to the position of commissioner of the Great North loop.
The league’s board of directors acted quickly to appoint the highly-regarded Potvin as new commissioner following the resignation of Bob MacLean a week ago.
While relatively young, the 29-year old Potvin has nonetheless spent eight years with the Kapuskasing midgets, beginning as general manager at age 21 and then moving up to president.
Self-described as “passionate about hockey” and a born-and-bred northerner who originally hails from Timmins, Potvin is anxious to take on the role as commissioner of the GNMHL.
“I am looking forward to working with all groups, teams and leagues across the north,” Potvin relayed to HockeyNewsNorth.com. “Hockey is a job I take a lot of pride in and this job will be no different.”
Potvin said he is aware of the challenges facing him as new commissioner of the GNMHL.
“There are several pressing issues concerning midget hockey in northern Ontario and I look forward to the challenge,” he said. “We must do a better job.”
Potvin takes the helm of the Great North midget program that will be an expanded, nine-team loop in 2017-2018.
The new-look league will feature the Soo Greyhounds, Soo Thunderbirds minor midgets, North Bay major midgets and minor midgets, Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves, Sudbury Wolves minor midgets, New Liskeard Cubs, Timmins Majors and the aforementioned Kapuskasing Flyers.
The Soo minor midgets and the North Bay minor midgets are new to the Great North.
PHOTO: Kapuskasing Flyers and North Bay Trappers, in Great North Midget Hockey League playoff action from the 2016-2017 season. (Photo by Postmedia.)
Congratulations Darren, best of luck .
Congrats Pots! The GNML have a good man to lead the ship!
Congratulations Darren!!!
This League has lacked leader-ship for many yrs with the Nickel Caps pulling the strings. Lets hope that this is a change for the good of the League. Congrats to Darrin Potvin.
For the sake of the “Great North League” hopefully Mr. Potvin will be his own man not to be lead around by the nose by the “bigwigs” in Sudbury.
The G.N.M.H.L. need a Comissioner that is visable and that will work for the better of hockey in Northern Ontario . Time will tell us if Mr. Potvin is that right man for the job.
I think a priiority is to establish a working relationship with the NOJHL w. regards to player development. Good Luck to the new Commissh!
Good Luck to you Darren from a Majors Fan!
Nice to see a northern boy sit in that chair…..
Glad to see someone take over who isn’t from the soo, northbay or sudbury. Kap new liskeard and Timmins are the heart of this league. I’m glad they will have more of a voice now. Hopefully he can make this a great league again. I remember a time going to kl nl and kap when the rinks were packed and teams were all top 5 teams. The support those teams once received made this league enjoyable to play in.