Team defense tilts Trappers
North Bay Trappers are poised to head into next week’s Great North Midget Hockey League playoffs as the no. 1 seed in the seven-team loop.
Led by venerable coach Guy Blanchard, the Trappers are a team-oriented, defensive-minded crew that has allowed the fewest goals — by far — in the Great North.
What you see is what you get from the Trappers, who have as a coach in Blanchard a man who has been around the game a long time.
Besides being a successful minor hockey coach of many years, Blanchard has also coached in the Ontario Hockey League with the Sudbury Wolves and erstwhile North Bay Centennials and Guelph Platers and has multiple Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League championships to his credit from his years with the old North Bay Skyhawks.
The veteran Blanchard — who is a member of the North Bay Hockey Hall of Fame — believes in a defense-first system and it is certainly working with the league-leading Trappers.
“The coaching staff has tried to instill keeping pucks out of our net — that is what keeps you in every game,” Blanchard told HockeyNewsNorth.com.
An example of the overall balance and team-first concept of the Trappers is that despite their first-place standing in the Great North loop, North Bay’s leading scorer — defenseman Jacob Gravelle — is only ninth in the league in total points.
Gravelle, along with fellow standout 2000 birth-year defenseman Dylan Bond, are both OHL draft picks from 2016 and along with 2001 birth-year defender Payton Vescio, are the mainstays among the six-man North Bay blueline brigade.
As Gravelle (Mississauga Steelheads) and Bond (Saginaw Spirit) were taken at the 2016 draft, several other members of this year’s Trappers are candidates to be selected at the 2017 under-16 OHL lottery.
According to a HockeyNewsNorth.com sampling of a few OHL general managers and scouts, leading the skilled set of 2001 birth-year prospects from North Bay is the aforementioned Vescio.
Others from the Trappers who are garnering various levels of attention ahead of April’s under-16 OHL draft are forwards Matt Hardwick, Cole Craft and Ryan Mills, defensemen Kobe Seguin and Jake Peterson-Galema and goalie Joel Rainville.
At any rate, it is a credit to Blanchard and his coaching staff for implementing — and insisting upon — a team approach from its talented roster of 2000 and 2001 birth-year players.
PHOTO: North Bay Trappers coach Guy Blanchard behind the bench of the Great North Midget Hockey League team. (Photo by Postmedia.)
Our Midget Players in the Bay get GREAT coaching from Mr. Blanchard!