Rock around the block
Scoring standout Mason Svarich is leaving his home province of Alberta to return to the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League, this time with the reigning champion Timmins Rock.
Svarich heads to Timmins and is back in the NOJHL after seven games and two goals in the Alberta Jr. Hockey League to begin the 2023-2024 season. His initial NOJHL season was a productive one as a top forward with the Hearst Lumberjacks in 2022-2023. After netting 30 goals in 57 regular season games for Hearst in ’22-23, the 2003 birth year forward capped his first NOJHL campaign by scoring three more times in six playoff outings.
Now, in returning to the NOJHL — this time with Timmins — Svarich does so after the Rock organization came highly recommended to him by his good friend of many years, Brady Harroun. The since graduated Harroun — who is now playing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association ranks — led Timmins and the NOJHL with 50 goals in ’22-23 and helped lead the Rock to the league playoff championship after being obtained from the Red Lake Miners of the Superior International Jr. Hockey League.
To be sure, Timmins head coach and general manager Brandon Perry had been pursuing Svarich for quite a while.
“He is a former 30 goal scorer in our league,” relayed Perry. “He can put the puck in the net but he can also play without the puck. He plays with good pace and he is good in his own end. We are our thrilled to add him to our lineup.”
In a corresponding move, after acquiring Svarich, the Rock dealt fellow 20-year old Josh Russell to Hearst.
The Rock is off to a sluggish start to the ’23-24 season with a record of 4-6-1 and Perry noted that more changes to the Timmins roster are likely ahead.
Uncharacteristically, Timmins has allowed 48 goals in 11 games thus far this season. To complicate matters, dependable holdover defensemen Kyle Trottier and Tenzin Nyman are both on the injured and last season’s Rock star goalie Patrick Boivin has inexplicably struggled between the pipes through seven starts to begin this season.