WHL Grads have elevated Canada West Hockey
Bob Stauffer
(January 25, 2006) What a difference 15 years makes. In 1991-92 the U of A Golden Bears hockey program claimed its eighth CIS national title (then CIAU) with a hybrid mix of eight or so Western Hockey League graduates such as star players Adam Morrison, Ian Herbers and Garth Premak, and a group of journeymen AJHL heart-and-soul types.
The next season, when the Acadia Axemen blitzed the Golden Bears 9-4 in the University Cup semifinal and obliterated the University of Toronto 12-1 in the final, they did so with a team made up primarily of WHL and OHL graduates. The writing was on the wall: If you want to compete for the University Cup title, get as many players as possible out of Major Junior hockey.
Roughly about the same time, the WHL really started placing emphasis on school, providing one year of paid education for each season of play in the WHL. The benefactor ever since has been CIS hockey and, in particular, the Canada West conference.
Fast forward to the 2005 TELUS University Cup, which saw Alberta claim its CIS record 11th national title with a thrilling come-from-behind 4-3 victory over rival Saskatchewan… both teams iced squads basically made up of WHL graduates. In fact, every player for the Golden Bears that saw the ice finished up his 20-year old season in the WHL.
The escalation of WHL graduates going the Canadian university route is staggering, as is the commitment of the Western Hockey League to its student-athletes. Since 1993 the WHL has issued 2,240 scholarships worth in excess of $7 million to Canadian schools, making it one of the largest private donors of scholarship money in Canada. For 2005-06 the WHL has 126 graduates playing in Canada West, with $571,618 committed.
According to Dave Adolph, long-time Head Coach of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, the biggest winner from the WHL’s commitment has been the CIS.
“The point when the critical decision is made for a young player between the WHL and Junior “A” is at 16 or 17. Before, a lot of kids and parents were concerned about education, so they saw the Junior “A”-NCAA model as an option because it kept education on the horizon. Now education is guaranteed by the Western Hockey League with their scholarship program and, as a result, the CIS is a legitimate option for these kids and their parents, whereas before we were not. End result, CIS and Canada West hockey has vastly improved because of the WHL Scholarship program,” said Adolph.
Not surprisingly, the #1 ranked Saskatchewan Huskies (15-4-3) and #3 Alberta Golden Bears (14-4-2) lead the way in WHL/CIS crossover, and the 2005 University Cup finalists will go head-to-head at Clare Drake Arena in Edmonton this weekend (7:30 p.m. Friday & Saturday). Friday's game is on FM88-CJSR, while Saturday marks the start of 2005-06 Bears Hockey on The Team 1260.
Weekend Series Preview
The league’s top four goaltenders are all WHL recruits playing with the Huskies or Bears, three of which are freshmen Jeff Harvey (Saskatchewan), and Alberta’s tandem of Aaron Sorochan and Blake Grenier.
Harvey has been stellar, posting an 8-1-1 conference mark with a 1.93 goals against average and two shutouts. Sorochan stands at 10-3-1 with a 2.56 GAA. Grenier and Huskies veteran Thomas Vicars have also been very solid during split duty. Vicars and Sorochan, in fact, were teammates with the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders in 2001-02, but have yet to face each other at the CIS level.
Offensively Saskatchewan is led by CIS MVP candidate Dean Beuker, who has gone over 40 points for the fourth straight season. After picking up a combined 134 points his first three years, Beuker, a three-time CIS All-Canadian, has 20-22-42 with six games left, within striking distance of his personal best 46 points.
Ben Thomson, hero of the 2005 University Cup when he scored late in regulation and again in overtime on Vicars, has a team-leading 23 points and sits second in Canada West with 13 goals. Alberta, however, has a balanced scoring attack up front and boasts the top two scoring defencemen in the conference. Chris Ovington has 17 points from the back end and Perry Johnson is next at 15.
