I'll Celebrate His Achievement

It's becoming apparently obvious that the people who run the conferences and the Canadian university hockey league simply don't care about taking easy wins. Some may point to the fact that university hockey in Canada has been over for a while and that school is out for the summer, but you'd think there would be someone at the wheel guiding the good ship U SPORTS and its conferences and member schools forward. I say this because the man pictured above in Joel Ward was named the head coach of the AHL's Henderson Silver Knights on June 25, and not one of U SPORTS, the AUS, nor UPEI have a single mention of it on their websites. For a man celebrated as the best player to come out of UPEI's program, you'd think someone would have written something about it, right? I guess that someone is me.

Joel Ward was born in North York, Ontario and grew up dreaming of playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs. His parents, Cecilia and Randall Ward, were immigrants from Barbados, and they fell in love with the sport as Mom and Dad cheered for all three of their hockey playing sons. Joel, the youngest, was a mainstay on North York minor hockey rosters as he grew up, but there was talent in young Joel.

Joel worked hard and earned some looks from scouts, resuling in him being drafted in the 15th round of the OHL draft by the Owen Sound Platers where he'd make a bigger name for himself. In four seasons from 1997-2001, Ward played 235 games where he scored 76 goals and 152 points including a 62-point 2000-01 season that earned him a professional shot with the WCHL's Long Beach Ice Dogs that saw him skate in eight playoff games without registering a point.

UPEI head coach Doug Currie reached out to Ward to offer him an opportunity to join the Panthers men's hockey team, but Joel was still chasing his NHL dream as he had a professional tryout with the Detroit Red Wings. He didn't crack the Wings' roster in 2001, so Ward collected his gear and headed east to Charlottetown where he landed at the University of Prince Edward Island ready to play hockey!

As Currie's recruiting was rebuilding the Panthers following a 13-loss season in 2000-01, the Panthers struggled out of the gates in 2001-02, starting the season with a 4-7-3 record. UPEI would finish with an 8-6-0 second half as they showed some improvement, but UNB would sweep them out of the playoffs in their best-of-three series. Ward, however, was on fire the entire season as he registered 13 goals and 27 points in 22 games to be named Panthers Rookie of the Year.

UPEI started the 2002-03 season slow again, as they were 1-4-1 in their first six games, but they'd finish the first half at a 6-6-3 mark as they found their groove through November. Things fell off in the second half as the Panthers struggled to a 5-8-0 record, but they'd make the playoffs as the sixth-place AUS team before being swept out of playoffs by third-ranked StFX. Ward, to his credit, continued to show his talents with an 11-goal, 26-point season, earning him the Panthers' MVP award and an AUS Second Team All-Star selection!

There were big changes in 2003-04 as Doug Currie was out as head coach, replaced by former National Champion UNB head coach Mike Kelly. The other big change was the Panthers moved back to MacLauchlan Arena on the UPEI campus after last playing there full-time in 1974-75. That change happened in January, and the Panthers played the first half at the Charlottetown Civic Centre where they finished with a 7-6-1 record as looked forward to their new home.

After moving into MacLauchlan Arena, the Panthers rattled off three wins before going winless in five. They'd finish the second half with a 6-7-1 record for fifth-place, and Dalhousie would beat them in three games in the playoffs. Ward was once again impressive in his play, scoring 14 goals and 38 points to be named as the Panthers' MVP and an AUS Second Team All-Star again. He would add a little more hardware to his trophy case, though, as he was also named the AUS Most Sportsmanlike Player! Could he add a championship?

The 2004-05 season saw the Panthers start slow once again, but they would turn that slow start into a 6-5-3 record by the December break. An 1-5-2 January was as ugly as things can get, but the Panthers found their stride with a 4-1-1 finish to the campaign at 11-11-6 and in sixth-place. Another two-game sweep at the hands of Saint Mary's ended the season, but Joel Ward had the university hockey world talking. He brought home the Panthers' MVP award for a third-straight year and was named the AUS MVP after leading the conference in scoring with 16 goals and 44 points in 28 games!

He wasn't done racking up hardware, though. Along with those honours, Ward was named a First Team All-Star, a CIS First Team All-Canadian, won the nationally-awarded R.W. Pugh Fair Play Award as the most sportmanlike player in the nation, and was named UPEI Male Athlete of the Year for 2004-05! And while the AUS Championship and CIS National Championship never materialized, it's pretty clear that Joel Ward made an impact in PEI while skating with the Panthers.

Ward would sign with the AHL's Houston Aeros for the 2005-06 season, and that would be the start of an amazing professional hockey career that saw him play for four NHL teams including Minnesota, Nashville, Washington, and San Jose. He was never traded, moving only through free agency when teams sought his services. Over his professional career, Ward played 209 AHL games, scoring 38 goals and 86 points in three seasons, and 726 NHL games, totalling 133 goals and 304 points in eleven seasons. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Sociology in 2006 from UPEI while skating with Houston and Minnesota.

Joel Ward is one of the most decorated players to come out of UPEI's program, and he joins the likes of Dave Cameron, Doug MacLean, and Al MacAdam as former UPEI Panthers players who have had the privilege of being a head coach at the AHL level. Again, this is an achievement that should be celebrated by a U SPORTS school and program at the very least, but the last thing posted on the UPEI men's hockey page came on March 3, 2026. The AUS could have an easy win with a story, but their most recent post was on May 27, 2026.

Ok, so maybe this is more of a social media celebration thing, right? Well, the UPEI Panthers posted nothing on Twitter and nothing on Instagram. The AUS hasn't posted anything on Twitter since January 13, and they have nothing on their Instagram. The U SPORTS hockey account last posted on Twitter on February 3, and their last Instagram post was in 2017. The main U SPORTS Twitter account has three posts about former Western player Olivia Ghosh-Swaby and flag football, but none about Joel Ward and his appointment to head coach in the AHL. Ditto for their Instagram feed. That's unfathomable.

I'm excited to see what Joel Ward can do in his AHL coaching debut. I think he has the make-up to be a solid coach as he was always a good communicator, understood systems well, and certainly can relate to players who are chasing down their dreams in the AHL. I'm also happy to give Joel Ward some celebration for this achievement as a former U SPORTS player because he's earned everything that has been bestowed upon him including this opportunity with Henderson.

It just amazes me that I'm always the only person talking about U SPORTS hockey when there are stories that could promote the programs and leagues just sitting there. There won't be any easy wins for Joel Ward next season, but I'm sure he prefers to earn every win.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Four-Jersey Xenophobia?

The ECHL will hold their annual All-Star Game in Boise, Idaho this season with the Idaho Steelheads serving as hosts to the rest of the league. The Steelheads have been a solid team for a long time so having them host the annual event makes sense despite their remote location to most of the ECHL teams. It will be their second time holding the event after being awarded the event back in 2007, and they become just the third team to host the event twice since 1988. This year's game, however, won't be the same as the 2007 one.

The ECHL has changed its all-star game formats several times since they added the event to their calendar in 1993. The first three games saw a traditional East-vs-West matchup. The 1996 game in Tallahassee saw the league pit the Northern Conference against the Southern Conference before the 1997 game switched to the hosts playing the ECHL All-Stars. Three different formats over five years is a bit of a head-scratcher, but we're not even close to being done with format changes. The good news is that some last longer than others.

1998 was the first time we saw a Canada-vs-USA all-star game format in Lafayette, Louisiana before the league swapped the format back to the Northern Conference-Southern Conference format in 1999 in Biloxi, Mississippi. That format would last until 2004 when the league went back to East-vs-West matchup, and that was shelved in 2005 when the ECHL switched to a National Conference versus America

In 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017, the ECHL went back to the host team playing the ECHL All-Stars while there was no All-Star Game played in 2012, 2014, or 2016. I'm not sure these gap years make any sense for the ECHL, but that's how the ECHL operated for seven seasons. In 2018, they went to the four-division tournament format in Fishers, Indiana, and 2019 saw the ECHL All-Stars play "Team Fins" in Toledo, Ohio. 2020 went back to an East-vs-West format, and 2021 saw the game cancelled due to COVID as Jacksonville did not get to host.

2022 would see the game arrive in Jacksonville as the ECHL All-Stars played the Icemen before the ECHL went back to a modified four-team tournament in 2023 that saw the Norfolk Admirals split into two squads - the Cruisers and Destroyers - while the other two teams were the Eastern Conference and Western Conference All-Stars. 2024 saw the ECHL All-Stars battle the Ghost Pirates in Savannah, Georgia while 2025's game was cancelled in favour of the ECHL Winter Classic played between the Kalamazoo Wings and Toledo Walleye.

2026's game in Allen, Texas saw Team Stars and Team Stripes battle in the ECHL All-Star Game where the Allen Americans' players were mixed in with the ECHL All-Stars on both sides in a unique twist. And that leads to Wednesday's announcement of the ECHL returning to the Canada-vs-USA all-star game format in Boise next season which, when you consider some of the past recent all-stars, makes very little sense when you read that "United States-born ECHL All-Stars will take on Canadian-born ECHL All-Stars over a two-day format" in Idaho.

Where does that leave Swedish-born, Fort Wayne Komets goaltender Samuel Jonsson or Russian-born, Calgary Wranglers goaltender Arsenii Sergeev or Finnish-born, Hamilton Hammers goaltender Henrik Tikkanen who all were all-stars in 2026? Three of four goalies in last season's ECHL All-Star Game were neither Canadian nor American, and none of them will be able to play in this season's event because of where they were born? How is this even being discussed?

I get that the vast majority of ECHL All-Star selections are players who were born in Canada or the US, but Russian-born Max Andreev tied for tenth in league scoring last season with Maine. Russian-born Nikita Sedov was the second-highest scoring defender in the ECHL's regular season last year, and Hungarian-born Kristof Papp had 20 goals and 46 points for Norfolk. None of those players made the All-Star Game last season, but they won't be invited this year based on the format no matter how many goals or points they score.

I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that Swedish-born, Augusta Lynx forward Jonas Poling of the Southern Conference was the ECHL All-Star Game MVP in 2001 and that Russian-born, Huntington Blizzard forward Andrei Bashkirov was the ECHL All-Star Game MVP in 1997. I know they can switch formats after next season's game once again, but switching back to a format when the game is more international than ever makes zero sense from a hockey business standpoint.

The ECHL can pat themselves on the back for the jerseys shown in the lede photo all they want, but it makes no sense to exclude good players who simply were born outside North American borders. According to their release on Wednesday about the event,

"The United States jerseys for the skills competition are a dark blue base featuring a star design and lighter blue highlights with USA prominently in the middle while Canada's jerseys are a dark red base, with a maple leaf and Canada displayed in a brighter red. The shoulders of both jerseys will include the All-Star Classic logo and the participant's team logo."

The jerseys have a fun element to them for the skills competition and they'll likely get a pile of bids during the jersey auction that will follow, but, as a foreign-born player, it's hard to see just those two countries celebrated in a league that features players from numerous countries. The league, however, will double-down in the game with another set of Canada and USA jerseys that are uniquely ECHL.

"... both teams will wear retro-inspired jerseys. The United States jerseys are a cream base with red stripes and blue shoulders, with the USA letters inside a shield on a red star. Canada's jerseys are a red base with white stripes, with a red maple leaf featured inside a white shield. Similar to the skills jerseys, the shoulders of both jerseys will include the All-Star Classic logo and the participant's team logo."

I'm generally not a fan of these jerseys in most years, and it seems the Skills Competition jerseys are superior to the actual All-Star Game jerseys based on the image above. With the very limited scope of this event in pitting Canadian all-stars against American all-stars, I understand why design options may be limited. This is just another reason why the format of the 2027 ECHL All-Star Game is a mistake.

I'm not rating jerseys that exclude good players based on where they were born. If hockey is supposed to be working to be more inclusive of all people, pitching the idea of United States-born ECHL All-Stars against Canadian-born ECHL All-Stars is incredibly xenophobic. I know that likely wasn't the intention here, but that's the path the ECHL has chosen to follow for its 2027 ECHL All-Star Game in Boise.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

I'll Read The Recaps

Congratualtions to the city of Buffalo and the Buffalo Sabres on hosting the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. I'm not watching the event tonight because I'm working, but let's be honest in saying that it's hardly "must-see TV". Yes, there will always be a few surprises, but the analyses of these players have been happening since they were twelve. There's nothing new to know about these players, so it's strictly up to the teams to make the selections they want.

It was no surprise when Gavin McKenna went first-overall to the Toronto Maple Leafs followed by San Jose selecting Ivar Stenberg with the second pick. Caleb Malhotra was chosen by Vancouver with the third pick and will play for his dad at some point, and Buffalo may have shocked a number of people by choosing defender Daxon Rudolph with the fourth-overall pick. It's not earth-shattering.

Rudolph's selection kicked off a run of defenders as Alberts Smits went fifth-overall to the New York Rangers, Carson Carels went to Calgary with th sixth pick, and Chase Reid "fell" to Seattle at seventh-overall. The key with all these defenceman choices is that none of them will likely step in and pull a Matthew Schaefer next season. Don't get me wrong: they're good, but I just don't see it.

There were many people hoping that the Winnipeg Jets would have the potential to choose a game-breaking centreman with the eighth pick, and Viggo Björck could turn into that player. No one will question his work ethic nor his drive to be better, and there's hope that he adds a few inches in height as a late-bloomer. Again, I don't see Björck being in Winnipeg unless he's playing with the Moose for a season or two, so the Jets need him to take big steps next season with Djurgårdens IF in order to speed up his route to the NHL club.

As a side note, can we speed this entire ordeal up? The NHL dragged its rear end through another first six picks as each team seemingly got 20 minutes to figure out who they were going to choose when they already had known for days who was going to be picked. Why does it take so bloody long for NHL teams to make selections? Why does the NHL drag this out to clawing-my-eyes-out lengths?

Anyway, the draft will continue tomorrow with Rounds Two through Seven. I may watch a little of it while I do some chores around the house, but it's not must-watch for me at any time. Give me the recap and I'll be fine. Nothing matters until these players reach the NHL.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 718

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back tonight at the UMFM studios where we're one day away from the NHL Entry Draft in Buffalo, New York. Since we rarely talk about mock drafts and who should be selected by which team, don't expect anything like that tonight. Instead, we have some topics that need discussing and we'll even be joined by a special guest for the show! Tonight should be fun with stories, news, and laughs all going down on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason welcome Jenna Thompson back to the show! Jenna's been itching to chat about hockey, so we'll let the former co-host back into the studio to discuss the enormous expansion price tag if an owner wants to set up an NHL franchise in Houston, USHL expansion locations and who will be backing these teams, the ECHL's New Mexico Goatheads now have an identity, and there has to be a discussion about Mike Babcock's new job with the Edmonton Oilers. It's going to be a show with some opinions, some disagreements, some emotions, and lots of chatter between our three hosts, so make sure you're ready to go tonight for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT on one of 101.5 FM, Channel 718 on MTS TV, or via UMFM.com!

If you live outside Winnipeg and want to listen, we have options! The UMFM website's streaming player works well if you want to listen online. We also recommend Radio Garden if you need an easy-to-use online stream. If you're more of an app person, we recommend you use the TuneIn app found on the App Store or Google Play Store.

If you have questions, you can email all show queries and comments to hockeyshow@umfm.com! Tweet me anytime with questions you may have by hitting me up at @TeebzHBIC on Twitter! I'm here to listen to you, so make your voice heard! And because both Teebz and Jason are on the butterfly app where things are less noisy, you can find Teebz here and Jason here on Bluesky!

Tonight, Teebz, Jason, and Jenna will chat about insane costs, lots of expansion, seed money, new jerseys, new coaches, morality in sports, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

A Delicate Balancing Act

Television is the one medium where live sports does well when it comes to viewers and advertising revenue. The NFL, for example, saw its media partners generate a combined $5.87 billion in revenue with $5.19 billion of that total coming from television. The NHL likes to remind everyone of their successes on television when it comes to money and viewers whenever it can, but what about the smaller leagues? Do they do as well as everyone else? That might be a question worth examining after reading Mick Hatten's article on St. Cloud Live today.

Hatten's article takes a look at the relationship that the NCAA's St. Cloud State has with television with respect to fans attending games in-person. The first line of his article reads, "St. Cloud State University Athletic Director Holly Schreiner is trying to find the right balance for the TV coverage of the school's men's hockey program," and that's an interesting premise coming out of the State of Hockey if the Huskies are struggling to attract and retain in-arena fans.

There's no doubt that NCAA hockey teams makes money off their streaming services, but there is a major asterisk on the totals they generate. League members received a combined $1.19 million in profit from NCHC TV, via Sidearm, during the 2025 fiscal year, but $704,705.50 went to the University of North Dakota. In fact, they dwarf everyone else COMBINED in the top-ten school revenues by nearly $217,000, so let's be brutally honest and say that UND benefits almost exclusively from NCHC TV. No other program hit six-digits in revenue in 2025, and 59.2% of all streaming revenue went to UND.

With costs escalating across all facets of hockey, NCAA teams have to be mindful of generating revenue in order to help offset their budgeted amounts of money they receive from their respective schools. Having fans in seats helps to sell concessions, merchandise, and parking which, in turn, helps those teams. But if games are available via streaming and television platforms, the convenience often outweighs the effort it takes to head out to the hockey game.

"Do you lose more than you gain if you get rid of it?" Schreiner asked Hatten rhetorically. "That's a hard one. We know that the university does a great service through Husky Productions and what these students can do and put out a broadcast that is so high quality.

"It's going to be hard to say that we're not going to do that live," she continued. "I think they deserve to have that on live TV. But maybe it's too good of a job. That's a good problem to have. In a perfect world, we have it broadcast live, lots of viewership and yet we have a nice, full crowd every weekend."

The NHCH also seems to recognize that only one team has a solid revenue stream combined with solid attendance as North Dakota led both categories, causing NCHC Commissioner Heather Weems to tell Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald in April that "the league will hire a consultant to help schools navigate their options".

"I'd expect in the next six to nine months, we'll go through the process with the consultant and we'll have an announcement in the spring or the late winter," Weems told Schlossman at that time. Obviously, there won't be any changes made for the 2026-27 season based on Weems' timeline, and any chamges recommended will still need some time to be implemented. For St. Cloud State who averaged just 3561 fans per game last season, that's valuable time where they can make their own changes to bring more fans to games.

"I think anyone who was at games this year would look at us and say that butts in seats weren't good," Schreiner admitted. "But I go back to streaming... that's a hard conversation to have. When it's 20-below zero, or even just zero, and you can watch a stream from home — what's the incentive to come and be here in person? That's the one thing that we're working on this summer."

The one thing that always puts people in seats is winning hockey. St. Cloud State was 9-14-1 in-conference and 16-19-1 overall. That's not winning hockey when one considers they missed the playoffs, so making the trek to see the Huskies play when there's a likely chance that they'll lose doesn't make for a fun night out in the dead of winter. However, as an illustration, consider the following:

• 2025-26: 9-14-1 (7th in NCHC attendance - 3658)
• 2024-25: 7-16-1 (9th - 3046)
• 2023-24: 11-9-4 (6th - 3540)
• 2022-23: 12-9-3 (6th - 4206)
• 2021-22: 10-10-4 (6th - 3981)
• 2020-21: 15-9-0 (4th - 404**)
• 2019-20: 10-12-2 (6th - 3981)
• 2018-19: 19-2-3 (6th - 4260)
• 2017-18: 16-4-4 (7th - 3995)

Aside from the pandemic-affected numbers in 2020-21, St. Cloud State has flirted with 4000 fans per game every season including when they finished atop the NCHC standings in both 2017-18 and 2018-19. The recent drop could be due to having another professional team in the state in the PWHL's Minnesota Frost who could affect St. Cloud State's attendance if people living closer to Minneapolis/St. Paul opt to spend their hockey dollars there. Again, it's a balance.

St. Cloud State has seen nearly 550 fans stop buying tickets since 2023, and that has to be concerning. Is that due to games being availabl e via streaming services and/or television? I'm not so sure that those two things are correlated unless there's some sort of examination where viewers are going up for the televised games, but Schreiner's asking that question based on the empty seats she sees.

"Does having our games televised live help us or hurt us?" she asked. "At the same time, we get sponsorships that advertise during that time that we otherwise won't have without that partnership. Being on TV, we have great viewership in the Twin Cities metro areas. It's hard to say you want to give that up. Yet there are days when you see almost no one at a game and I say, 'Let's get rid of that opportunity.' That's a hard one. I'm not sure what the right answer is."

Therein lies the problem: the right answer isn't clearly evident. We heard the same argument about UMFM's radio broadcasts taking money out of the pocket of the Manitoba Bisons due to how good our production was compared to what was being streamed. That was part of the reason that the Bisons walked away from renewing the contract with UMFM. They'll never reveal their numbers, but I can't imagine that their Canada West TV numbers went up once they ditched the radio broadcast. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.

So how do schools balance putting people in seats with the need for television exposure? Again, there is no eas answer. A winning culture combined with high standards and a pedigree of developing high-end talent would help. There are no big-name CHL players headed to St. Cloud State this fall to play hockey, so the Huskies won't have a must-see player on their roster. I'm not saying that will solve their attendance problems in one season, but it would be a good start.

Schreiner is aware of the changing sports landscape regarding how people watch, telling Hatten, "I think the way sports are now, it has shifted who our target audience is. Youth hockey parents are never free on weekends. We've been brainstorming a bunch of different things. Whether it's getting more season tickets sold, or whether it's single-game tickets from promotions to the way we advertise and see our information. It all needs to be looked at differently."

Schreiner is entirely right with her last sentence as attending games is more of an experience now than just being the game. Vegas has their elaborate productions before every game. Nashville has intermission concerts with well-known musicians and bands. Carolina does the tailgating experience before games. Each of these unique attractions help to sell the hockey experience, and this is what St. Cloud State has to tap into: find something fun and unique they can build on. Once they have that, winning hockey brings people back.

As much as it seems sensible that abandoning television and streaming services would drive people back to the rink, I'd argue the opposite is never truer than before, and the Chicago Blackhawks are the perfect example of how not being on television hurt their attendance at games. Of course, playing winning hockey helped, but, as the old saying goes, "the worst thing about being talked about is not being talked about." I can't tell St. Cloud State what to do nor do I have a crystal ball to tell the future, but abandoning video media would be the wrong direction to take if they want to sell tickets.

As I said off the top, it's a delicate balancing act for teams.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!