Une Année Supplémentaire

If you don't recognize the stylized "S" to the left, that's ok because I had no idea that the Université de Sherbrooke Vert-et-Or used that as a logo. As you may know, Sherbrooke was looking to get into men's and women's hockey at the U SPORTS level with the addition of hockey teams by 2027 thanks to a generous donation. With Laval ready to go this season, I had assumed that SHerbrooke had pushed their scheduling up to bring their team into the RSEQ at the same time. It turns out that not everything would follow the logical addition of two teams at the same time as the Vert-et-Or remain committed to the 2027 start date for university hockey.

I have no issue with admitting that I was wrong on this one as my wish to see university-level women's hockey grow and improve is being shared by one province across this nation. Sherbrooke has made a handful of announcements for their men's hockey team's debut next season when it comes to staffing and players, but the women's team doesn't even exist on their athletics page yet. This isn't a setback, but one would hope that a page for the women's team is on the horizon.

That being said, the 2027 debut for the Vert-et-Or in the RSEQ will happen at the Thibault GM Complex where the school and arena agreed to a three-year deal to have all activities - practices and games - held there. You might be thinking, "Aren't they going to be around more than three years?" when it comes to this arena deal, but Sherbrooke is planning an ambitious new project: a new arena!

As Camille Guindon wrote in her article for Le Collectif, the arena project still has several key details that have to be sorted out including capacity, layout, and the services that will be offered, but by having the two university teams as initial tenants the arena will see revenue streams develop. The total cost is currently estimated at between $25 million and $40 million, but the arena project received a $15 million donation from businessman Herb Black and funds from the Serge Savard Fund. Perhaps a future arena isn't impossible.

As Guindon's wrote in the article, though, was the note that read "A women's team could also be created as early as the following year."

I'm not asking Sherbrooke to rush the creation of a women's team, and seeing all the moving parts that surround the Sherbrooke entries into men's and women's hockey justifies that extra year of preparation and setup. Sherbrooke's efforts to recruit won't be easier with the other five teams in the RSEQ still needing players next season, but the women's program still needs all of its coaching staff hired which is something that needs to happen sooner than later.

Five teams will take the ice this season with a sixth team planning for a 2027 debut. The RSEQ is still the smallest conference in U SPORTS women's hockey with the new additions, but the six-team RSEQ is far more legitimate than the four-team RSEQ ever was. I'll be watching Laval's progress this season when it comes to the Rouge-et-Or's competitiveness with teams like Concordia, Montreal, and Bishop's, and their growth should be the map that Sherbrooke follows for their 2027 debut. If Laval does well, Sherbrooke should replicate that.

In summary, nothing is happening on the surface for the Sherbrooke Vert-et-Or women's team right now. Under the surface, however, the building of the coachign staff will start soon, a possible new arena announcement seems to be imminent, and 25 women will be given a chance to be Sherbrooke's inaugural women's hockey team. If you're a fan of U SPORTS women's hockey, having Sherbrooke take this gap year might be disappointing at first, but they're working on making hockey better for everyone in and around Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Keep up the good work, and we'll see you in 2027, Sherbrooke!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Red-And-Gold Standard

We've known that the RSEQ women's hockey conference was growing by two teams this season for some time as both Laval and Sherbrooke were joining the fun. Just like with any expansion hockey team, there will be a lot of firsts, an even greater amount of hope, and a few bumps in the road along the way when it comes to the inuagural season, but it seems one of those Quebec universities is trying to get ahead of the curve with an outstanding setup for their locker room. If Laval puts this kind of effort into everything including their play on the ice, they might be a new U SPORTS powerhouse!

This is what the players walked into yesterday when they were invited to check out their new space on campus for the first time.

Pretty nice digs, right? That looks like a great home at the Aréna du PEPS for the new women's team, and they could likely use this dressing room as a selling feature on campus tours for potential recruits. There are lots of U SPORTS programs who have nothing like this, so kudos to Laval University for investing their women!

Circle October 16 on your calendars as they'll play the Montreal Carabins that day in their first official action in the history of the school. Montreal is, of course, one of the teams that always has big seasons in the RSEQ with an appearance at Nationals almost a perennial event, so Laval will have a big test on their hands in that first game as they begin writing chapters into their history. It's said that "for one to be the best, they have to beat the best" so why not welcome the team that established the gold standard for university women's hockey in Quebec? It seems like a good measuring stick!

Of course, the team needs to look good when they step on the ice, so the jerseys should invoke a sense of pride with the design. Will Laval find the right setup? Will they bring a traditional hockey look?

The home jerseys are nearly flawless in their design, and I commend Laval for sticking to a traditional hockey sweater design. The red and white provide excellent contrast, the gold stripe fits nicely, they avoided overusing black, and the design with the shoulder yoke feels like this team has a rich history. The CCM logo above the Laval logo can go, but these jerseys hit all the checkboxes in their design.

Will the road jerseys bring that same excellent design? Let's find out!

This red jersey isn't as good as the white jersey mainly because there's way too much black. It needs more gold since Laval is the Rouge-Et-Or, and the change in the design altogether isn't quite as impactful as they may think it is. A black yoke would work if they brought back the gold stripes on the arms and the hems outlined by black, but these will work. They're clearly not as good as the white jerseys, but they'll work for Laval. I do like the gold outline on the numbers and name on the back, though, as they helps to make the name and number more readable. That's important for broadcasters!

Overall, Laval looks like they're kicking off their women's hockey history on the right foot with an amazing locker room experience and a solid wardrobe of jerseys. Their play on the ice will obviously determine where they finish in the standings, but they're off to a good start when it comes to the aesthetics of the team. Might the RSEQ might be the best-dressed conference in women's hockey?

Best of luck to the Laval Rouge-et-Or on their inaugural season! I'll be watching their progress, but I won't be doing a lot of writing about them or any other university women's team after Canada West made the decision for me to end The Rundown. I am, however, excited to see how well former Winnipeg Ice forward Talia Jones does, so there's definitiely a reason to keep an eye on the Laval Rouge-et-Or!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

New Zealand Crowns A Champion

With the calendar flipping to August and the summer entering its later stages of the season, summer hockey leagues and camps will begin to give way to full seasons once more. When the seasons are flipped, though, teams who play through the winter in the southern hemisphere will get to look forward to warm summer days like we're experiencing now. That's the case for the New Zealand Women's Ice Hockey League as the NZWIHL crowned a champion today despite the game being televised during the wee hours of Saturday in North America! Which teams made the final and what were the storylines? Let's take a dive into the NZWIHL!

The two teams shown above were your finalists from the four-team NZWIHL as the Auckland Steel and Wakatipu Wild earned their way into the final game to determine the 2026 NZWIHL championship. The Wild beat the Dunedin Thunder on Saturday to book their spot in the final while the Steel dismissed the Canterbury Thunder earlier on Saturday to claim their berth as well. Dunedin, it should be noted, beat the Thunder in the bronze medal game on Sunday afternoon.

Auckland came into the final as the favorite thanks to posting an undefeated regular season where they went 11-0-1-0 for 35 points. That one overtime win came back on July 25 when the Steel needed 57 seconds beyond regulation time to win 2-1 over Dunedin. Jasmine Horner-Pascoe scored her 14th goal in overtime for that win, and she'd finish second in team and league scoring with 26 points. League leader Katya Blong had 35 points, third-place leader Lauren Askenazy had 21 points, and fourth-place leader Brooke Patron had 17 points all for Auckland. In short, they scored a lot and won a lot.

Wakapitu struggled to find their rhythm this season, posting a 2-6-1-3 record for 11 points and finishing in third-place. Kelli Burstein ha a good season with ten goals and 14 points, but no other Wild player scored more than seven points. New Zealand-born Jordan Wichman was 2-3-1-0 this season with a 2.75 GAA and a .921 save percentage, but it's hard to win games when the Wild only averaged 2.00 goals-per-game. However, a four-goal outburst by Burstein powered the Wild to a 5-1 win past the Thunder in their playoff game for an unexpected chance at Sunday's NZWIHL championship!

Would the Wild have enough left in the tank to upset Auckland?

That question was answered early in Sunday's championship game as Auckland scored three times in the opening ten minutes and five times in the first frame to pace the Steel to a 5-1 lead after twenty minutes. The teams would trade goals in the middle period before Auckland tacked on two more in third period to skate to the 8-2 championship win as the 2026 NZWIHL season came to a close!

Highlights from the NZWIHL championship game can be seen below!


What's fun in all of this is seeing a player like Katya Blong do well as she skates with McGill where she's earning her kinesiology degree. Blong looks like she's going to be one of New Zealand's best players for a long time, and it's awesome to her skating in the Canadian university circuit. Brooke Patron was a Saskatchewan Huskies defender for four seasons and she appears to be helping the NZWIHL and the Steel with her skills. Goaltender Alexa Gibson seems to be enjoying life in Auckland after skating for the Ottawa Gee-Gees!

Even cooler is that Lochlyn Hyde, who splits the goaltending duties with Gibson, has jumped into the NZIHL - the men's league - on occasion when teams have needed a goaltender. To date, Hyde has played three games in the top division where she has a 3.50 GAA and an .885 save percentage, and has helped out the second-division league twice where she's officially 1-1-0! How cool is that?

On the other side, Wakatipu had no players who suited up in U SPORTS, but Kelli Berstein did play for the University of Minnesota. However, the gap in skill between these two teams was evident in the final as Auckland outshot Wakatipu 38-22 and controlled the play a lot. I get that no one is going to tell Auckland to break their team up to disperse talent across the other three teams, but the 14-point gap between Auckland and second-place Dunedin is hard to fathom in a four-team league. Something has to change for New Zealand hockey to continue to develop good players for international competitions.

Congratulations to the Auckland Steel on winning their fourth-straight NZWIHL championship! It's their eighth championship overall in the NZWIHL, and I imaging they'll be gunning for a fifth-consecutive and ninth-overall championship in 2027 if everything goes well. Perhaps we'll see another team step in and claim victory, but another solid season is in the book for Kiwi hockey, the NZWIHL, and its players!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 721

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back with some new introductions, some more hockey stories, and some opinions from our two hosts about everything happening in hockey. It's been a fairly quiet week for a lot of the hockey world as schedules were released for the NHL today which flooded social media, but there were still stories to hit the wires this week that need to be discussed. Our hosts will dive into those newsworthy pieces tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason will criss-cross the globe as they look at stories from a number of places. They'll discuss failed executives becoming senior advisors, Winnipeg locking up Cole Perfetti, a pile of notable Canada West and U SPORTS men's hockey players landing in professional leagues, Victory+ losing a major client, a weird situation in Ukraine, a potential new destination in Australia, and anything else that may cross their paths. There's lots to discuss and about which our hosts will opine including a few non-hockey stories, so make sure you're ready to roll 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 and Jason chat unearned jobs, good deals, good opportunities, bad economics, weird conscription, new venues, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: July 16, 2026: Episode 721

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

2026 Stellar Recruits

If you're looking at the image to the left and thinking "that looks like an eye", you're looking at the Helix Nebula which is nicknamed the "Eye of God" or "Eye of Sauron" due to its shape! The nebula gets its eye-like shape from the glowing, gaseous remains of a dying star that has begun shedding its outer layers into space. Frankly, it looks awesome, but it's appropriate today because you're going to want to keep your eye on the following players listed below. Today, I present to you the 2026-27 recruits for each Canada West women's hockey team with my thoughts on the incoming class!

I spent a lot of time digging around social media and looking over websites as I collected names and information about the players joining Canada West's nine teams. It took a while, but here we are today. I'm not going to waste any further time, so here are all the known or announced players joining the nine Canada West teams!

Canada West Recruits

Alberta Pandas

Name	Current	Prv.	Pos	G/GAA	A/SV%
Cassia Severin	Edge	AB	F	4	14
Samantha Baker	Edge	AB	F	8	23
Saya Earl	Delta	BC	F	4	7
Hudson Bradley	Balmoral Hall	MB	D	8	14
Elise Miller	North Shore	BC	F	11	23
Sarah McNabb	Battleford	SK	F	10	13
Daniella Martorana	Merrimack (NCAA)	MA	F	0	0
Scarlett Jones	Toronto (OUA)	ON	F	1	1
Jaylah Bottle	Ottawa (OUA)	ON	D	0	0

The Alberta Pandas recruited a pile of players long before Howie Draper announced his retirement, so I assume that this class will be the last of his era running the Pandas. With interim head coach Leah Copeland taking over, I would expect a similar brand of tenacious hockey that she played when suiting up for the Pandas, but don't expect her to replicate Howie's style. She has some high-end talent coming in along with a few players who have suited up at the university level elsewhere. Alberta's in a bit of a rebuild, but I expect them to still be a solid team as everyone settles in. Once again, the Pandas should be a playoff team in their temporary home in Nisku.

Calgary Dinos

Name	Current	Prv.	Pos	G/GAA	A/SV%
Madison Batch	Delta	BC	D	3	25
Brooklyn Blomquist	RINK Kelowna	BC	F	4	9
Katelyn Marshall	Regina	SK	F	9	11

The Calgary Dinos are playing their cards close to their chests when it comes to recruiting. I know this can't be the entire class they're bringing in, but they haven't posted their recruit information anywhere that I could find or have seen. In saying this, the three recruits listed above are solid, and they will contribute for head coach Josh Gosling. Calgary's going to have to battle after some of their veterans graduated, but they'll be a handful for any opponent this season. The Dinos could still have a number of weapons they haven't announced, so we'll have to see who lands in Calgary.

MacEwan Griffins

Name	Current	Prv.	Pos	G/GAA	A/SV%
Olivia Stewart	Red Deer	AB	D	3	4
Sawyer McKay	Lloydminster	AB	F	5	8
Peyton Mages	North Shore	BC	D	10	16
Tristan Todosichuk	Weyburn	SK	F	10	10
Shannon MacLeod	Calgary	AB	F	1	2
Haley Braun	OHA Mavericks	ON	F	12	10
Vayda Rigaux	Eastman	MB	D	8	17
Delainey Rigaux	Eastman	MB	F	25	16
Mya Magowan	Calgary	AB	F	2	3
Paige Smith	Bemidji (NCAA)	MN	F	0	1

The MacEwan Griffins will get a fresh start after Chris Leeming was replaced by interim head coach Izzy Cropper, and this recruiting class should give them a little more firepower and a little more tenacity on the ice. Cropper served as an assistant coach for the last two years, so she's going to have to find ways to get this squad to push the puck up the ice without abandoning their netminders. I like the scoring and grittiness in these new recruits, so we'll see if they can be the spark for the new-look Griffins this year as they get back on track.

Manitoba Bisons

Name	Current	Prv.	Pos	G/GAA	A/SV%
Addilyn Nohlgren	Winnipeg Avros	MB	F	5	21
Braya Kapusta	Winnipeg Avros	MB	F	23	12
Kadence Fleece	Calgary	AB	D	1	2
Brynn Hannula	Lovell	MA	F	11	20
Oda Austefjord	Stavanger	NO	D	3	33
Jamie Hensch	Lloydminster	AB	D	1	6
Addison Greve	Mt. Academy	PE	F	4	8

The first recruiting class done by Jordan Colliton and her team have some high-end talent joining the Herd. I'm curious to see how Oda Austefjord jumps into the team because she was excellent in Norway, and Colliton has seen other Norwegian defenders thrive in Canada West. That being said, the Bisons get a number of solid additions to their forward group that should make the attack that much more lethal. If the Herd are looking to build on their showing at Nationals this year, this class of recruits should help them do that.

Mount Royal Cougars

Name	Current	Prv.	Pos	G/GAA	A/SV%
Castilla Rubin	North Shore	BC	F	8	9
Ayden Kehrig	Battleford	SK	D	2	11
Peyton Carter	OHA Edmonton	AB	F	8	13
Danelle Steffen	Saskatoon	SK	D	9	10
Skylar Heinrichs	Lloydminster	AB	F	11	5

If there's one thing that head coach Scott Rivett gets with his recruits, it's talent and work ethic. All of his recruits will continue that trend for the Cougars this season, and I suspect we'll see the Cougars pushing for the top of their division. I am surprised that there isn't a Manitoban in Scott's recruits this year as he always seems to have one, but these five players will continue to keep the Cougars as one of the best teams in Canada West and across Canada.

Regina Cougars

Name	Current	Prv.	Pos	G/GAA	A/SV%
Summer Grenier	Edmonton	AB	F	5	14
Ivy Perkin	Westman	MB	F	26	34
Isabelle Luttmerding	Calgary	AB	F	10	6
Darby Marshall	Regina	SK	D	7	6
Aliyah Teixeira	Winnipeg Ice	MB	D	5	13
Aldawna Evers	Edmonton	AB	G	1.70	.921
Raela Packet	Swift Current	SK	F	11	19
Jade Pelland	OHA Mavericks	ON	F	7	13
Amy Dvernichuk	St. Thomas	NS	F	3	9

Head coach Brandy West-McMaster did a superb recruiting job with her class this season, bringing in fantastic scoring and solid defenders who will look to push the Cougars to new heights. Recruiting a third goalie was needed, but I don't know what West-McMaster has in store for them when it comes to playing time. What I do know is her team will benefit from these players' talents as there are a lot of solid additions to the Regina lineup. The Cougars could be scary good.

Saskatchewan Huskies

Name	Current	Prv.	Pos	G/GAA	A/SV%
Reese Dyky	Saskatoon	SK	D	2	11
Anna Benoit	Regina	SK	F	10	9
Addison Tomes	Eastman	MB	G	0.81	.958
Cambree Legge	Saskatoon	SK	F	3	5
Reese Overton	N. Capitals	BC	F	4	12
Cedar Swan	Saskatoon	SK	F	7	8
Alexa Roberts	North Shore	BC	F	14	13
Charlie Shearer	Westman	MB	F	2	6
Makayla Christmann	MacEwan (CW)	AB	G	3.75	.895

Head coach Steve Kook has done another marvelous job in recruiting high-end talent for his team, and it starts from the crease out again as he has one of Manitoba's best young netminders, a solid two-way defender, and a pile of forwards who can score, but will be defensively responsible in ensuring that the Huskies are successful. Don't expect a lot of high-scoring games from the Huskies in any season, but this group builds on the momentum that the Huskies were building last season. I don't expect them to win the division next season, but I do expect them to cause a lot of headaches for opposition coaches and players during the 2026-27 season.

Trinity Western Spartans

Name	Current	Prv.	Pos	G/GAA	A/SV%
Mika Higgins	Edge	AB	D	6	5
Jamie Sanford	Central York	ON	G	1.78	.923
Ella Newton	Regina	SK	D	5	5
Dyllan Nelson	Fraser Valley	BC	F	14	16
Haley Waugh	Delta	BC	F	6	5
Avaya McCann	Edge	AB	F	12	8
Kamryn Reiber	SAHA	AB	F	7	24
Audrina Freeman	Okanagan	BC	F	11	16
Shae Laprade	Carleton (OUA)	ON	F	4	5
Tori Evans	Ottawa (OUA)	ON	D	1	2

The evolution of the Trinity Western Spartans continues under Peter Hay, and they seem to be finding more and more fantastic players to add to their roster. Having another solid netminder joining the team is good for everyone, and I like the additions up front. The Spartans needed a little more defence from their blue line, and the players they recruited should be solid two-way players in their times. This year's group may not put Trinity Western over the top, but they'll be very close if they aren't there. Could this be the season for TWU?

UBC Thunderbirds

Name	Current	Prv.	Pos	G/GAA	A/SV%
Tayah Wallace	Barrie	ON	F	14	16
Cassie Carvalho	Winnipeg Ice	MB	F	19	15
Payton Henwood	Balmoral Hall	MB	F	13	30
Kate Chuback	Balmoral Hall	MB	F	25	16
Maggie Rauckman	Battleford	SK	F	15	14
Sophie Brecht	Battleford	SK	F	6	10
Isabel Gollop	OHA Edmonton	AB	F	13	6
Alyssa Worsley	Shawnigan Lake	BC	D	3	18
Emma Kohl	Delta	BC	F	10	22
Ella Dunham-Fox	Edmonton	AB	G	1.03	.948
Anslei Thistle	St. Albert	AB	D	2	6
Anna Rose	ECDC Memmingen	DE	F	6	15
Leila Sinclair	Toronto Leaside	ON	D	4	22
Adriana Almeida	Winnipeg Avros	MB	G	2.04	.939
Hannah Dods	Lindenwood U.	MO	F	5	2

This is what a complete rebuild looks like after half of one's team graduates. Head coach Graham Thomas is bringing in all sorts of talent who can push for roster spots immediately, and we'll likely see the same growth over the next five years as his previous core group of players did in the previous five years. This group has scoring, it has tenacity, it has goaltending, it has speed, and they'll move the puck, but it still needs some maturity when running into disciplined teams. We'll have to see how this group settles, but UBC looks like they're building another dynasty with the talent they recruited this year.

Now you might be saying, "Teebz, this is barely any insight on these players coming into these teams," and you're correct. There's a reason for me not spending a lot of time in crunching numbers and looking at who may emerge with the best class of rookies, and it starts and ends with one organization's specific actions towards me:

Some will say that I've been pretty rough on Canada West over the years, and that's likely true. I have tried over and over and over and over again to work with Canada West to help elevate the status of their conference, its member teams, and all of the coaches, players, and staff that make up their league. Not once have they responded to any interaction I've tried to have with them, so I'm done trying. If they don't want the help, so be it. I have zero obligation to continue to support Canada West women's hockey in any way, shape, or form.

To everyone who enjoyed The Rundown on a weekly basis, it will make an appearance every now and again when needed, but it's painfully obvious that Canada West thinks it's doing a fine job with its efforts in promoting women's hockey and requires no help. For all of the stastical analyses I did and for all of the fun segments I added to The Rundown, no one at Canada West sees that as beneficial or helpful to sell their product, so I'm off the case as of right now.

Unless a bunch of athletes and coaches comment down below, the nine women's hockey programs are on their own when it comes to promotion and chatter about all the good the players and coaches do and all the interesting stats that make Canada West women's hockey so good. It's not like Canada West helps them in any way, so, as the old saying goes, "You never know what you have until it's gone."

Thanks for letting me have some fun, folks. Best of luck in the future.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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!

The Hockey Show - Episode 717

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back with a full roster after having one of the hosts in Montreal where he was answering questions and networking with authors and publishers! Obviously, there will be a discussion on how Montreal is faring after the recent run by the Canadiens before our hosts get into the hockey news and stories that need to be covered. There are championships, drafts, and losses to discuss, so we'll get that going tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Oh, we'll be talking about these guys who threw a celebration and more down in North Carolina! Teebz and Jason will have Travis (Montreal) do his exit interview and, potentially, Matt (Vegas) do his exit interview before they discuss the Carolina Hurricanes winning the Stanley Cup, the Florida Everblades winning the Kelly Cup, and the Toronto Marlies being in the verge of winning the Calder Cup. There will be some discussion about the PWHL Draft, the loss of a Canadian institution, and how both of those could be improved if U SPORTS gave a damn. It's another fun show where we'll offer up our thoughts on these topics, so hunker down by your radio or internet-connected device 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 and Jason will look to send two more entrants home off Survivor: NHL Playoffs island before talking champions, dynasties, drafts, television, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: June 18, 2026: Episode 717

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Deserved, But...

Tonight, the PWHL welcomed a pile of players into their ranks as the PWHL Draft took place in Detroit, Michigan. I'm not sure if there were any surprises when it came to the first dozen picks made, but the Seattle Torrent decided to give one woman a shot who has certainly earned a look when it comes to professional hockey as UBC Thunderbirds forward Grace Elliott was selected 38th-overall in the fourth round! There may have been some familiarity for Seattle when it came to picking Elliott which I'll look at below, but it was another night where a pile of very good, very capable U SPORTS players were left without a team when the draft concluded. I'm not surprised considering how little U SPORTS does to promote these exceptionally-talented women, and it makes me wonder what exactly U SPORTS does to help its athletes achieve their athletic goals and dreams.

Make no mistake that Grace Elliott deserved to be drafted tonight. She's a two-time Canada West Player of the Year and the 2025 U SPORTS Player of the Year after blowing away most of UBC's school scoring records and placing her among the best historically in both Canada West and U SPORTS. Grace was always a good player, but her size, her skill, and her smarts became quickly evident as her efforts helped the UBC Thunderbirds reach new heights each year.

If there's one woman who knows how good she was, it is new Seattle Torrent head coach Christine Bumstead who often watched Elliott work her magic from the University of Saskatchewan Huskies' bench. In 15 regular season and playoff games between the Huskies and Thunderbirds between 2021 and 2025, Elliott scored seven goals and seven assists. The catch, however, is that she scored three goals and four assists in the two games played between the two teams in 2024-25, so Coach Bumstead is very aware of how explosive she can be.

Elliott will likely get every chance to crack the Torrent roster, but I wouldn't expect that Bumstead will guarantee anything with the influx of talent she has at her fingertips. Elliott will need to earn every inch of ice and every second of ice time just like she did in Vancouver, but we've seen how good she can be when she's focused. Having her alongside Lexie Adzija gives Seattle two impact power forwards, but she has proven time and again that she has the scoring and skating to play with almost anyone on the Torrent roster.

If I were Bumstead, I'd be looking at Jenna Buglioni as her linemate. Buglioni was her high-scoring teammate with the Greater Vancouver Comets where Buglioni had 26 goals and 52 points in 29 games while Elliott had 27 goals and 50 points in 32 games during the 2020-21 BCFAAA U18 season! That was the only season they played together, but it seems pretty clear that they had an incredible season playing together! Could we see them reunited in Torrent colours?

What I do know is that Grace deserves all the kudos for being drafted and moving one step closer to her hockey dreams. Congratulations, Grace, and we'll be cheering for you as this season gets underway!

Erica Rieder, who played for the University of Manitoba, was selected 60th-overall in the fifth round by Montreal, but Victoire GM Danièle Sauvageau knows her very well from her U SPORTS days with the Montreal Carabins. Rieder, who was playing for Lulea in the SDHL, has always been an incredible two-way defender who can skate, but she'll get a chance to step into the Montreal lineup this season.

Gabriella Durante, who suited up for Italy in the Olympics and won their only game in that tournament, was picked by Seattle with the 62nd-overall pick, but there's an obvious tie there to Christine Bumstead again who saw her play with the Calgary Dinos. Durante earned her role as Italy's starter at the Olympics with her solid play, and she should be just as good on the west coast stopping pucks.

Montreal used the last pick of the draft to select Concordia Stingers forward Emilie Lavoie who had a solid season in the RSEQ, and she was even better playing in Kitchener at the U SPORTS National Championship. Lavoie is one of those players that Sauvageau loves - an engine that doesn't stop, the puck seems attracted to her stick, and she can finish. She'll need to work hard to crack that talented Montreal roster, but Lavoie is a steal for the Victoire at 72nd-overall.

If you're waiting for the other shoe to drop with the "But..." in the title, the conjunction has nothing to with the players above. These four players earned their accolades and opportunities, and equally deserve the celebration for their personal achievements.

It does, however, have to do with the fact that there was virtually zero promotion or hype done by U SPORTS to elevate the profiles of all the players who played in their conferences. I find it baffling that U SPORTS wants to be taken seriously as a viable option for women who want to chase their hockey and PWHL dreams, but they do little to help those women who have excelled at the U SPORTS level.

Maybe they produced a whole package that was distributed to all twelve PWHL teams and didn't mention it, but I can almost guarantee that didn't happen. I can say this because only four U SPORTS players were taken in the six rounds of the PWHL Draft that saw 72 players selected. Yes, the argument can be made that every player picked was chosen for a reason by each team, but dynamic players like Jessymaude Drapeau, Tatum James, and Courtney Kollman were all left watching rather than being selected by any of the teams.

Tory Mariano, who didn't play last season, was chosen by the Ottawa Charge 13 picks before Rieder despite having six goals and 25 assists in 131 games with Northeastern University over her four years of defence for the Huskies. I'm not saying she isn't good enough nor should she not be picked, but what qualities does she possess after sitting out last year that are better than a defender like Waterloo's Lyndsy Acheson or Olympian and former Toronto defender Gabrielle de Serres who weren't picked tonight? Did I miss something here?

The Ottawa Charge, Toronto Sceptres, Vancouver Goldeneyes, and Hamilton Whatevers took a grand total of zero U SPORTS players in this year's draft. I can understand the American teams not taking U SPORTS players due to a lack of scouting thanks to streaming paywalls, but Troy Ryan, San Jose's GM and head coach, is a former Dalhousie Tigers women's hockey head coach. Both Seattle and Montreal took two players each, and both of those teams have women in positions of leadership with strong U SPORTS ties.

I'm not saying that Seattle nor Montreal made their picks with a need to draft U SPORTS players, but they're drafting from a larger pool of players and talent by looking at U SPORTS players. We saw how important the U SPORTS players were for Montreal this season as Alexandra Labelle, Catherine Dubois, and Kaitlin Willoughby played key roles for the Victoire in their Walter Cup victory. I'm not saying that every U SPORTS player will bring that return, but teams like Vancouver and Toronto who missed the playoffs should be capitalizing on the talent found in their own backyards before other teams do.

In lamenting the above, I will admit that I have a significant bias when it comes to seeing U SPORTS players getting their fair shakes. Four players were chosen tonight, and that's entirely worth celebrating when it comes to competing in the best women's hockey league on the planet. I just struggle to understand why U SPORTS isn't putting all twelve teams on blast when it comes to how good these players are. Why is this a task that seemingly no one wants?

Congratulations to Grace, Erica, Gabriella, and Emilie who, I'm hoping, will be on the opening night rosters for the Torrent and the Victoire, respectively. These women deserve the accolades they've earned, and I'll be cheering for them with every career moment they reach. I just wish there were more players for whom I could cheer.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Long Overdue

In a move that should surprise no one, Hockey Canada announced today that Canadian national women's team general manager Gina Kingsbury and head coach Troy Ryan will not return to continue their work with the national women's program. I have nothing against Kingsbury or Ryan personally, but it was hard to understand their personnel choices at the Milano-Cortina Olympics and the games leading up to the Olympics. Yes, they still brought home the second-best medal from the event, but it was hard to watch an older, slower team do everything they could to prevent losses rather than earning wins. Clearly, something had to give.

While there's no denying that Canada's veteran players have an immense amount of talent, it was hard watching the younger, faster Americans dismantle the Canadian squad in the Olympic preliminary round. Yes, Canada looked much better in the gold medal game when these two teams met a second time, but result was identical in that the Americans were celebrating and the Canadians were sobbing.

There has been a quiet chorus for years that has demanded that Hockey Canada should start looking at incorporating younger players into international competitions, but the leadership has always resisted that idea. With Canada's core players moving into the sunsets of their careers, it became more prominent with all of the young talent that Team USA was showcasing at each event. No one will deny that Marie-Philip Poulin and Hilary Knight are still big names, but the likes of Taylor Heise, Caroline Harvey, Hannah Bilka, and Laila Edwards stole the show in Italy. Canada had no answer for them.

In comments made today, Kingsbury indicated that it was time for someone else to step in and push Canada higher. She told reporters, "I'm good with the transition. I'm ready for it. It's time for someone to look at the landscape that has shifted in women's hockey and set out their own vision on what that could look like for the future."

Troy Ryan had already indicated in February that he was stepping down from his coaching position with the team, stating, "I think it's time for someone else to run with it and take it to new heights."

With both Kingsbury and Ryan moving on from their posts, this could open the door for a changing of the guard, so to speak, when it comes to Canada's roster. Players like Sarah Fillier, Emma Maltais, Daryl Watts, Jenn Gardiner, Sophie Jacques, Kati Tabin, and Julia Gosling could all play bigger roles moving forward while adding the likes of Nicole Gosling, Sarah Wozniewicz, Rebecca Leslie, Danielle Serdachny, and Raygan Kirk would all continue pushing the youth movement while challenging Canadian veterans for roster spots.

Let's not forget that all of Marie-Philip Poulin (34), Natalie Spooner (35), Brianne Jenner (34), and Jocelyne Larocque (37) are deep into Hall-of-Fame careers already while Laura Stacey (32), Renata Fast (31), Sarah Nurse (31), Erin Ambrose (32), Emerence Maschmeyer (32) and Ann-Renee Desbiens (32) likely only have one more Olympic run in them. When you consider that's nearly half the current roster, we're overdue in bringing in the next wave of players into the mix.

With four more teams being added to the PWHL next season, there will be lots of opportunity to see amazing young women show off their skills over the next few years if they choose to play professionally. Jade Iginla, Sara Manness, Kahlen Lamarche, Jocelyn Amos, Stryker Zablocki, and Chloe Primerano are just a handful of dynamic Canadians playing at the NCAA level, and Hockey Canada would be wise to keep an eye on U SPORTS when it comes to players like Grace Elliott, Courtney Kollman, Jessymaude Drapeau, and Gabrielle Santerre. There's an immense amount of Canadian talent playing across the planet. All Hockey Canada has to do is look for it.

That's the part that I never understood about Kingsbury and Ryan - they never seemed to look beyond the NCAA. Kingsbury had a handful of U SPORTS players in the lineup for the Calgary Inferno every game in the CWHL while Ryan coached the Dalhouse University Tigers women's program. Both of them are very aware that not all the best players play south of the border, but it's almost as if they forgot that some of Canada's best players learned the game here at home.

Who, you ask? Caroline Ouelette spent one year at Concordia University. Charline Labonte, Ann-Sophie Bettez, Catherine Ward, Kim St-Pierre, and Melodie Daoust all skated for McGill University. Brigette Lacquette spent a season with the University of Manitoba. Hayley Wickenheiser, Colleen Sostorics, and Danielle Goyette played with the University of Calgary. Vicky Sunohara and Jayna Hefford played for the University of Toronto. Delaney Collins played with both Concordia and Alberta. And Gina Kingsbury played with eight of these players mentioned above at the 2006 Olympics in Torino, Italy.

I want to be clear that this isn't about Hockey Canada's continued ignorance of U SPORTS, but it is about expanding the talent pool as far as one can when it comes to finding good, effective players. The preceding paragraph were examples of players that were key to Canada's dominance for so long which was a credit to Canada looking under every stone for good players. Canada needs to start doing that again by tapping into the NCAA, U SPORTS, and Europe where good, young, fast players would go through a wall to wear the maple leaf.

A new general manager and a new head coach is a fresh start for the Canadian women's program that was colloquially getting long in the tooth. We can still honour these long-serving women for their contributions, but Hockey Canada has to be forward thinking when it comes to putting the best team on the ice. Leaving younger players at home isn't the way to do that, so here's hoping that changes.

My hope is that we won't see the same dozen names in the running for these two positions as Hockey Canada begins its searches, but there's no denying that changes were long overdue for this program.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 712

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, returns tonight with a lot of hockey chatter from the last couple of weeks as exit interviews took up a chunk of time last week. We're going to push the exit interviews to next week so we can get everyone caught up on the big news stories from the hockey world, so Derek (Philadelphia) and Dave (Minnesota) can have a week to prepare their statements on their teams. Out hosts have all sorts of information to cover so this show will move quickly. Be ready to roll tonight for The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason look at the PWHL Final series that will be played by the Ottawa Charge and the Montreal Victoire as there are several U SPORTS, Canada West, and Manitoba tie-ins regarding who will win the first Walter Cup in Canada. Beyond that, there will be a serious discussion about the four new expansion locations that the PWHL chose, we have some Team Manitoba parahockey updates from Nationals to go over, Edmonton and Toronto are making changes, the USHL and SPHL are expanding, we'll finally get to a Spengler Cup discussion, and we'll tackle anything else that may come up. It's a big day of expansion and results tonight on 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 and Jason chat about the Walter Cup, expansion, medals, coaches, management, bad decisions, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: May 14, 2026: Episode 712

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Other Side Of The World

The goaltender to the left likely isn't going to be recognizable unless you're following the ECHL and SPHL closely. That goalie is Surrey, BC's Noah Giesbrecht, and he was trying to crack lineups in the professional leagues here in North America after finishing a solid university career that saw him play at three different schools including a U SPORTS school! One of the toughest things for any undrafted goalie to do is break into the ECHL with so few roster spots available, but Giesbrecht looked like he may get his shot with the Savannah Ghost Pirates after playing with the SPHL's Knoxville Ice Bears! That run with the Ghost Pirates ended early as he was released yesterday, but he found a new home very quickly for this summer!

Giesbrecht's hockey career saw him play in both the MJHL for two teams and the SJHL for Melfort Mustangs along with a cup of coffee in the USHL with the Muskegon Lumberjacks. He put up very good numbers in 2019-20 with the MJHL's Portage Terriers, compiling a 12-4-0 record with a 1.86 GAA and a .925 save percentage. Those numbers attracted the attention of the OUA's University of Windsor Lancers, and Giesbrecht was off to play in southern Ontario!

After the COVID year in 2020-21, Giesbrecht was excellent with the Lancers as he went 7-1-0 with a 2.13 GAA and a .941 save percentage in the first half of the season before jumping south of the border as he enrolled at Ferris State where he joined the men's hockey team! In his time with the Bulldogs, Giesbrecht went 19-29-3 with a 3.35 GAA and an .898 save percentage. He'd play his final NCAA season with RPI where he was 11-19-0 with a 3.54 GAA and an .896 save percentage. Being undrafted, Giesbrecht looked to the ECHL as an option.

He spent more time on the bench than in a crease as two games with Tulsa and nine games with Savannah were the only opportunities he received this season. Combined with seven more games in Knoxville, Giesbrecht likely had his agent looking for other options as his 18 games of professional action didn't give him a lot to build on for next season. That's when another opportunity presented itself, and Giesbrecht took it as he'll pack his bags and head south!

Giesbrecht will suit up this summer - or, more accurately, this winter in Australia - for the AIHL's Melbourne Mustangs! The AIHL's opening games happen this weekend, and the Mustangs will be in action on Saturday as they host the Central Coast Rhinos. Giesbrecht gives them another solid goaltender along with Seb Woodlands and Tom Papas, and they may need the added experience as their opening night lineup apparently will not feature longtime star Ty Wishart! That could possibly change as there was no announcement of him retiring, so he could be back at some point. For whatever reason, though, the Mustangs will be without one of their best players to begin the 2026 AIHL season.

The AIHL will continue with their ten-team setup as the action last season proved exciting down the stretch with teams pushing for playoff spots. The Melbourne Ice enter the season as the defending champions after defeating the Canberra Brave for the Goodall Cup last season, so those teams will come into this season with targets on their backs. The Mustangs finished in sixth-place which pitted them against the Perth Thunder in a play-in game for the playoffs, but Perth took care of business by a 5-2 score. Clearly, the Mustangs want to return to glory, so improved goaltending will help that cause!

Noah Giesbrecht has played in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Michigan, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Georgia in his hockey journey thus far, and he'll add the city of Melbourne, Australia on this leg of his hockey career! Where it goes from here is anyone's guess, but the summer of 2026 will see him in Mustangs' black and orange!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!