And Then There Were Seven

Swiss hockey league fans will likely recognize the smiling face to the left as long-time Swedish star Fanny Rask who played with HC Ambrì-Piotta women's team in the PostFinance women's league in Switzerland. Fask had a solid season last year as she finished eleventh in Swiss League scoring, but the HC Ambrì-Piotta won't benefit from her presence on their roster or anyone else's presence on that roster after they decided to withdraw from the PostFinance Women's League for the 2026-27 season. As a result of that decision, the league will operate with seven teams this season after last season's fourth-place team cited a lack of prospects as the reason they would be unable to field a team.

As you may recall, SC Langenthal already shut down its program at the end of the 2025-26 season, and the SWHL-A league decided to promote Lausanne HC Féminin from the SWHL-B league to take Langenthal's spot. The eight-team schedule was released on July 3, 2026 with HC Ambrì-Piotta slotted in for the full season, but it seems things changed dramatically over the last month in Ambri.

On July 30, 2026, the team released the following statement:

"In recent weeks, the club has made every possible effort to complete the squad and create the necessary conditions to approach the season in a serious, sustainable manner that meets sporting expectations. Despite these efforts, it has not been possible to find a sufficient number of players to assemble a suitable squad."

I'm not saying that the growth of the PWHL is hurting European leagues, but seeing one of the better SWHL teams close the doors on this season isn't good. HC Ambrì-Piotta did note in their statement that this isn't the end for the Swiss women's club, stating,

"The club will immediately begin work to examine the sporting, organizational, and financial prerequisites necessary for a potential return to the National League B starting the following season. The goal will be to develop a solid and sustainable project that promotes the players and creates concrete prospects for the future of women's ice hockey in the blue and white."

Um, yay? The Ambrì-Piotta will voluntarily join the SWHL-B as they rebuild, but how do they attract talent to do that if they couldn't attract talent to play in Switzerland's top women's league? I'll let the powers-that-be who run HC Ambrì-Piotta answer that question, but I would guess that there are a pile of Canadian and American university graduates who would have jumped at the opportunity to join HC Ambrì-Piotta if given the chance. But we'll never know now.

As it stands, Lausanne HC's debut in the SWHL-A will be pushed back to September 13 thanks to HC Ambrì-Piotta's absence while the ZSC Lions will have their home-opener postponed until September 20 for the same reason. The full schedule can be found here, but it looks like two teams will have a bye every weekend this season with the empty slots once occupied by the HC Ambrì-Piotta squad.

Losing two teams in the span of four months doesn't make the SWHL-A stronger, and it appears that the SWHL-A will look to backfill these absences in their league by eliminating the relegation playoff between the PostFinance Women's League and the SWHL-B. It seems the top SWHL-B will only be promoted to bring the SWHL-A back to eight teams. Whether or not that relegation playoff is resumed in 2027-28 will have to be seen, but it feels like the SWHL-A is on shaky ground right now when it comes to the health of the league.

Here's hoping that HC Ambrì-Piotta can get their situation sorted out because the SWHL at all levels needs stable teams. Swiss hockey is good hockey and it shouldn't be overlooked, but eliminating teams makes finding roster spots that much harder. HC Ambrì-Piotta should have a full roster, but they'll reset and start over next season.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

No Red Leafs In Canada West

Despite the logic of having a third BC-based university hockey program under Canada West's watch, the dream of seeing the Simon Fraser University Red Leafs make the jump to U SPORTS hockey is now dead-on-arrival with the news that was reported yesterday. I know that SFU is experiencing a "tightening of the purse strings" like most of the big universities across Canada, but the men's at-large hockey program that played against both U SPORTS and NCAA competitors whenever possible is officially being slashed at the end of the current season as per Simon Fraser University. Along with the lacrosse team, the university found that these two teams were "“not sustainable due to financial, regulatory and logistical constraints".

In reporting done by Mario Bartel of Freshnet News, he broke the story yesterday about the hockey and lacrosse teams, noting that the school had already planned to scuttle the varsity softball, golf, and outdoor track and field teams "as U Sports doesn’t have national championships for those sports". It seems the scalpel that SFU is using to get its budget back in order doesn't just end with non-championship sports as the Red Leafs men's hockey program looked like a potentially-viable option for Canada West men's hockey.

The madness in all of this is that Canada West and U SPORTS are shooting themselves in their respective feet by forcing SFU to pay fees to rejoin the two sporting bodies. Bartel reports that "the move back to U Sports will save $850,000 annually. But the one-time application costs for the new affiliation will cost the school up to $990,000" which makes absolutely zero sense when one considers that SFU's re-application can be amortized over a number of years, thereby guaranteeing better health of their athletic teams and ensuring their commitment to the conference is legitimate.

In looking at those numbers, though, I have a serious question: what is that money used for when it comes to the application costs? Shouldn't the application fees be as minimal as possible to allow more schools to compete at the U SPORTS and regional levels assuming they meet the educational requirements of U SPORTS participation? It's not like Canada West or U SPORTS is sinking that money into reducing costs for schools or building new infrastructure for their teams, so where does that million-dollar fee go?

Of course, no one will provide me with answers as to where those fees go besides into general coffers, so your guess is as good as mine. That's a whole other topic for another article one day, though.

If there's one thing that Canada West can use, it's tighter groups of teams rather than having nine teams spread out over four provinces. Travel is a significantly massive part of each program's budget each year, and having a better configuration for these ridiculous East and West Divisions would change that. If there were three teams in BC, they'd match the three teams in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, and the only teams who would need to switch divisions to make things work would be the Alberta teams. That won't happen now with this news.

Perhaps there will be a day where Simon Fraser University announces both a men's and women's hockey program for Canada West, but that day isn't even on the horizon at this point. I'd expect the players who are currently on the Red Leafs' roster to potentially look elsewhere for hockey opportunities now, and that will once again hurt Simon Fraser's enrolment numbers when one considers the number of athletes who are paying the price for SFU's financial situation.

If you were hoping for good news about Canadian university hockey growth, there is none here today. The Red Leafs are done as far as high-level competition is concerned, and their only team will continue to play in the BCIHL where costs are kept relatively low in comparison. And if we're ever to arrive at a ten-team Canada West conference, we need another team in BC to balance the conference.

As it stands, the nine current teams won't have to worry about trips to Burnaby next season or at any time in the future, apparently.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 697

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back in the cozy confines of the UMFM studio tonight where it will be a normal temperature unlike our rink setting last week. Obviously, our hosts had a blast seeing some of the best women's hockey action this province has to offer at the 2026 Female World Sport School Challenge, and they'll wrap up that experience with some well-deserved thank-yous, a recap of what happened, and a discussion on where the tournament may go from here. And then they'll talk other hockey stuff too! It's a fun episode with looks at hockey from across the globe tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason show a little gratitude in thanking at all the people who made the 2026 Female World Sport School Challenge memorable, entertaining, and fun. Beyond that discussion, they'll also chat about the results and who finished where, highlights for each of the two radio voices, and where they may see the tournament going in 2027. They'll also discuss a former Bisons coach getting the bump to head coach in another league, an SDHL team that is making a hard decision on its future, the KHL being the KHL with some of the news coming out of that league, and there's an exciting development coming out of the University of Waterloo about concussion detection! It should be an interesting show based on those stories and more, so make sure you're listening tonight to 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 great people, great moments, big wins, new jobs, less teams, questionable hires, former stars, brain care, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: January 29, 2026: Episode 697

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Denver, Ottawa, And Murder

On Wednesday, I wrote about a potential Seattle expansion franchise that the NHL nearly admitted into its membership back in 1975. Things obviously didn't go well for that Seattle expansion plan as we didn't see an NHL team in that city until the Kraken took the ice in 2021, but that article's embedded newspaper reports spoke of a Denver-based expansion effort as well as the NHL looked to move to twenty teams in 1975. We know the Colorado Rockies began play in 1976, but this expansion story wasn't completed in my writing. And, to be honest, it's not going to end with the Rockies as the Denver Spurs never made it to the NHL as once planned.

I'll post the March 12, 1975 Winnipeg Free Press article again.

In Al Colletti's article, Denver Spurs president Ivan Mullenix was granted an NHL expansion franchise for the 1975-76 season despite his efforts to buy the California Golden Seals and move them to Denver. The NHL ruled that Mullenix could have the conditional franchise as an expansion team that would play in the Adams Division against Boston, Toronto, Buffalo, and California when they joined the league as the 19th franchise. That's where I had left the story of the Spurs on Wednesday, so let's finish off this saga today.

According to a Jamie Bradburn 2020 article, Mullenix began looking at the NHL with cynicism based on "the poor first-season performances of expansions teams in Kansas City and Washington, the $6 million entry fee, and other matters that led to an anti-trust lawsuit" by Seattle potential owner Vince Abbey. As Mullenix's view of the NHL's expansion process soured, the idea of him taking the former CHL Denver Spurs to the NHL became less and less likely.

By May 19, 1975, it seemed both sides had changed their tunes.

Victoria's Daily Colonist reported that Ivan Mullenix had decided to take his business to the WHA rather than joining the NHL, and it seems the NHL was none too pleased about this turn of developments. NHL President Clarence Campbell said that Mullenix hadn't paid any money to the NHL nor signed any binding documents during the expansion process, and he virtually slammed the door shut on Mullenix's involvement in the NHL by saying, "If he isn't prepared to back his interests with his money, and to honor the obligations he undertook, we're better off without him."

No offence to Clarence Campbell, but someone sounds a little jilted over Mullenix choosing the WHA over the NHL. Like a scorned suitor, Campbell's comments are more personal than rooted in business.

Making matters worse on all fronts was the fact that the June 14, 1975 NHL Board of Governors meeting was all about the struggling franchises of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the California Golden Seals rather than being about general league business. Campbell was asked about expansion once again on which he immediately threw cold water, and Al McNeil of the Brandon Sun noted at the end of the article that Mullenix was now suing the NHL for $1.3 million over antitrust allegations as well. Honestly, this entire 1975 expansion idea was blowing up in the NHL's face.

What the NHL didn't know is that it potentially avoided another financial crisis because the WHA's Denver Spurs didn't even complete one season. Despite adding a number of former Chicago Cougars players after that team folded in 1975, the Spurs were simply a bad team. While they had former NHLers Ralph Backstrom and Darryl Maggs on their roster, the Spurs posted a 14-26-1 record through 41 games while playing in front of meagre crowds on most nights.

Mullenix was watching his bank account be drained as costs were significantly higher than revenues, and he made the decision to abandon Denver while the team was on a road trip as it was reported that the Spurs would head to Ottawa for their Wednesday, January 7, 1976 game against the New England Whalers. The team was set to play out of the 8000-seat Ottawa Civic Arena as longtime drummer, music producer, and manager Ron Sparling and Henry Feller, a ladies' dress shop owner on Elgin Street, convinced Mullenix to bring the Spurs to Ottawa on a trial run to prove that Ottawa could support professional hockey with the hopes of buying the Spurs in the future.

Reports emerged after the relocation that star player Ralph Backstrom wanted out of his contract, but both the Spurs and the WHA made it clear he had a legal and binding contract that required him to be in Ottawa. In addition, Mullenix announced on January 6, 1976 that the team "will definitely play out the remainder of the World Hockey Association Schedule in Ottawa". Were these true?

Backstrom was in the Spurs-Civics lineup against the New England Whalers on January 7, so he did honour the contract he signed as he told reporters that he simply was looking for stability for his family after he had moved for the third time within a year. Backstrom's agent maintained that the contract his client signed was "non-transferrable" and that the Spurs moving to Ottawa counted as a transfer. Nonetheless, Backstrom played for Ottawa.

At the WHA All-Star Game in Cleveland on Tuesday, January 13, the WHA announced that the Ottawa Civics would move to the Canadian Division for the remainder of the season, creating a scenario where the WHA Final would feature a series between a Canadian team and a US team. Ottawa's move to the Canadian Division still saw them in last place in the division, but the WHA would now have a cross-border battle for the Avco Cup with their revised playoff format.

There was just one problem: the Civics stopped being a thing.

Mullenix officially shut down the entire operation of the Spurs-Civics franchise on January 17, 1976 after failing to come to an agreement to sell the franchise to the Ottawa Founders Club. That came less than two weeks after telling everyone that the team would play out the schedule in Ottawa, so that was also false. The Spurs-Civics franchise was officially dead, and all players became free agents.

Since there aren't a lot of records for this 17-day existence of the Civics, I'll point you to Jamie Bradburn's outstanding recap of the Civic's two-and-a-half week stay in Ottawa. It's filled with all sorts of information that a lot of the newspaper archives to which I have access didn't cover. Bradburn's done some really good work here, so he deserves a ton of credit for digging through history and piecing together what has to one of the shortest existences in hockey.

As for Mullenix's antitrust lawsuit against the NHL, there doesn't seem to be any history on what became of it. My guess is that it was struck down like Vince Abbey's lawsuit was as there was no evidence.

Where people should be concerned, though, is what became of Mullenix. According to news reports, Ivan Mullenix was stabbed to death on July 17, 2013 by his wife, Mary, at the age of 76. Additional reports show that police had been to the Mullenix's home sixteen times between 2009 and 2013 for various reasons including a 2012 domestic violence incident where Mary had been choked.

The resulting trial saw Mary Mullenix sentenced on reduced charges to what appeared to be 90 days in jail and five years on probation assuming she completed "a 90-day alcohol treatment program in jail, anger management classes and no alcohol use".

It's pretty crazy to think that the man who may have brought the NHL to Denver in 1975 failed in both Denver and Ottawa with the WHA before his life was tragically cut short in what sounded like an unhappy marriage. I'm not here to cast judgement on how Mullenix lived his life, but this story feels like something you'd see on Dateline or a similar TV program. In any case, that's the story of the "other team" during the NHL's failed attempt to expand in 1975.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Cincinnati Myth

For years, I have heard the story about how the WHA likely could have sent five or six teams to the NHL when it came to the 1979 absorption of the WHA into the NHL. The four teams that were incorporated into the NHL - the Edmonton Oilers, the Hartford Whalers, the Quebec Nordiques, and the Winnipeg Jets - had varying levels of success in their histories after joining the NHL, but I was always told that both the Houston Aeros and the Cincinnati Stingers could have made the jump to the NHL as well. Knowing how the NHL has never been the league to turn down free money or opportunities to make money, it has always struck me that having two more teams join the circuit in 1979 wouldn't have hurt the league in any way. So why did it not happen?

The 1978-79 Cincinnati Stingers had a collection of talent that would have put them in a good place in the NHL had they been able to retain that talent. Robbie Ftorek was the scoring leader at 116 points while Peter Marsh had 43 goals that season. The Stingers boasted five guys with more than 25 goals including an 18 year-old from Ottawa named Mike Gartner who scored 27 times that season. Add in the goaltending duo of Mike Liut and Michel Dion, and the Stingers appeared to have a roster as solid as any NHL team at the time.

Despite repeated attempts between the NHL and WHA to come to an agreement on a merger between 1977 and 1979, the NHL would finally agree to the merger in March of 1979. Terms still needed to be set when it came to which teams were going to be absorbed in the merger, but there was a framework that was proposed by NHL President John Ziegler in June of 1977 that would have seen six teams join the NHL if various conditions were met. This proposal was voted down by the NHL, and four WHA teams folded after that vote failed, leaving the WHA with eight teams for the 1977-78 season.

Negotiations resumed in 1978, but Ziegler presented a new proposal to the NHL Board of Governors where only four teams would be accepted instead of the six originally proposed. While the WHA wanted all three Canadian teams added, the American teams being considered came down to both Houston and Hartford. The Aeros tried to get Boston owner Jeremy Jacobs to support their inclusion, but Jacobs was against expansion entirely as he declined to support either team. With the NHL owners still being ice-cold to the merger, these negotiations went nowhere as the merger was voted down.

For the 1978-79 WHA season, Aeros owner Kenneth Schnitzer ceased operations for his team as he applied directly to the NHL for an expansion franchise. The NHL balked at that application with a number of teams in financial dire straits, so Schnitzer proposed that the NHL relocate a team to Houston with the Cleveland Barons being the most likely choice. Instead, the NHL sold the franchise rights to the Gund brothers who merged the franchise with the Minnesota North Stars. As a result, Schnitzer folded the Aeros on July 8, 1978.

As the WHA season began with seven teams instead of the eight that was expected, another franchise pulled the plug midway through the season as the Indianapolis Racers shut their doors after 25 games. Down to six teams, it was clear the WHA was on the shakiest of ground it had ever been in its existence, and the NHL seized upon that as they now saw expansion as a business idea to boost the NHL.

In March of 1979, the two leagues agreed that four teams would be merged into the NHL despite the owners only wanting three - the New England Whalers, Winnipeg Jets, and Edmonton Oilers. The Nordiques and the WHA insisted on all three Canadian teams being included, and the NHL finally agreed on March 22, 1979 in a second vote to bring the four teams into the NHL, leaving Birmingham and Cincinnati on the outside despite Cincinnati having a decent team.

It's seems ridiculous that the league wouldn't include Houston and one additional team as part of the agreement in 1978 considering how strong the Aeros franchise was in Houston, and Cincinnati historically had been one of the strongest teams in the WHA to that point. As stated, the story of Cincinnati being considered by the NHL has been a story told a few times, so what happened to the Stingers?

I was actually looking for something else in the newspaper archives when I came across a Febraury 5, 1979 article that literally explains why the Stingers never jumped to the NHL. Here's that article!

Despite the story being about the Stingers selling Rick Dudley to the Buffalo Sabres so they "can buy some rowboats", reporter Reyn Davis included a solid reason as to why the Stingers wouldn't be going to the NHL for the 1979-80 season as an expansion franchise.

As Davis wrote,

"The Stingers' owners have indicated to their WHA partners that they are more interested in collecting an indemnity to fold rather than acquire an expansion franchise in the National Hockey League."

In short, it sounds like the Stingers' owners wanted to recoup as much money as they could from the WHA venture rather than potentially lose more money supporting an NHL franchise in Cincinnati. If they were selling players like Dudley midway through the WHA season to bring in less expensive players, that's suggests money troubles. Getting paid to abandon the franchise would be an easy out.

I think this admission by the Stingers' owners can put the myth to rest that the Stingers were poised to join the NHL. While they certainly had a roster of future NHL stars, the ownership group clearly had no intention of spending more money to keep the franchise afloat, and their selling of star players for less expensive options is evidence that there were money troubles in Cincinnati. There was no honeypot.

The Stingers were never going to the NHL, so this myth is busted.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Tomorrow's Plans

There's a pile of hockey happening on Friday night, but I really am only focused on one game that happens tomorrow at 3pm CT. As I wrote just over a week ago, the Flames prep hockey program will cease to exist once their season comes to an end, and it's an unnecessary ending to a program that established itself as a destination for students and high-level hockey players. After seeing former Flames players graduating into university hockey programs across the continent, it was clear that head coach Larry Bumstead and his staff were doing things right. That all comes to an end with the final whistle tomorrow, so I hope that the rink is full to show these women that their efforts matter.

UMFM will be there tomorrow as the station has been invited down to the rink to call the final game in Flames history live on the UMFM Second Stream. We're going to give the Flames the full treatment as well as we'll run the interview we did with Flames alumna and current Ottawa Charge netminder Logan Angers prior to the pregame show. Logan's interview from The Hockey Show will air from 1:30-2:30pm CT with the Flames pregame show beginning at 2:30pm CT.

In the pregame show, we'll get you set for the game at 3pm CT between the Balmoral Hall Blazers and the Flames prep hockey program, and we'll call every second of the action between these two teams. We'll have intermission features between the periods featuring Flames players, and we'll see if we can get a few special guests to sit in with us for this final game. In order to preserve these memories, we'll record this final game for anyone who would like a copy of the audio once the final whistle sounds.

I know we've discussed this on The Hockey Show over the last couple of weeks, but I can't express the disappointment I feel in a number of institutions in how they've let these young ladies down. Whether it's the school, Hockey Manitoba, Hockey Canada, or any of the other governing bodies who oversee the team and sport, I find it hard to believe that none of them see the damage they are doing to the sport within Manitoba. And, if the rumours are true, this is simply the first of many baffling decisions women's hockey in Manitoba will see.

I won't deny that tomorrow will be emotional for a lot of people, and I can't say that I won't be emotional as well. Having gotten to know the players and coaches of the Flames program, we are always grateful and honoured to be a part of their world. Knowing that a large number of the women who wore Flames uniforms have gone on to highly-successful careers across the planet is a point of pride for us after having the honour to call a small portion of their hockey careers, so I can only imagine how proud the coaching staff is in seeing all the success their players have had.

None of that seemed to matter to those who held the program in their hands. Rather than celebrating the graduating seniors who are heading off into new chapters of their lives, the game tomorrow will have a dark cloud hanging over it as all the Flames players will get one last opportunity to skate as a team before figuring out where they play next season. At that final whistle, an era of hockey excellence will come to an end because those who were tasked in curating the game have once again failed the players.

I hope you'll tune in for this final game in Flames history, and it would be great if you went over and dropped a comment of support for these girls on the team's Instagram page. If you have a little time to kill tomorrow, come down to the Hockey For All Centre and watch these girls play a little hockey. If you're a fan of women's hockey at the international or PWHL level, all of those women got their start at the CSSHL and/or AAA level like these women are.

Or, in the Flames' cases, like these women were... since there won't be Flames hockey next season. It sucks to write that.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 648

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, may be down a skater tonight as illness has struck the studio! In all seriousness, Jason is battling the flu and has wisely opted to stay home tonight in order to keep his contagions at bay. As such, I've got calls out to the ringers to see if we can win Thursday night! It will be another busy show this evening, though, as we jump into the world of hockey once more for discussions on all aspects of the game, so make sure you join us tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

It may just be Teebz alone in the studio tonight, but there will be chatter! In that chatter, you'll find someone talking about Charlie McAvoy's injury at the 4 Nations Face-Off and why this tournament is becoming a bad idea for NHL teams, why Americans and some Canadians can't seem to understand why booing the US national anthem has nothing to do with what's happening on the ice, the PWHL's attendance problem they refuse to talk about, a change on the local hockey landscape that's hard to comprehend, and whatever else may cross our desks today. Get yourself hunkered down beside a radio or internet connected device for all this and more 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 new UMFM website's online 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. It's a solid app.

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 a guest? An empty chair? will take a look at injuries at the tourney, booing at the tourney, butts in seats, a missing team, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: February 20, 2025: Episode 648

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Snuffed Out

On January 13, I wrote a fairly amibiguous post in which I alluded to something bad that happened. There were certainly bright spots that could be found in the darkness that fell, but the black of space occupies so much more space than the twinkle of stars. To make this allegory whole, it was announced today that the Flames hockey program will not continue next season due to reasons that seem dumb, but the Flames hockey program has been officially snuffed out, leaving a void where there once was a bright future.

From everything that I've gathered in talking to multiple, this decision was apparently made in May 2024 during St. Mary's Academy's Board of Directors meeting. At some point, the school decided that it didn't have the "resources" to support the female prep hockey team, and they removed that line from the budget. The only problem? It seems no one told the hockey program.

School started, kids came to classes, and the prep hockey team assembled on the ice for what was to be a fun and exciting 2024-25 hockey season. The calendar flipped to October, the seasons started, and everything was going according to plan from how the team saw things. And then November hit and the news was delivered to head coach Larry Bumstead that the school would be cutting the program at the conclusion of the season, and that expenses associated with the team wouldn't be funded by the school.

I should add a small note here about how several people have informed me that the school charges the hockey players additional money on top of their annual tuition for the privilege of playing on the Flames prep team, and that most of these additional monies go toward covering the costs of the hockey team. In short, there really isn't a budgetary line for the hockey team when it's a cash-in-cash-out transaction from how I understand this. But I digress....

Being a responsible coach that looks out for the good of his players, Larry met with the team and their families to inform them of the news he received. He foresaw a situation where players will need to find new teams next season if they weren't graduating, but a number of those players wanted to know if they could somehow save the Flames. From what I was told, after some discussions and support from the parents and the players, Larry sprung into action to see about keeping the Flames together in some fashion.

It seemed everyone was onboard with this idea except St. Mary's Academy who informed Larry that the decision was final. Conversations were short. Progress was non-existent. Stonewalling was in full effect. After getting nowhere with the school, the Flames were not going to skate under the St. Mary's Academy banner again.

The month of December was a scramble, from what I was told, in terms of exploring every avenue for the girls to remain as a team. The hockey schedule continued and the Flames didn't let the outside noise into the room, but it was all hands on deck in an effort to keep the Flames together in some form.

A new deal was struck with a school to have the girls and program move and re-associate with this new institution, but the CSSHL required Hockey Canada's blessing to make it official. The issue in this scenario is that Hockey Canada's cutoff for these applications was in September, so the team had missed the deadline for applying. Rather than worrying about a deadline, though, the application was submitted in the hopes that the team could re-associate under this new school's name and the girls could remain as a team.

This brings us to January where I found out, and I found myself optimistic, but cautious. After all, I had witnessed the University of Lethbridge kill its hockey programs with little remorse for its students, and I watched the University of North Dakota dismantle its women's hockey program despite having one of the best programs in the US. Seeing St. Mary's Academy turn its back on the team, the chances that hockey wouldn't happen for the girls next season seemed likely, but hope sprung eternal.

After another successful Female World Sport School Challenge where the team and tournament received zero funding from St. Mary's Academy, it seemed pretty clear that the team had a number of capable people behind the scenes who could ensure future success through teamwork, collaboration, and dedication. The Hockey Canada decision still loomed on the horizon, but it seemed very clear that the team was positioned to be successful if they were to re-associate thanks to a number of dedicated people.

That decision was delivered today, and it landed hard: the Hockey Canada application had been denied. As was written to parents and alumni in an email from a prominent Flames supporter,

"... there was nothing we could do to circumnavigate the HCAS deadline for applying for a new program. As [head coach Larry Bumstead] has shared previously, we learned too late that deadline was in September of 2024, months before anyone was notified that the program would be discontinued. Because that information was withheld, it blocked an avenue to move the team or apply for a new program to be instated for this coming season."

There was still a chance to appeal the decision, but that process would have reportedly extended into the summer. With players needing to find new teams for next year in order to keep playing and pursuing their dreams, it was decided that an appeal would not be made and the Flames prep hockey program would no longer exist.

Admittedly, I'm still processing this news because of how closely we worked with the Flames. Even when they weren't featured on The Hockey Show, we still followed their progress. We cheered for players who skated for U SPORTS teams, NCAA teams, ACHA teams, and for those who had made the jump to the professional ranks. We're fans of the players who have graduated to other walks life including coaching, teaching, and other professions where they're excelling. It's hard to process what the current players are going through, but I can't imagine what the alumnae feeling after helping to build the Flames into something great. Today hurts if you wore the jersey.

I can't imagine the hurt and betrayal that the parents and coaches feel after investing so much of their time, money, and effort into making the Flames prep hockey program one of this nation's best. These people worked tirelessly at games, volunteered all sorts of time and effort at the Female World Sport School Challenge, and spent their hard-earned dollars on tuition for their daughters only to have the school erase them like chalk on a blackboard while Hockey Canada opts to eliminate twenty high-level girls' hockey roster spots.

A few people asked me in January if I was going to eviscerate the school here on HBIC like I had done to other schools who had cut their hockey programs, and I still may let the rage out over this debacle. Right now, though, this one hits home because we had a friendship with the girls and the coaches while maintaining a solid working relationship with the program. I'm confused, I'm frustrated, I'm angry, and I'm sad after receiving the news today, but I'm mostly disappointed in both St. Mary's Academy and Hockey Canada. Two institutions that proclaim they're helping to elevate girls and women sure dropped the ball on that mandate in the last few months.

With the Flames' final CSSHL game scheduled for March 1, I'm going to focus on getting to those games between now and then to make sure the girls know that I believe in them. They may not wear the Flames jersey next season, but the Flames' spirit will still burn within them. They all have bright futures in whatever paths they choose to take, and my hope is that this mess won't sour them on being part of the game at some level because, as it always seems to happen, the adults have gone and ruined it for the kids again.

The Flames have officially been extinguished despite the efforts of a number of people, and this is one fire that will not re-ignite. Despite the effort, everyone associated with the Flames got burned.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

From Hawks To Falcons

When it comes to remembering details about the first version of the Winnipeg Jets, I'll admit that some of those details have faded into darkness over time. While players and moments in the Jets' history still are talked about and remembered today, there are specific things that a number of people likely have forgotten. While virtually everyone remembers the Jets having an AHL affiliation with the Moncton Hawks, I'd be willing to bet that a vast number of people forgot that the final couple of seasons for the Jets saw them align with another AHL franchise. Let's take a look at how the Springfield Falcons played host to future Jets for a couple of seasons before the Jets relocated.

While the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks were battling for the Stanley Cup in the summer of 1994, the Winnipeg Jets were looking to shore up their bottom line by carrying less contracts than they had in previous seasons. In 1993, the Jets thought they had an agreement with the Dallas Stars to have both teams stock the Moncton Hawks with players, but it turned out that the two-team partnership saw the Jets stocking the roster almost exclusively rather than the two teams sharing the responsibility. With the Jets cutting the number of contracts they held, that put considerable financial stress on Moncton's owners when it came to players.

With the Jets carrying less of a burden, they too needed to find an affiliation that would allow them to share the responsibility in similar fashion to what they thought they had with Dallas. On June 10, 1994, Tim Campbell of The Winnipeg Free Press broke the news.

The Jets announced that they had signed an affiliation agreement with the Springfield Falcons, sharing that AHL franchise with the Hartford Whalers who were in the same situation of reducing the number of contracts they held. The expansion Falcons - a team that saw GM Bruce Landon lead a group into obtaining the expansion franchise after the original Springfield Indians were moved to Worcester, Massachusetts to become the IceCats - began play with a number of notable names on the roster from the Whalers and Jets.

While the Whalers had players such as Robert Petrovicky, Manny Legace, and Marek Malik with the Falcons, Winnipeg fans are more likely to remember players like Luciano Borsato, Russ Romaniuk, Nikolai Khabibulin, Stephane Beauregard, and Michal Grosek who all played with the Falcons in 1994-95 at times. Rob Murray, a player the Jets had in their lineup for just 36 games between 1991 and 1996, racked up an incredible 1310 PIMs in that time in the AHL - including 373 PIMs just in the 1994-95 season - while never posting less than 31 points! No one is saying that Murray was passed over by the Jets when it came to finding NHL-ready centermen, but I would bet a lot of Jets fans would have loved a tough-as-nails forward who could score like Murray in the lineup more often!

I'll fully admit that I had forgotten about the switching of affiliates that the Jets did before they left for sandier lands, but the Jets had been with the Moncton Hawks as affiliates since 1987. The Hawks moved into Moncton after the Calgary Flames and Boston Bruins folded the Golden Flames and saw limited success, but they did make their way to the AHL's Calder Cup Final in 1993-94 before losing to the Portland Pirates in the championship series.

Among the many players and staff that the Hawks sent to greater heights, Rick Bowness was the team's first coach from 1987-89, Dallas Eakins skated as a defender for the team from 1989-93, Brad Berry was a defenceman from 1987-90, Claude Julien played defence in 1991-92, and Dan Bylsma played 50 games in Moncton in 1993-94. That's not a bad coaching staff if I've ever seen one, so the Jets were producing some very intelligent hockey minds when it came to careers after guys finished playing.

Of course, players who did make it to the NHL from Moncton included Bob Essensa, Randy Gilhen, Pat Elynuik, Danton Cole, Bryan Marchment, Rick Tabaracci, Stu Barnes, Kris Draper, and Brent Hughes, so the Hawks were doing a fairly decent job in developing talent for the NHL. Some of those guys certainly found more success after leaving Winnipeg, but the fact remains that the Hawks were doing their part in having players ready for a call-up when needed.

When the Jets pulled their affiliation, the Hawks were forced to fold their franchise after the Jets affiliated with the Falcons, ending a run of AHL franchises in the New Brunswick city that dated back to 1978. The void would be filled by the QMJHL's Moncton Alpines in 1995 who, after one season, became the Moncton Wildcats who have found great success in the city over the last 30 years.

With the Hartford Whalers relocating to North Carolina at the end of the 1995 season, the Springfield Falcons were Winnipeg's affiliate for one season until the Jets moved to Phoenix. While the NHL team may have moved, the AHL affiliation remained as the Coyotes and Falcons worked together from 1996-97 until 2004 when the Tampa Bay Lightning affiliated with the Falcons. In that time, the Falcons were developing players like Daniel Briere, Trevor Letowski, Robert Esche, and Branko Radivojevic for NHL successes.

That came after the Jets vacated the city, though, so we'll cut this discussion off here as the Jets were aligned with the Springfield Falcons for two seasons that a lot of Jets fans may have forgotten. I know I did, but that's why dipping into the historical records like I do can prove to be informative, especially when you see Nikolai Khabibulin wearing a #35 Springfield Falcons jersey which had completely been erased from my memory.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 602

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, hits the ground running tonight as there are a number of stories in the hockey world from the last week that can use some discussion. Our two hosts are ready to roll tonight with these topics, but there will also be a handful of announcements as UMFM and The Hockey Show have a big month planned with opportunities to get shwag! We'll go over all that and more on another busy episode tonight of The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason pay their respects to the man to the left as Ryan Galloway skated in his final NHL contest this week, and they have some facts and figures from Ryan's career during his 22 years as an NHL linesman. They'll also discuss the ECHL's decisions on the Newfoundland Growlers and Trois-Rivières Lions, Rogers Sportsnet apparently divesting some of their NHL responsibilities, one PWHL team opting to leave for greener pastures, the PWHL gets its championship trophy, and the IIHF Women's World Championship got underway in Utica, New York. There are some announcements, as mentioned above, and our favorite Australian hockey league gets started this weekend as Teebz and Jason will look at who's on the schedule to open the season! Get yourself settled in for lots of puck chatter 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 new UMFM website's online 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. It's a solid app.

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!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason discuss the ECHL's decisions, Rogers' decision, Ryan's decision, the PWHL's decisions, hockey down under, contests close to home, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: April 4, 2024: Episode 602

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Day The Growl Died

The inevitable happened today as the ECHL Board of Governors met, but things didn't play out as expected when the suits emerged from the boardroom. I had written about the financial problems of Deacon Sports and Entertainment last week, and things were to be settled today by the bigwigs who run the ECHL when it came to the longevity of the Newfoundland Growlers and Trois-Rivières Lions. It seemed clear that the ECHL would have to manage both of these teams through to the end of the season unless a buyer was found for either team or both teams. Questions of whether we'd see DSE's financial problems wipe out two franchises would likely be answered before the day was out, but what would the ECHL look like after those answers were given?

It turns out that the franchise everyone expected to survive is the one who was axed while the other, with its growing debts and struggling attendance, was the one that survived.

The ECHL announced today that Newfoundland Growlers would cease operations immediately as the Board of Governors voted to terminate the membership of the franchise "for failure to fulfill its obligations under the ECHL Bylaws". The 2019 Kelly Cup champions are no more as the ECHL shuttered the franchise following the vote, making all ECHL-contracted players on the roster unrestricted free agents. To say this came as a bit of a shock is accurate, but there are some underlying numbers that justify this decision. We'll get to the numbers in a second because there was more news on the way.

The other announcement that was made today was that the Trois-Rivières Lions had been sold to a group by Deacon Sports and Entertainment, and that sale was simply needing the ECHL to rubber-stamp it. This is the same franchise that owes the city of Trois-Rivières $650,000 in lease payments so I'm a little shocked there was a sale to another group who is willing to assume those debts, but this is why I don't own any sports franchises in my portfolio.

What may have sunk Newfoundland's hopes, though, was the insane costs in getting to the island of Newfoundland to play games. On average, a flight from Portland, Maine - home of the Maine Mariners - to St. John's, Newfoundland costs around $1000 CDN with at least one stop in either Montreal or Toronto along the way. The total time of the trip for any of the flights offered was no less than 12 hours via a commercial flight, so I'd imagine that a lot of ECHL teams looked at booking chartered planes for their visit to The Rock.

The only problem with that plan is that it's usually costlier to fly chartered than it is commercial. In fact, most NHL teams fly in some sort of commercial-sized chartered plane like an Airbus A320. Based on that linked article, the hourly rental rate for one of those planes is about $18,500 USD, so let's just make it clear that ECHL teams weren't flying to St. John's for games. Ever.

If teams decided to use a more economical approach and bus it to Newfoundland, Portland is the closest rival the Growlers have and it's still a 29-hour bus ride to and from St. John's in each direction. With players needing meals and bus drivers under stricter laws regarding the amount of time they can safely drive, that's a two-day trip in each direction. With some teams arriving on game day in St. John's based on their schedule, it's understandable that the logistics may have doomed the Growlers when it came to costs for the opposing teams, let alone the Growlers themselves.

We'll go a little deeper as well, though, because the numbers are where the details lie, and it's said the devil is in those details. The Newfoundland Growlers are 22nd-overall in terms of average attendance for ECHL teams this season out of the 28 franchises according to HockeyDB.com. While the ECHL would love more than ten of its 28 teams to be above the 5000-fans-per-game mark, it seems that a number of locations, including the Growlers in St. John's, weren't reaching that number.

Based on the linked graph, the Lions are 27th of 28 teams when it comes to average attendance, so it seems like Deacon Sports and Entertainment wasn't doing a very good job with the sports or the entertainment. I can't see anyone wanting to own one of the least-watched teams in the ECHL that's saddled with debt, but the Lions will play again while the Growlers are a memory despite the latter having 1500 people watching them per game than the Lions do.

Whoever stepped up to buy les Lions had better know how to market a team to a population that supports the Montreal Canadiens and the Laval Rocket for professional hockey while attending QMJHL games and U SPORTS games. The Lions are being outdrawn on average by the NCAA Division-III Utica Pioneers men's team, 41 NCAA men's hockey teams, the Wisconsin Badgers women's hockey team, and 15 of 18 QMJHL teams. In other words, no one is La Belle Province is going to watch Lions hockey, so erasing that debt and building a brand in and around Trois-Rivières is going to be a huge task.

Imagine the crazy twist this story would have if the Trois-Rivières Lions were to rally and win the Kelly Cup this season. With them sitting in fourth-place in the ECHL's North Division as per points percentages, there's a solid chance that they could make the dance. A deep playoff run after this debacle could be the very ingredient the new owners can use to sell tickets for next season and beyond. Before we put that cart before the horse, though, they need to make the playoffs. With three of four games remaining against the Worcester Railers who trail them by .008 in the points percentage standings, it would seem the playoffs for the Lions start now.

Hockey fans in St. John's, however, deserve better than having teams play there for a decade before heading to other locales. The AHL's St. John's Maple Leafs called the city home from 1991-2005. The St. John's Fog Devils were the QMJHL team in town from 2005-08 before the AHL's St. John's IceCaps played on The Rock from 2011-17. The Growlers moved into town in 2018, won the Kelly Cup in 2019, and officially had the doors locked on them on April 2, 2024. That's four teams in three leagues over the last 33 years, and I don't know if or when there will be another team that lands there.

I hope whoever the new owners of the Lions are can find success because the more successful of the two teams in the sale is now just a chapter in the ECHL's history. The number of ECHL teams drops from 28 to 27 today thanks to Deacon Sports and Entertainment being terrible at their jobs, but c'est la vie in minor-pro hockey: here today, gone the next. For Growlers fans, you have every right to be rotted.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

The Hockey Show - Episode 601

The Hockey Show, Canada's only campus-produced radio show that strictly talks hockey, is back on the air with all systems at optimum levels as our two normal hosts dig into hockey news. Jason's trip to Toronto to do some book signings for his fantastic tome, Bounty, will be discussed as it's always good to hear things going well for someone, so we'll get caught up on Jason's adventure to the Centre of the Universe. From there, our hosts will dig into the hockey matters this week, so get yourself settled in for some puck talk tonight on The Hockey Show at 5:30pm CT!

If today's episode feels like a lot of people are giving up and walking away, you may have caught the theme. Teebz and Jason will jump into discussing two ECHL teams that may fold prior to the season ended and how they got to that point, the Washington Capitals and their failed arena bid in Virginia, and Bob Murdoch's CTE diagnosis and Bill Daly's baffling statement last week. Some of the smaller stories will include ECHL teams loading up on U SPORTS players, the EIHL seeing its biggest increase in viewership, another Capitals player heading to Player Assistance, a quick note about a local coach going international, and anything else we can squeeze into the hour! We're going to move quickly on a very busy show 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 new UMFM website's online streaming player is pretty awesome 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 use the TuneIn app, you won't be disappointed. It's a solid app.

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!

Tonight, Teebz and Jason chat about contracting teams, contracting players, arena deals, head trauma, liability vs. responsibility, more fans watching, and much more exclusively on 101.5 UMFM and on the UMFM.com web stream!

PODCAST: March 28, 2024: Episode 601

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Trouble Out East

I can't say there are many similarities between the cities of Trois-Rivières, Quebec and St. John's, Newfoundland outside of both being next to bodies of water and both having ECHL teams. The first of those two similarities doesn't appear to be changing anytime soon as both the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean seem to be quite watery. The second similarity, though, could make both of these cities have another fact: both may be former ECHL locations by next season based on the news today.

I'm not sure anyone was expecting this news, but, according to a report from Matthew Vachon and Paule Vermot-Desroches of Le Nouvelliste, both the Newfoundland Growlers and Trois-Rivières Lions may not finish this season and could fold before the season ends. For a league like the ECHL who was patting itself on the back a couple of months ago for announcing two new expansion franchises in Lake Tahoe, Nevada and Bloomington, Indiana, this news tempers any excitement one may have had for teams competing for playoff spots for what looked like a competitive Kelly Cup postseason.

As per Vachon's and Vermot-Desroches's reporting, both the Growlers and Lions have Deacon Sports and Entertainment as the majority owner, and it seems Deacon Sports and Entertainment is nearing insolvency when it comes to paying its bills. Their reporting found that Deacon Sports owed the city of Trois-Rivières $650,000 while the team sits close to $1.1 million in debts. The Growlers seem to be somewhat better off, but they too are nearing the point of no return with their majority owner on the brink of financial disaster.

They reported that the ECHL has set a deadline for DSE to sell the clubs by April 2 - that would be the Tuesday after Easter weekend with Quebec having a stat holiday on Monday! - so it's almost certain that the sale of the majority share held by Deacon Sports won't happen. If there is no sale, there will be a meeting of ECHL governors on April 2 to determine the fate of the two clubs, and it seems very clear that the ECHL will take over the operation of these two franchises at that time. What happens after that is anyone's guess.

The ECHL could find buyers for the majority share of both franchises or sell the two shares individually. With ten or fewer games on the ECHL schedule for the two clubs, the race for the playoffs will remain the day-to-day focus, but I have serious doubts that the ECHL and the other owners will want to fund a playoff run by either team, especially the Growlers where flights into and off Newfoundland are quite costly. Again, they could opt to have the teams in the playoffs, but why would any other team in the North Division want these two teams in the race if it causes other teams to miss the playoffs?

As it stands, the Growlers and Lions are both tied with 64 points along with the Worcester Railers as all three are technically in third-place at the time of writing this article, and Maine sits one point back of the trio with games in-hand. In terms of point percentage, Trois-Rivières sits at .508 with one game in-hand on both Worcester and Newfoundland who have a .500 points percentage. Maine, as stated, has two games in-hand and sit at a .508 points percentage as well. In short, the race for playoff spots is extremely tight, so the ECHL's decision on April 2 will have ripples throughout the division and conference.

In 2008, the Fresno Falcons folded on December 22 in the middle of the season, and head coach and GM Matt Thomas wasn't pleased that his team was essentially shuttered by the ECHL, stating, “I think it's disrespectful to have teams fold mid-season, whether they're in first place or last place. You work so hard as a group to create and develop a winning environment. To have it taken away right in the middle of it all is tough for everyone.”

One has to wonder if the ECHL will the players on both teams to sign with new teams and remain eligible for the playoffs. With the trade deadline having come and gone on March 21, it's not like these teams can deal away their higher-priced talent to other squads. They clearly can't do a dispersal draft because a handful of teams are already out of the playoff race, so that would be unfair to the players selected by those teams. Again, this whole insolvency is a major pickle that hasn't been seen before this late in the season, so it may take some real creativity to solve the immediate problems of folding two teams with a few weeks left in the season.

This is an ugly mess which the ECHL has to solve, so I'll be keeping my ear to the ground next week following the weekend. ECHL commissioner Ryan Crelin's in a sticky situation with this financial problem shared between the teams, and I don't envy him based on what he may decide to do. For all the momentum that the ECHL was building with their expansion plans, this is entirely deflating when two Canadian teams are on the verge of collapse.

I guess we'll find out the fate of the Growlers and Lions on April 2. I have a feeling it's going to be a dark day in the ECHL.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

Where Eagles Soars

My last day at the professional ballpark in the city came and went today as the home portion of the local professional baseball team is now done. Because baseball is now over for me, I'm also ending the 2023 HBIC Summer Project that looked at some of the great women who played baseball in the AAGPBL, played some high-level hockey, and the women who are carrying on that two-sport tradition today. The end of baseball always means that the autumn season is near, and that also means that hockey training camps will be getting underway for most teams if they haven't started already. Players will be tested, teams will be built, seasons will be played, and championships will once again be handed out to the best teams standing at the end of their respective seasons!

There are players, though, who have chosen to move on and do other things with their lives as retirement from the game will happen to every player who skates. Some make news while retired while others fade into obscurity, and I often find myself wondering where some of these players landed. For every Wayne Gretzky, there is a fourth-line player who didn't seek a TV analyst role or front office career in management. Today, we pull one of those players out of obscurity to find out that he led a very incredible life after his professional hockey career ended!

You may remember Mike Eagles from his time with Quebec, Chicago, Winnipeg, and Washington in the NHL, but the Sussex, New Brunswick native had a solid junior career with the Kitchener Rangers and a good start to his professional career with the AHL's Fredericton Express. Eagles wasn't remembered for his scoring, but his defensive play as a forward made him a valuable player to the teams on which he played as he often drew checking assignments against the opposition's best players. Eagles would play 853 NHL games where he scored 74 goals and 122 assists, and he also added two goals and six assists in 44 NHL playoff games before retiring in 2000.

After retiring from the NHL, Eagles wasn't out of the game for long as he accepted the head coaching position for the St. Thomas University Tommies men's hockey team in the AUS. St. Thomas, which had finished 7-19-2 and dead last in 2001-02, saw an immediate turnaround under Eagles as the Tommies went 16-7-5 to finish atop the standings in the AUS! As a result, Eagles was named as the 2003 AUS Coach of the Year, becoming just the third St. Thomas coach to win the award in the program's history! The Tommies would fall short in the playoffs, though, and miss out on an opportunity for the CIS National Men's Hockey Championship.

St. Thomas would drop to 11-15-2 and sixth-place in 2003-04, drop out of the playoffs at 9-17-2 in eighth-place in 2004-05, bounce back to a 14-12-2 record for fifth-place in 2005-06, repeat their fifth-place finish in 2006-07 with a 14-14-0 season, and climb to fourth-place with an 11-11-6 mark in 2007-08. While he never guided the Tommies to the same success he had in his first season behind the bench, Eagles donned a second hat in the summer of 2008 when he was named St. Thomas University's Athletic Director!

The dual jobs that Eagles held may have occupied more of his time that he normally gave to hockey as the 2008-09 version of the Tommies fell to seventh-place on the strength of an 8-16-4 record. They actually fell further in 2009-10 as the Tommies finished in eighth-place out of eight teams on a 7-19-2 season. 2010-11 was the lowest point of Eagles' coaching career with St. Thomas as the Tommies put together a woeful 3-21-4 record to finish dead last by a large margin, and it forced a decision that affected Eagles' coaching career and the direction of the Tommies.

St. Thomas University interim president Dennis Cochrane decided that the dual roles that Eagles was filling wasn't doing justice to either position, so Cochrane asked Eagles to step down as the head coach to focus on his work as St. Thomas's Athletic Director. Obviously, the Tommies needed a head coach with the position vacant after Eagles chose to remain as Athletic Director, and former Acadia Axemen assistant coach Troy Ryan - yes, he of the current Canadian women's national team - was named as the new head coach of the Tommies on April 28, 2011. Ryan officially started the job on May 2 as he looked to lead the Tommies back to the AUS playoffs.

There's no denying that Troy Ryan is a very capable and intelligent coach, but it seems that whatever happened in 2011-12 and 2012-13 simply wasn't working as Ryan's Tommies went 8-42-6 in those two seasons. Ryan informed Eagles at the end of the 2012-13 that he would be resigning from the head coach position, telling STUTommies.com, "It just got to the point where I didn't think it was the best fit. Whether I wasn't the best fit or they weren't the best fit for me, it's time to leave.".

While it was disappointing for Tommies fans and players to see Ryan leave, the cracks in the financial foundation of the university were beginning to show in 2013 as the Fredericton-based university was expected to post a $600,000 shortfall that year. The Athletic Department under Eagles pressed on, though, and Tommies alumnus Patrick Powers was named as head coach for the 2013-13 season with former Tommies players Quade Lightbody and David Reynolds serving as his assistants. Could these three men boost the program out of the AUS basement?

In one word: no. The Tommies posted a 6-20-2 record to finish in seventh-place in 2013-14. 2014-15 saw the program take a significant step back once again as the Tommies went 2-22-4 in that campaign to finish in eighth-place once again. And as hard as it may be to believe, the 2015-16 version of the Tommies was actually worse than they were one year earlier as they finished the season with a 2-25-1 mark that included going oh-fer-14 on the road that season. While things looked bleak on the St. Thomas campus for the men's hockey team, the worst was about to come.

The Tommies men's hockey team had been a Fredericton fixture since 1938, playing games every winter as the sands of time poured through the hourglass. In 2016, though, the school was facing a a growing deficit in excess of $1 million, and the difficult decision was made to eliminate unnecessary expenses that the school was funding. One of those expenses was men's hockey whose budget was $245,000, so the school went ahead and saved a quarter of a million dollars by shutting down men's hockey.

"The costs of operating the men's hockey program are unsustainable in light of our other financial priorities, especially in academic and student areas — it is simply beyond our means," Dawn Russell, the university's president and vice-chancellor, said. "We have an operating budget deficit and are closely examining costs across our operations."

That news - delivered on April 5, 2016 - wasn't received well by any of the students or staff who represented the hockey program, a number of fans, and the Athletic Director at the school, Mike Eagles. Eagles had discussions with the administration on what could be done to keep hockey going, but the final decision stood as the hockey program was cut from the Athletics Department. Because of the saving, it also meant that no other sports would be in jeopardy of being cut, forcing Eagles to view this cut from a bigger perspective.

"The decision has been made and I'm moving forward with an acceptance of the decision," he stated matter-of-factly. "At the end of the day, I know the university is in a very tough spot with the finances the way they are."

The bleeding didn't stop there, though, as an article written by Tiana Trevino on November 6, 2019 in The Celt Independent highlighted the ongoing financial difficulties that the university face. Tiana wrote,

"The University of St. Thomas has run a deficit of $8 million since the beginning of 2019, according to Vice President for Finance Spencer Conroy, an increase over the 2018 deficit of $7 million quoted to the Independent by Vice President for Communication and Marketing Jeff Olsen.

"Fundraising and the UST community as a whole, however, have helped lower the 2019 net deficit to about $2.5 million, according to Conroy."

While cutting hockey temporarily slowed the bleeding, it's pretty clear that St. Thomas was still hemorrhaging money despite efforts to prevent the deficit from growing since 2013. I'm not saying that men's hockey should have returned to St. Thomas while they were splashing red ink all over the school's ledgers, but cutting hockey didn't quite put an end to the problem either. Whatever financial problems were still plaguing the university never went away, and that means hockey wasn't coming back.

While none of that could be solved by Mike Eagles, it wasn't like he was neglecting the other athletic teams at St. Thomas. STU has hosted numerous Atlantic Collegiate Athletics Association championships, Canadian Collegiate Athletics Association championships, and U Sports national championships which saw the school host the 2014 CIS Women's National Hockey Championship.

In terms of individual sports, the Tommies men's volleyball team won their second-straight ACAA championship in 2021-22, the women's hockey program earned their first win at the CIS National Championship with a 2-1 win over McGill in 2015-16, and the Tommies brought home the 2021-22 ACAA Men's Soccer Championship. While losing men's hockey is certainly a downer on one's career as Athletic Director, Mike Eagles has seen his teams bring home hardware on a number of occasions!

You might be asking why I wrote a long piece on a former fourth-line NHLer who moved into the world of university sports, but it mattered to me because Mike Eagles officially retired from his position as Athletic Director at St. Thomas University on June 27, 2023 to start living a more quiet life where he can focus on things he likes doing in his personal life like triathlons, gardening, and spending time with his family. Honestly, after 21 years with St. Thomas in some capacity, I don't think anyone can say he hadn't earned himself a nice break.

"Student-athletes from St. Thomas and across our wider AUS conference have benefitted greatly from Mike's dedication throughout the years," said AUS president and CEO Phil Currie. "His expertise and his passion will be greatly missed around our table. We wish him all the best and congratulate him on his retirement."

I love finding out what some NHL players are doing in their lives after their careers. For the most part, they all seem to be doing something fun and/or interesting, but Mike Eagles certainly took a different path than what other former NHLers have done. For the record, Mike is a member of the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame, Fredericton Sports Wall of Fame, and Sussex Sports Hall of Fame, so it's pretty clear he's been inspiring kids in and around New Brunswick for some time whether it was as an NHL player, an AUS head coach, or a school's Athletic Director.

Congratulations on a fantastic hockey career and an incredible post-hockey career, Mike. HBIC wishes you all the best in your retirement after being one of this writer's favorite Winnipeg Jets in the 1990s!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!