CHL Notebook: Wildcats find out bag skates are no-no

Moncton-Wildcats-coach-Darren-Rumble.-(QMJHL)

Moncton Wildcats coach Darren Rumble. (QMJHL)

Major junior hockey expects players as young as 16 years old to play a schedule almost as long as the NHL’s, which often includes playing three games in a space of fewer than 72 hours. There is still a tacit approval of fighting in a league comprised of teenagers despite the mounting evidence about the effects of sub-concussive blows to the head.

For some reason, though, holding the so-called bag skate after a desultory defeat crosses the line. The QMJHL fined the Moncton Wildcats $2,500 on Sunday for “punitive training,” in response to coach Darren Rumble ordering the players to return to the ice last Thursday after a loss against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.

Cavalierly speaking, the sum would be cheap at twice the price if it effects the desired change in Moncton’s play. (The Wildcats have played only one game since, dropping a one-goal decision against Saint John.) This seems like an overreaction by the QMJHL; it’s a sign that sports leagues, not unlike universities, are just petrified of anything that has a whiff of controversy. Having a collective team punishment in full public display is not in step with the image the QMJHL wants presented. There’s also likely an extralegal element behind the QMJHL’s rationale for the fine, given that the business relationship between junior players and their teams is currently before the courts. In other words, the workday was done.

Trying an old-school motivational tactic, however, is still part of the league’s reality. There should still be some degree to which a coach such as Rumble can try to motivate players after other avenues have presumably failed to achieve a turnaround.

All three CHL leagues have certainly worked to curb any physical or verbal abuse against players who are in a very precarious position to push back. It seems like a stretch to say a bag skate crosses that line, especially at a level of hockey where it’s not unheard of to see some players go back on the ice after a home game to hone their skills. If it’s between these two polar opposites, it’s a healthier form of reinforcement than the paint-peeling post-game tirade punctuated by inanimate object-kicking. And any Wildcats diehards disappointed by a young team’s losing skid would have taken it as a sign the organization knows it needs to be better.

Bean stock grows

A No. 1 defenceman on a retooling team in the MasterCard Memorial Cup host league is a unicorn. In other words, one wonders what return the Calgary Hitmen might get for Team Canada incumbent Jake Bean (CAR) after beginning their teardown with a blockbuster trade on Saturday.

Calgary GM Jeff Chynoweth cadged six assets from the Swift Current Broncos in the swap that sent 19-year-old Beck Malenstyn (WSH) and overage Matteo Gennaro to the contending Broncos. Calgary (.360 point pct., 11th in the 12-team WHL Eastern Conference) is going nowhere quickly. It would seem logical that Bean will be headed elsewhere after his turn with Team Canada.

The Broncos and Memorial Cup-host Regina Pats are the only teams that have potential to play into May that have made major additions thus far. It often seems like there is a chain reaction when a division rival makes a move, so it will be interesting to see how long the East Division-leading Moose Jaw Warriors and Brandon Wheat Kings wait to act.

Suddenly in contention

Score one for the OHL schedule-maker, since the Eastern Conference’s sleeping giants, the Hamilton Bulldogs and Mississauga Steelheads, play on each of the next two Sundays.

The tone in Hamilton (.660 point pct., first in the conference) has shifted in the last two weeks. The Bulldogs fortified their roster with a trade that, like the Calgary-Swift Current swap in the WHL, involved an overage scorer, Ryan Moore, and 19-year-old drafted forward, Nicholas Caamano (DAL), moving eastward from the Flint Firebirds. The deal also means that Bulldogs coach John Gruden is now working with three of the top four scorers from the team he coached during that gong-show season in Flint two years ago, with Will Bitten (MTL) being the third.

The Bulldogs, who are on an 8-1-1 run, don’t have a top-30 scorer in the OHL, but the Caamano-Moore deal means they have six forwards tallying at or near a point-per-clip.

The Steelheads (.460, eighth) cooled off after the initial rush of regaining captain Mike McLeod (NJD) faded. But Mississauga’s run to the OHL final last season has created an expectation that they can be peak performers when it’s demanded. The two Sunday showdowns — the first in Hamilton before a return engagement in Mississauga on Dec. 10, the last game before players are summoned for world junior duty — is a litmus test for both clubs. Their only remaining matchup is on Dec. 28 during the WJC, so once rosters are finalized in January, there won’t be an opportunity for a direct head-to-head comparison between the teams that are only separated by a 40-minute drive.

Canadian NHL Team Prospect of the Week: Skyler McKenzie, C-LW, Portland Winterhawks (WHL)

Uncoincidentally, the Winterhawks are on a 10-game win streak and Winnipeg Jets draftee McKenzie (No. 198 overall in 2017) is on a 10-game point streak. While the questions stemming from how McKenzie’s sub-optimal size — 5-foot-9 and 165 pounds — will affect his pro potential are far from settled, the 19-year-old is illustrating that his breakout as a scorer last season was not some one-year anomaly. Only five players in the WHL are scoring goals at a greater frequency than McKenzie, who has 20 in 23 games

Winterhawks centre Cody Glass (VGK), a Winnipegger, was long gone by the time the Jets made their first selection in 2017. Throwing a seventh-round dart at McKenzie might prove to be the next best thing.

New name to know: Navrin Mutter, LW , Hamilton Bulldogs (OHL)

Mutter was the No.-83 overall choice in the OHL priority selection draft in April, but has found a role as a depth player in a fairly seasoned Hamilton lineup thanks to having the disposition to be an energy player who is physical and dogged on the forecheck. Last Saturday, the Lucan, Ont., native scored his first two OHL goals during a Hamilton win against the Ottawa 67’s. Mutter’s maiden marker — assisted by Marian Studenic, to boot — was anything but an ugly goal.

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