Each year Ontario Hockey League teams are allowed to have three spots on their roster for what are referred to as “overage players.”
These are players who are in their last year of eligibility for major junior hockey, and for the most part, players who are going to have a big impact on the hockey club.
The 2014-15 Sudbury Wolves had several candidates. Starting the season as Wolves was defenceman Jeff Corbett, along with forwards Brody Silk and Nathan Pancel.
I think it was a given to start the season with Pancel. He was coming off a 42-goal season and was looked upon to be one of the offensive leaders. He had a team-leading 15 goals and 32 points in 35 games when he was traded to the Peterborough Petes at the trade deadline.
In his three-plus seasons in the Nickel City, Pancel notched 106 goals and 100 assists for 206 points in 229 games.
For Brody Silk, it’s been an up and down five years.
He came to the Wolves in the second round of the OHL draft, described as a definite offensive player and a former leading scorer in the Great North Midget League. But there were questions about the health of his shoulders.
And it would be those shoulders that would keep him out of the Wolves lineup on several occasions, including most of the 2013-14 season. Time and time again he battled back from injury to get himself in the lineup.
The type of game Silk plays also got a number of suspensions.
But it was his character, his never-say-die attitude, that kept him a fan favourite and ultimately led the organization to put the “C” on his uniform this season.
The Wolves also had a pretty easy decision in deciding to keep Jeff Corbett. The veteran was needed to mentor the team’s young defence corps.
Corbett showed signs he was developing into a pro player and scouts took notice — he was as high as No. 66 on the NHL draft rankings, but injuries would be what defined Corbett’s first three years in the league.
A bout with mono, a couple of concussions and several nagging injuries kept him on the sidelines on numerous occasions.
There is no doubt that he’s banged up this year. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of times Corbett has barely made it back to the bench, and on several occasions, literally crawled back to the bench after blocking shots or delivering or taking a hard hit.
It’s that perseverance that earned him a spot on the leadership group the last couple of seasons.
The Wolves pay tribute to the overagers tomorrow night prior to the start of the final home game of the season.
It will mark the first time in recent memory that the OA’s were drafted and played their entire junior career in Sudbury.
By coincidence, the Peterborough Petes will be the opposition bringing Nathan Pancel back to Sudbury for one last time.
Stew Kernan is the radio and television voice of the Sudbury Wolves, and the News Director at KiSS 105.3 and Q92.
