With several thousand young hockey players ready to take to the ice in the next month or so, here are a few of the most fascinating "stories to watch" when it comes to hockey in Sudbury this year:
Sudbury Wolves
The 2008-09 season has been referred to on multiple occasions
as "one of the most highly anticipated campaigns in Sudbury
Wolves history." It seems that the building blocks being
assembled by Mike Foligno and company for a run among the OHL
elite in a year or two is what has fans so captivated. After
the wonderful playoff performance of 2007, any fan who followed
the Wolves closely fully understood that 2007-08 would be a
season of rebuilding.
With the blessings of the Wolves faithful, youngsters like
Daniel Maggio and Peter Hermegildo were provided with ample ice
time, making the expected mistakes and learning from them. With
the team clearly not playoff bound last January, captain Kevin
Baker was traded for Dean Howard and Eric O'Dell, the latter
who absolutely took the league by storm, rocketing up the
rankings all the way to a second-round selection in May's NHL
draft.
Jared Staal enjoyed a breakthrough season, showing definite
offensive flair while Marcus Foligno, while playing a markedly
different style than older brother Nick, flashed glimpses of a
power forward-to-be. Things fell perfectly for the Wolves as
the team made  Junior Canadians sniper John McFarland its
first selection overall in the 2008 OHL draft.
Such is the backdrop that has fans believing that a move up to
challenge the top three is not completely out of the question,
especially if import selection Nikita Filatov is sent back to
juniors by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Of course, that's just one of the countless storylines
surrounding the 2008-09 version of the Sudbury Wolves.
Sudbury Major Peewee Wolves/Nickel City Sons Major Peewees:
Over the years, there has existed varying degrees of nastiness
to the rivalries of the SMHA "AAA" representatives at the
bantam and midget levels and those teams representing district
two (Onaping Falls Huskies, Valley East Cobras, Rayside-Balfour
Jr Sabercats).
I hesitate to call the current situation involving the
respective groups of 12-year-old hockey talent "nasty." But it
is clear in talking to both sides that there seems to be more
on the line when it comes to NOHA bragging rights in this age
bracket, locally, than in either of the older two age
divisions.
The reason is simple enough: the teams were essentially just
one team this time last year. Looking for a way to help
facilitate the development of "AAA" hockey players from peewee
age through to midget hockey, the Nickel City Sons successfully
received approval to launch a Northern Ontario Peewee AAA
hockey league, one that does not include the Sudbury
representatives.
Due to increased travel and costs and no guarantee of better
competition than they would receive playing in the Nickel
District Minor Bantam Division, the Sudbury Major Peewee Wolves
opted to stay put. Now just about everyone agrees that
splitting the minor peewee "AAA" talent from one year ago into
two factions does nothing to help either organization remain
competitive on a provincial scale.
Yet the respective sides have very differing viewpoints on how
a single structure of "AAA" hockey should exist in Greater
Sudbury. For now, the Major Peewee kids representing Nickel
City and the SMHA this year are caught in the middle. There is
certainly a feeling among many outsiders looking in that the
movement of the balance of power on the ice for the competing
NOHA Districts over the next three to five years may go a long
way towards deciding just how much pressure is put on both
parties to come up with some sort of compromise solution.
Sudbury Lady Wolves
Now it is likely just a simple byproduct of having a pair of
daughters who donned Lady Wolves jerseys that causes me to take
a very keen interest in following the success of the Sudbury
girls hockey contingent. In most years in recent memory, the
Lady Wolves could be counted on to reach the podium with at
least one of their rep teams.
Last year at provincials, the bar was raised notably as Sudbury
athletes returned home with a gold medal banner courtesy of the
Midget Lady Wolves and a pair of silver medal performances from
the atoms and peewees. There is little doubt that this feat
will be extremely difficult to duplicate.
But even if it's simply a return to the norm and there is just
one local team that medals at the OWHA all-Ontario competition,
the question remains which squad is most likely to rise to the
challenge on that particular weekend. Time will tell - as will
be the case in the hundreds of hockey stories that will unfold
in Sudbury over the next eight months.
Randy Pascal is the voice of Persona 10 Sports and the founder of SudburySports.com.
