Training camps for SJHL teams don’t open up for another month, but there’s been plenty of movement around the league during a very busy offseason.
A few high-profile moves have already dotted the SJHL offseason, led by a group of major junior players who will suit up in the SJHL this year.
The Estevan Bruins made waves by announcing two CHL vets will join the team this year, bringing in defenders Felix Allard and Blake Heward from the QMJHL’s Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen. The Bruins picked up Allard’s junior A rights from a Quebec team for a player development fee July 13, while Heward’s commitment was announced July 3. The Bruins also hold the rights to former Bomber defender Marek Schneider, who played last season for the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades - where he will play this year has not been announced.
Not to be outdone, the Melfort Mustangs pulled off a blockbuster trade July 20 to secure the rights of WHL defender Chase Friedt-Mohr. Melfort acquired the 19-year-old Prince Albert native’s playing rights from Melville for a package including top prospects Evhan Allan and Cohen Swan, along with cash, Melfort’s first round pick in next year’s SJHL draft and a third round pick in 2025. Melville previously picked up Friedt-Mohr’s playing rights from Kindersley for a fourth-round pick in this year’s SJHL draft and a second conditional pick.
Friedt-Mohr has spent most of the past four seasons in the WHL, playing 125 games with three different teams. The defenceman had 21 points during those games, including eight goals.
The Bombers have a pair of known potential major junior targets in their final year of WHL play who are eligible to join the team this year - forwards Ashton Ferster and Justin Lies. Neither are confirmed to be either returning to their WHL teams or suiting up elsewhere for the coming season.
Ferster was picked by the Bombers in the 2018 SJHL bantam draft and has since played three WHL seasons with Medicine Hat and Kamloops, while Lies, a Flin Flon native, has four WHL seasons and over 200 regular season and playoff games under his belt, along with 21 goals and 53 points. The Bombers also drafted Lies’ former Saskatoon Blades teammate Jayden Wiens in the 2018 draft - whether or not the Bombers still own the 20-year-old Carrot River, Sask. product’s rights or whether he starts the season with the Blades are not yet known.
BCHL
The BCHL’s decision to split with Hockey Canada - and therefore, function outside the organization’s existing player transfer rules - has led to teams within the league poaching some of the SJHL’s top young players. Three players, including two nominees for the SJHL’s rookie of the year award last season, are confirmed to be joining BCHL squads in the fall.
The first to go was Estevan forward Jagjeevan Phangura, who will join the league’s Surrey Eagles this year. Originally from B.C., Phangura was acquired last year from the league’s Prince George Spruce Kings before the start of the season and had 41 points in 49 games, along with three goals and four points in seven playoff matchups. Phangura’s commitment was announced by the Eagles June 30.
Following suit were a pair of Saskatchewan talents with NCAA Division I deals already in place. First came Melfort’s Riley Ashe, who the BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks announced would play for the team June 30. Ashe, a 17-year-old from Warman who has committed to the Univ. of Nebraska-Omaha, had 38 points, including 30 assists, as a rookie with the Mustangs, adding five playoff points in 10 games. Ashe was the league’s rookie of the year this past season, playing for the same team as his late brother Dylan.
The third shoe dropped in the form of Humboldt defender Carsten Kayter. The 16-year-old defender from Warman was announced July 2 to be joining the BCHL’s Langley Rivermen, following a 29 point rookie year where he also secured a scholarship from the Univ. of Nebraska-Omaha. Kayter was a finalist for SJHL rookie of the year last season.
Bombers head coach and general Mike Reagan confirmed that two BCHL teams had made overtures to Bomber rookie scoring leader Alexi Sylvestre over the summer, but the Quebec native has committed to rejoin the Bombers for the coming season.
After the BCHL’s split with Hockey Canada, teams within the league have signed several players from other Canadian junior A leagues without providing payment or compensation to their previous teams.
Stars split?
One of the biggest stories is the end of the Battlefords North Stars’ dynamic one-two punch - league MVP, player of the year and leading scorer Kian Bell and league assist leader Holden Doell. Both players are eligible to return to the league this season, but as of press time, neither appears to be coming back.
Bell, originally from the Ottawa area but raised between Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, joined the Stars last season after a stint with the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Eagles. Following a dominant season with the Stars where he scored 54 goals and logged 102 points in just 51 games, a major junior team has brought Bell into the fold for his final junior season. The QMJHL’s Charlottetown Islanders announced June 23 that they’d signed Bell as an overage forward - one of only three overage players the team can dress.
“I am thrilled to become an Islander, I’ve heard nothing but great things about the organization, the fans and the city,” said Bell in a news release issued by the Islanders.
“I’m super excited to get started and grateful for a second chance in the league to prove myself.”
Bell may still return to the Stars if things don’t work out for him on the Island - the Stars maintain his junior A rights. However, the Stars no longer hold the junior A rights for Doell, who may now be done with Canadian junior hockey entirely. Where Doell ends up is not known, but one thing is - it won’t be the Battlefords.
Doell’s junior A playing rights were traded by the Stars to the AJHL’s Blackfalds Bulldogs July 21 for future considerations. Those rights may not end up meaning much - Doell is likely to start this season with the NCAA’s Ferris State Bulldogs, who Doell committed to last season.
Doell was selected earlier this year by two American junior clubs - the NAHL’s Odessa Jackalopes, who picked him in the fourth round of the league’s annual draft, and the USHL’s Sioux Falls Stampede, who did the same in their draft’s sixth round. Four teams - Ferris State, Blackfalds, Odessa and Sioux Falls - each can claim Doell’s playing rights for the coming season.
If Bell stays with Charlottetown, it will mean the Stars will be without all five of their top scorers from last season and seven of their top 10 scorers.
