Hard to say good bye
Locker clear-out day bittersweet for players ineligible to return to the Canucks next season
It was a gloomy day for the Niagara Falls Canucks organization as players and coaches met for year-end meetings and lockers had to be cleaned out after being eliminated from the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League playoffs 24 hours earlier.
Spirits remained high for returning players, however, for graduating players, such as Phillip Chadder, Austin Wright, Adam Dentico, Luke Laurin and Jake Gilmour, it was a bittersweet day.
“When I got traded here last season, I was excited but also a bit shocked,” Chadder, an alernate captain on the team said.
“My time as a Canuck has been fun I’ve enjoyed the group of guys and thought I have improved my overall game from last year so that was positive.”
Prior to his time in Niagara Falls, Chadder suited up for the St. Catharines Falcons. He was traded near the deadline last season and had been on the Canucks owner and head coach Frank Pietrangelo’s wish list for sometime.
Chadder saw plenty of success in 2016-17, posting career numbers in every offensive category and finishing the season with 20 goals and 48 points. He was relied upon in every situation from opening night in September up until Game 6 of the Golden Horseshoe Conference semifinals, which took place on Sunday afternoon.
“Phil’s’ a great skater and hockey player,” Pietrangelo said. “He’s a bright kid and had a terrific year for us.”
“Phil’s got a lot of options right now, there are plenty of NCAA and CIS (Canadian Interuniversity School) schools after him. I just met with him and I’m sure he will be successful wherever he lands.”
Another player on the radar of NCAA and CIS schools is Niagara Falls native and former team captain Austin Wright.
After starting the season in the Alberta Junior Hockey League with the Brooks Bandits, he was traded to the Brockville Braves of the Central Canada Hockey League and then requested to be dealt to the Canucks, the hometown team he captained two seasons ago.
“It’s been a great junior career here,” he said. “There is nothing to complain about it.”
Wright brought plenty of leadership and experience to a young Canucks squad. He suited up in the RBC Cup with the Brooks Bandits last year and wanted to make an immediate impact on the promising Niagara Falls roster.
“I thought I had a pretty good year,” he said. “I had a target of scoring a goal per game when I rejoined the team.”
“I’m going to miss the competitiveness of junior hockey and my teammates. It’s a fun time coming to the rink every single day joking around with the guys.”
Despite drawing interest from plenty of schools, Wright has yet to make a decision on where he will be playing hockey next season.
“I’m going to see how my shoulder feels over the next bit and go from there,” he said. “It was some of the best years of my life playing junior hockey, but you got to move on, grow up and finally go to school.”
Dentico entered his final season in junior B s the Canucks starting goaltender. During the 20152016 season, he was named Golden Horseshoe goaltender of the month for December and backstopped the Canucks to 16 wins earning the starting role over Zach Moore’s first year out of St. Catharines.
“Denny’s a great kid of all the guys, maybe because he’s a goalie and I’m a former goalie.” Pietrangelo said. “He’s a a hard worker spent two years with us here and played well.”
“Unfortunately, he didn’t get much playing time in the playoffs because Zach just played great but he understood. He’s a very mature kid and did whatever he needed to for the team, but he was ready to go at all times.”
Dentico seems to be leaning toward hanging up the skates and barring down on books instead of the puck.
“We were cut short a couple years, we had two good seasons,” he said. “It wasn’t my best year this year, but that’s alright, we were real close at a group and this year and we had a great run at it.”
Above all, Dentico wanted to make an impact in the dressing room and have a positive impact on his teammates.
“Just playing fearless, but I’m hopefully going to Florida Atlantic University, most likely taking business. It’s tough to just hang ‘em up and not go to battle with the boys.”
Other players ineligible to return for another season with the Canucks are Jake Gilmour and Luke Laurin, both of whom had their seasons cut short by injuries.
Laurin was poised to be one of the leaders this season and had a place among the top six forwards.
“It’s unfortunate he broke his leg,” Pietrangelo said. “He missed three months of hockey and we thought he would be back earlier where he’d get a couple of regular season games into him but it didn’t happen.”
“He was thrown into Game 1 against the St. Catharines Falcons because we were short bodies so he played his first game in the Jack Gatecliff small arena. I felt bad for Luke he’s a great kid.”
Same goes to Gilmour, who had lingering injuries the majority of the season, after being released by the Kingston Fronetacs of the OHL.
“You know Gilly has a smile on his face 24/7,” Pietrangelo said. “Hee’s an extremely hard worker in practice and games, he comes around with the weight on his back because he’s a Gilmour, people around this area know his dad.”
“Will miss our 20-year-olds, no doubt about it they were all good kids and even better hockey players so it’s tough to replace those guys.”
The graduating players have nothing but respect for the Canucks organization and enjoyed living their billet families and making memories to last a lifetime.
“First-class organization, they treat us really well,” Chadder said of the Canucks. “The coaching staff was always prepared with plenty of practices, gym memberships and everything in between.”
“Oh, and you can’t forget my billets, they were amazing.”