Herrington at home with Cariboo Cats
John Herrington is the first Cariboo Cougar in the major midget hockey team’s 15-year history to call Hudson’s Hope home. The town of 1,000, a four-hour drive north of Prince George, has an indoor arena and not a lot of people using it, which left plenty of ice time for Herrington and his dad, John Sr., to work together developing his hockey skills. That started soon after John Jr. got his first pair of skates when he was two.
Now 16, Herrington has cracked the roster of the top midget team in northern B.C. and over the weekend in their exhibition series at CN Centre against the Everett Silvertips under-18s he reminded the Cougar brass what a talent they have on their hands.
Herrington played two of the four games and was at his offensive best with a hat-trick effort in an 8-2 win over the Silvertips on Friday. He also had two assists in a 9-2 triumph on Saturday.
Herrington joined the Cougars in the playoffs last March and played both games of the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League final against the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds. It didn’t take him long to get immersed in the hockey culture that exists around the Cougars dressing room at the Kin Centre. The team’s wall of fame highlights Cougar alumni such as Brett Connolly, Ryan Howse, Brett Bulmer and Brandon Manning, who used their major midget opportunities as a springboard to the NHL, and that left a big impression on Herrington.
“I’m a pretty big fan of Brandon Manning
– he was on my favourite team, the (Philadelphia) Flyers,” said Herrington. “I didn’t know much about the Cariboo Cougars until my second year of bantam when I came to U-16 (camp). Just to see him on the side of the bus and stuff was pretty cool.”
Herrington can score but is also responsible defensively and that will no doubt help raise his value as he climbs the ladder to junior hockey.
“I think I’m a two-way forward and I’m pretty versatile,” he said. “If you want me to kill a penalty I can kill a penalty and if you want me to score I can try to score.”
Herrington’s introduction to the major midget ranks comes on the heels of a provincial bronze medal win in March with the Northeast Trackers double-A team.
“The Trackers did a great job developing him and it was a great spot for him to build some confidence,” said Cariboo Cougars general manager Trevor Sprague. “He’ll play wing or centre and he’s come in and done a good job. He did have a good Cougars camp and he’s had a good camp here and put up some numbers.
“He’s not very big (five-foot-nine, 150 pounds) but he’s very smart and very skilled and he plays both ends of the ice very well. He’s a guy from the north that not lot of guys know because he comes from Hudson’s Hope. He’s definitely a guy we had penciled to be here this year.”
Former Tracker forward Curtis Hammond, 17, is also in his first year with the Cariboo major team while forward Connor Bowie, 17, who was with the Trackers two seasons ago, has found a role with the WHL Cougars.
Herrington attended the WHL Cougars training camp in Prince George the past two years and got to play in the Black-White intrasquad game last Wednesday. He plans to stick around the city for a few years and the Cougars have indicated they have a spot for him on their 50-player protected list.
Herrington says he’s looking forward to a winter playing in the shadow of the WHL Cougars and BCHL Spruce Kings.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of towns that have major junior, junior A and major midget hockey teams – Vancouver maybe,” he said. “You have the Cougars and Spruce Kings, all the exposure you need is here.”
Herrington will be attending Grade 11 classes starting this week at Prince George secondary school.