Canucks pleased with first season
Niagara Falls looking forward to Year 2 in OJHL
An 18-37-0-1 record, 19 points out of the final playoff berth in the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s West Conference, was good enough for 10th in the 12-team division.
But it was the last place the Niagara Falls Canucks wanted to be at the end of their inaugural season competing in the junior-A league after 50-plus seasons playing at the junior-B level.
Frank Pietrangelo, who owns the Canucks along with Brandon Boone and has been the team’s head coach since 2015-16, hoped to make a good first impression by making the playoffs as an expansion franchise.
But that ambitious goal was a long-shot at best, given the league didn’t approve the team’s application until late June.
“Not having time to prepare, that was the biggest thing. We found out June 27 and a month later, more or less, it’s training camp,” Pietrangelo said. “I don’t think we ever recovered from that.
“Obviously, we played our best hockey after the trade deadline this year when we made some key acquisitions and got some healthy bodies back,” he added.
“We did what we could to build as good as a club we could with the notice that we had and the way we wanted to.”
Pietrangelo is confident the growing pains will help the Canucks when they return for a second season in September.
“I think it’s going to be a tremendous help for us. Everything about the season, the travel, the arenas,” he said. “We hadn’t even been into these places before, we didn’t know where we were going.
“We didn’t know a lot about what to expect. A little bit of everything I guess in terms of emotions.”
The franchise’s optimism heading into 2024-25 is further buoyed as forward Thomas Shain is the only player the team will lose to graduation in the 20-and-younger league.
“We have 22 players who are eligible to return,” Pietrangelo said. “There is so much that we learned this year, even though we fell short of our goal, which was to make the playoffs.”
Junior-A hockey, which featured a faster pace of play, didn’t require as steep a learning curve for the Canucks coaching staff as it did for the players.
“I don’t think that changed much. Our coaching staff has a ton of experience and, personally, myself, (I found the game was) played at a high level of hockey,” the Stanley Cup winner with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 said of the coaching staff ’s approach.
“I don’t think it was something that we’ve never seen before because we have obviously in our careers,” he added.
“Having said that, just compared to where we were at, the level of hockey was just better, plain and simple.”
Year 1 in the OJHL was successful from a business standpoint.
“We surpassed our attendance that we’ve had in the past number of years so we’re happy with that,” he said.
“We’re happy with a lot of the youth and the schools that came out this year, and that’s something that we love to see continue to grow.”
In 28 home games at Gale Centre, the Canucks averaged between 450 and 500 fans, among the best in the 24-team league.
“I think we would be near the top for sure. I think there are other places, like Trenton, Wellington and Collingwood,” Pietrangelo said. “Some of these other centres do very well, as well.”
So far, two players eligible to return for another season with the Canucks — defenceman and Niagara Falls native Dryden Allen, from Michigan State, and forward Alex Hebblethwait, from Rochester Institute of Technology — have accepted offers to play Division I hockey on athletic scholarships, and Pietrangelo expects there will be more. He said it’s important for the Canucks to be perceived by potential players as a franchise that can help take them to the next level.
“That’s part of our job. We need to develop these guys as best we can as hockey players,” he said. “Some of these kids enter our door as 16year-olds so we want to help them mature and develop off-ice skills, as well.
“Their futures are of the utmost importance, not only to them and their parents but to us as an organization,” he added.
“At the end of the day, that’s what we’re going to hang our hat on — moving these kids to the next level and people seeing that they have success.”
Pietrangelo, a Niagara Falls native who played goal at the University of Minnesota before going on to a 15year pro career that included action with the former Hartford Whalers as well as stints in Germany and England, couldn’t remember a Canucks game in junior-A that didn’t attract at least one scout.
Was that the case when the franchise was playing a junior-B schedule in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League?
“No, definitely not,” he answered. By far the most interest in prospects is from NCAA programs
“I think there’s a little bit of everything here. At our showcase at the beginning of the year, every NHL team was represented so you had everything from the NHL down to the NCAA, the OHL.”
Hosting the OJHL all-star game is in the franchise’s future as is bringing a showcase tournament to Niagara Falls.
“I think we’re interested in doing all these events here in Niagara Falls. We’ve got a world-class facility, the Gale Centre, one of the best cities in Ontario,” he said. “We can accommodate a lot of people with restaurants, hotels and the rest of it.
“I think Niagara Falls is on the radar for all future events of the OJHL and the CJHL (Canadian Junior Hockey League.)”
Pietrangelo doesn’t regret his decision to move up to junior-A after eight seasons operating a junior-B team.
“We’ve never looked back since the day we got in, we’re so happy to be here. We’re just looking forward to building on what we started this year,” he said. “I think anyone who went down to the Gale Centre and caught a game this year would be impressed with the calibre of hockey. We’re tremendously excited about the future.”