DANKOCHIK’S DRAFTINGS: Learning the ebbs and flows of junior hockey

It was a weird moment for me at this year’s Steinbach Pistons banquet and awards ceremony.

Seeing Spencer Penner and Noah Szabo on stage as graduating players is my first lesson in how fast a junior hockey roster can turn over.

When I grew up in Gimli, we didn’t even have a junior B team, just senior, and when I worked in Flin Flon, I was only there for a single hockey season.

Since joining The Carillon in 2022, we’ve been lucky to have teams with plenty of success on the ice, including that Pistons squad.

But now just a couple years later that team has nearly all gone.

Of course I knew these players weren’t long for their junior teams, but it’s one thing to think about it and a completely other to see it play out in real life.

It’s a lesson to appreciate these players while they’re here. It’s also a credit to the staff of the Pistons, who tirelessly work to replace the massive turnover which happens on a yearly basis in junior hockey.

I was in attendance for the Niverville Nighthawks game six loss to the Winkler Flyers, and it was tough to see those players on the ice, soaking in what might be their final games of hockey.

Every junior team in the nation faces that moment, with 99.9 per cent of them having to face their hockey mortality while the opposing team celebrates.

So here’s to the graduating junior players, past, present and future. You’ve helped make your home team’s community just a little brighter, no matter how many points you scored or how many wins your team had.