The Ontario Hockey League is in the process of a major reconstruction job in five Emms Division cities and two in the Leyden Division
TORONTO—The Ontario Hockey League is in the process of a major reconstruction job in five Emms Division cities and two in the Leyden Division.
First, the Emms:
In Sudbury, the Wolves are hoping coach Billy Harris, who took over late last season on an interim basis, can get the team howling again with homebrews, veterans and seven rookies including highly-rated Craig Duncanson, one of 10 players who were groomed in the Sudbury area.
In London, there’s a new dawn for the Knights with coach-general manager Don Boyd introducing discipline and blending nine rookies with limited but skillful returnees such as Bob Halkidis and Brian Bradley.
In Windsor, former Philadelphia Flyer assistant coach Bob Boucher takes over as GM-coach and tries to rebuild the Spitfires, once the flagship franchise in the OHL. The Spits were sold to John McHale of Ottawa last May. Boucher has center Graeme Bonar and Keith Gretzky to get the Spits going.
In Kitchener, one of the country’s most successful junior B coaches in Streetsville’s Tom Barrett, who replaces Joe Crozier as GM-coach of one of the best and most successful franchises in Canadian junior hockey. He takes over a well-stocked lineup, including Jim Quinn and Dave Shaw on defense and John Tucker, Dave Bruce, Greg Puhalski and Wayne Presley up front.
In Guelph, former Hamilton Fincup junior Joe Contini takes over from Don McKee as coach of the second-year club, which hopes to contend for the playoffs with star Kirk Muller and the league’s No. 1 midget draft pick, Trevor Steinburg.
Secondly, the Leyden:
In Kingston, former St. Mike’s junior B coach Rick Comacchia takes over from Rod Graham, as former NHL scout Ken Slater has taken charge of rebuilding what used to be one of the best hockey towns in the Leyden.
In Toronto, the revolving door continues with former Toronto Toro Tom Martin replacing Jim Jones. The Marlies have a very talented rookie in Vito Cramarosa and could have another if Ed Olczyk, the most valuable player in the Midwestern Junior B League with Stratford last season, decides to join the club after the Olympics. He is with the U.S. team along with Belleville’s No. 1 draft Al lafrate, a Detroit Compuware midget grad.
It’s status quo around the rest of the OHL:
In the Emms, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds figure to be in a battle with Kitchener and Brantford Alexanders for the top rung. In the Leyden, defending champion Oshawa Generals may hold a slight edge over Peterborough Petes (they lost Steve Yzerman to Detroit Red Wings) and Ottawa 67s.
The toughest job of all this season may belong to Barrett, who last year led North York to the Canadian Tier Two championship and won six Central Ontario Junior B championships before that with Streesville Derbys. In taking over for Crozier, Barrett can do little to top Crozier or The Crow’s predecessor, Orval Tessier. Both coaches took the Rangers to a pair of Memorial Cup appearances and one national title.
Attendance-wise, it will be difficult for Barrett to bring in more fans since the Rangers drew about 4,000 a game in the regular season and consistently topped 6,000 in the playoffs. But, even with a strong nucleus of returnees, there are those coaches around the league who wonder if the Rangers will be as dominant without center Mike Eagles, goalie Wendall Young and defenseman Al Maclnnis, who have turned pro.
Barrett turned down what he termed “several offers each year” before taking the Kitchener job.
“The situation wasn’t right before,” Barrett said, “I was never offered the dual role. They always wanted me to coach. I wanted both.”
Wile in junior B ranks, Barrett built hockey clubs which, to put it bluntly, intimidated in the manner Bert Templeton did it with the old Hamilton Fincups.
“We like have hockey clubs to play hockey either way,” he said. “We mind our own business the same as everybody else.”
In Windsor, Boucher first undertook to change the attitude of the players.
“If you’re going to turn things around, the first thing is attitude,” he said. “The next step is to assess how talented you are compared to the league. Just going by past records, a .500 season would put you up in the middle of the pack and maybe above it. If we could make a goal, that would be it for now.”
Boucher engineered a trade in the offseason, which may greatly benefit the Spits and certainly has made them competitive. They gave up offensive-type defenseman Bruce Bell and rookie draft Ken Gagner to Brantford for five players—Terry Maki, Shaun Reagan, Rick Pickersgill, Tyler Verhaeghe and Rick Gosnell.
“How would you like to have them?” London’s new mentor Boyd remarked after a pre-season game. “Instant competitiveness, eh?”
Around the circuit, some other players to watch this season in the Emms are Chris Felix and Wayne Groulx in the Soo; Kevin Hatcher in North Bay; rookie goalie Jeff Reese, Dave Gagner, Jeff Jackson and Al Bester in Brantford. Danny Quinn (if he returns from the Calgary Flames) in Belleville; Bruce Cassidy, Mark Paterson and Gary Roberts of Ottawa; Scott Tottle, Mike Posavad and Shawn Evans of Peterborough; Steve Driscoll and rookie Mike Stapleton of Cornwall; Peter Zezel and Mike Rowe in Toronto; and Dave Gans and John MacLean (if he returns) with Oshawa.
In other late-breaking trades: London sent second-year center Roger Belanger to Kingston for right winger Brian Dobbin; Kitchener obtained goalie Shane Beal from Sudbury for defenseman John Landry; Windsor got Kingston draft pick John Tamer, the I7th-rated player by central scouting, for a draft choice; Ottawa sent defenseman Paul Louttit to Windsor in a deal to obtain the Spits’ No. 2 draft pick Dave Saunders, who refused to report. Sault Ste. Marie sent Todd Sepkowski, Mike Cassin and Charlie Moore to Belleville for draft choices, including the Bulls’ fourth selection in 1984.”