Louisville Hockey
TORONTO—There is no feeling quite like missing the playoffs—unless it’s losing money running franchises in the Ontario Hockey League.
Joe Holody knows it all too well.
So does Sudbury’s director of operations, Joe Drago, and his other partners who have shared in ownership of the franchise.
It’s the same story in Kingston. Not only does it hurt, it’s costly with no playoff gates to boost smaller revenues from small crowds in the arenas of the lower-placed teams in the regular season. Just about every hockey club and owner has experienced it, but the Guelph Platers, Kingston Canadians and Sudbury Wolves have felt it a little more the past few seasons. Those franchises are hoping to regroup, using the midget draft as one possible means, and come back strongly next season to chase the elusive playoff dream.
First the Guelph situation.
The Platers, who joined the Canadian Major Junior League the same season as Prince Albert Raiders, have missed the Emms Division playoffs for three consecutive years. Prince Albert, on the other hand, stepped right up from being a successful Tier 11 operation, as were the Platers, into being a quality team in the Western League. Ironically, the Raiders and Platers met for the national Tier II championship four seasons ago.
While the Platers missed the playoffs this season, the Raiders won the WHL regular-season title.
In Guelph, Joe Holody is expected to look for a coach to join with his son, Rob, who finished up as interim general manager-coach with assistant Mike Mahoney, after Joe Contini was fired late in the season. Alex Campagnaro, 65, who was hospitalized during the season and was replaced on an interim basis by the younger Holody, is expected to retire. Scout Jim Tye is retiring after a long and successful career.
The Platers are now accepting applications for both jobs.
“Until the draft, we’ll probably leave it status quo,” Joe Holody said. “Rob’s just filing the applications and reading them. He’s getting phone calls, too.
“He asked me what he should do. It’s up to him.”
The senior Holody, who said his club’s losses should be lower than last year’s $49,000, doesn’t know exactly what it will take to get his team winning with some regularity and into the playoffs. The Platers drew an average of 1,500 and developed some good young players, including last year’s first pick, Guy Larose, who, along with Mike Murray, gives the Platers two solid centers who will probably top the 100-point mark in scoring next season.
Kingston is also undecided after finishing dead last in the Leyden group for the third successive season.
Late in the season, the Canadians dumped Rick Comacchia as coach, restructured the titles of the executives, left GM Ken Slater’s future in limbo and installed Jim Dorey as coach for the remainder of the season. Comacchia is relocating back in Toronto, but is going into sales for a Toronto business.
Dorey could be back in some ownership capacity, but will not coach. His younger brother, Roger, is rumored to be the new coach.
“I’d just going along doing what I’d supposed to do,” said Slater, whose contract expires June 30.
The saddest story is that the Wolves missed the playoffs for the fourth straight season and actually had two fewer points. They wound up with 37 to tie Kingston for dead last overall and earned the first draft position for the second year in a row with the fewest wins.
Drago, who is one of 14 owners in the Sudbury franchise, has been catching most of the heat for his club’s showing. Yet he goes about the business of running his hockey club, watching the games from the lofty Sudbury press box and ignoring the shouts of “Jump, Joe, jump,” from the local supporters.
“You expect that when you’re the most visible,” said Drago. “But we aren’t going to quit. We need to get a new breed of players in here. And this year we started to do that. Sudbury is still a good hockey town.”
The team lost between “$ 125,000 to’$135,000,” this year. Drago wants to keep the team in Sudbury, but said “you just can’t continue to lose money.”
“If we got a good enough offer for the team, we’d have to seriously consider it even if it is from someone out of town,” said Drago, who went on to say they never would have considered selling to outside interests two years ago. “But I think we are starting to come around. We’ve lost a lot of games by one goal and the players are starting to realize that when they come to Sudbury they are treated well.
“I have to admit that several of the owners aren’t happy with what is going on but, hopefully, they’ll sell their share to someone else. We want to keep hockey here.”
Drago stated they’ve received only one inquiry for the actual sale of the club and that came from an “anonymous phone call from Sault Ste. Marie. We don’t deal with anonymous phone calls from anyone.”
Drago didn’t expound on what the asking price is but reports indicate the club could be bought for about $450,000. The Wolve owners may also want all outstanding debts picked up by the purchaser.
“I think next year will be the important year.” said Drago. “If we can turn things around then the team will be fine.”
Stability is one thing the Wolves need and the rehiring of coach Andy Spruce would have been the first step in that direction. But Spruce said he won’t be re-hired after the owners held a special meeting on March 30. He said the team is accepting applications for the dual role of GM-coach but that the job wasn’t offered to him.
“In essence, I’ve been fired,” Spruce said. “What else is there to make of it?”
Drago would like to see Spruce return but he isn’t the only owner.