North Bay Skyhawks G.M. Guy Blanchard shakes hands with Trappers president Scott Kile. In the background Skyhawks Will and Nick Laporte wear a Trappers Jr. A jersey for the first time. Photo by Chris Dawson.
North Bay Skyhawks G.M. Guy Blanchard shakes hands with Trappers president Scott Kile. In the background Skyhawks Will and Nick Laporte wear a Trappers Jr. A jersey for the first time. Photo by Chris Dawson.For Guy Blanchard hockey has come full circle today.
The Skyhawks kingpin first donned a Trappers uniform as a Jr. player back in 1975.
Today, Blanchard became a Trapper once again as his junior team adopted the same Trappers nickname that used to be the Jr. hockey name in this city from 1962 to 1982.
“It’s very touching and very emotional for me,” admitted Blanchard who had attempted to get the Trappers name for his Jr. club when he moved the Jr. ‘A’ team to North Bay in 2002 after the Centennials relocated to Saginaw.
“It’s about 33 years ago when I began my real hockey here in junior and college hockey in the U.S. where I started to grow as a person. Now that I have my junior team here and I bring it back to the Trappers it’s just a highlight for me, it’s wonderful on a personal basis.”
“In the big picture is painted this is really something for all of North Bay.”
Trappers Tradition The Trappers used to play in the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey Association and in the Ontario Jr. ‘A’ league. It’s a junior club that developed NHLers such as Moe Mantha Jr. and Bill Barber.
Other former Trappers NHL alumni like Sheldon Kannegiesser and Ab DeMarco Jr. attended the press conference.
DeMarco Jr. remembers selling programs at the Trappers games in the early years. He recalls getting called away from that job as a 15 year old to suit up for the local Jr. ‘A’ team at the time.
The North Bay native went on to play 344 NHL games with Pittsburgh, New York, Los Angeles, Boston and St. Louis in the late 60’s to late 70’s.
“I remember years ago when their was a problem when the Centennials came in. I don’t know what transpired but I was a little upset that they weren’t called the Trappers because it was such a tradition in North Bay,” said DeMarco Jr.
“So to now see this name come back to Junior I think it’s just fantastic and I hope the younger generation has grown up with Trappers at midget so I like the idea of continuing the name and becoming a hockey family all the way through.”
And that’s the vision that Trappers president Scott Kile embraced when he took over as president of the Midget AAA team this spring.
The Trappers name was adopted by the Nipissing District Peewee AAA team last year but now the Timbits Hockey along with the North Bay and District Girls Hockey Association will use the Trappers nickname as well - the Girls in the Pre-Novice Division only.
The only void in the Trappers program appears to be with West Ferris Minor Hockey which did not have a representative present at the press conference. The local association will continue using the Blades name – including the Bantam AAA Blades - as its title at least for one more year.
“I just think this is a new day and the door is always open for everybody to be a North Bay Trapper, whether its boys, girls whoever – for me personally I’d love for it to become Trapper City Hockey, all our programs. I think it would be the greatest thing.” Kile said when asked about the absence of West Ferris Minor Hockey in the new Trappers equation.
The Midget AAA and the Jr. Trappers will wear new Washington Capital style Trappers jerseys to start the season. Even the North Bay Trappers logo was shining brightly at centre ice at Memorial Gardens where the Skyhawks logo used to appear.
