Windspeaker Sports Briefs - September 2014

King announces retirement

After 10 seasons of playing professional hockey in various leagues, Colt King has called it quits. King, a 31-year-old Ojibwe from Thunder Bay, Ont., announced his retirement via Twitter on Aug. 14.

“With a heavy heart I have made the decision to hang ‘em up and retire from the game that I love,” King said. King had spent the past two seasons toiling for the Central Hockey League’s Missouri Mavericks. During his pro career King also played for two other CHL franchises, the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Rage and the Rapid City Rush in South Dakota.

King had been drafted in the fourth round of the 2001 National Hockey League Entry Draft by the Colorado Avalanche. But he never played a game in the NHL.

As a pro, besides the CHL, he also had stints in three other minor leagues in North America. He suited up for the American Hockey League’s Rochester Americans, the East Coast Hockey League’s Augusta Lynx and Utah Grizzlies, and with the Port Huron Flags in the defunct United Hockey League. King also spent one season, 2011-12, playing in England with the Sheffield Steelers.

“I have thought long and hard about what the right thing to do is for myself and my family,” King added in his retirement tweet. “We feel the right thing to do is to move on and start a new chapter in our life. This has easily been the hardest decision I have ever had to make.”

Oshweken’s David General will be entering the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame this fall. General will be inducted into the hall during a ceremony that will be staged on Nov. 8 in New Westminster, B.C.

General is one of eight individuals that will be inducted into the hall this year. He is being inducted via the builders category. General is being honoured for his coaching efforts.

In 1992 he led the Six Nations Arrows to the Minto Cup, the national Junior A lacrosse title. The Arrows defeated B.C.’s Coquitlam Adanacs 4-3 in their best-of-seven Canadian championship series.

General was also on the coaching staff for the Six Nations Chiefs when they captured the Mann Cup, the national senior men’s crown, in both 1995 and ‘96.

The number of Aboriginal coaches now working in the National Hockey League has doubled this off-season. That’s because Bryan Trottier and Rocky Thompson have been hired as assistant coaches by the Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres, respectively.
There are now four Aboriginals working as either head or assistant coaches in the NHL.

Trottier, a Metis who has won the Stanley Cup seven times (six as a player and once as a coach), will work in Buffalo alongside Ted Nolan, an Ojibwe, who is the Sabres’ head coach.

Craig Berube, a Cree who is the Philadelphia Flyers’ head coach, is the other Aboriginal coach currently employed by an NHL franchise.

Trottier, who was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997, was a member of the New York Islanders’ dynasty that captured four consecutive league championships from 1980-83. He also won back-to-back titles with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1991 and ‘92.

Trottier was also an assistant coach with the  Colorado Avalanche when they won the Stanley Cup in 2001.

Trottier last worked as a coach in the NHL more than a decade ago. He was the New York Rangers’ head coach until he was fired more than halfway through the 2002-03 season.

As for Thompson, he too is a former pro player. But he appeared in only 25 NHL contests and spent the majority of his pro playing days in the minors.

For Thompson, this marks his first NHL coaching gig. He spent the past four seasons working as an assistant coach with the Oklahoma City Barons, the top affiliate of the Oilers.

Prior to that Thompson coached in the junior ranks. He was the assistant coach of the Western Hockey League’s Edmonton Oil Kings from 2007 through 2010.

Manitoba’s Fisher River Cree Nation has been granted an expansion franchise into the Keystone Junior Hockey League.
The Fisher River Hawks will ice a Junior B squad during the league’s 2014-15 season, which begins in October.
The River Hawks will play their home contests at the Bryden Cochrane Sr. Sports Complex, located on the First Nation. With the addition of the River Hawks, the Keystone circuit now consists of nine clubs.