By Dan Marshall

Hockey Day in Nanaimo Saturday features 19 NMHA games

Jan 18, 2018 | 10:41 AM

NANAIMO — Saturday is Hockey Day in Canada, so you could sit on the couch and watch about twelve hours of NHL Hockey.
 
Nanaimo Minor Hockey is hoping that people will come out to local ice arenas instead to participate in Hockey Day in Nanaimo.
 
There are 19 different minor hockey games on four different ice sheets around the city.
 
The featured games are at the Nanaimo Ice Centre culminating in a Junior B game between the Buccaneers and the Peninsula Panthers at 7:30 p.m.
 
Nanaimo Minor Hockey president Brad Knight says it’s a chance to showcase the amalgamation of different levels of the sport from minor hockey, to major midget, to junior, and university.
 
“In the old days we used to really celebrate hockey and for some reason those types of things are kind of going by the wayside. It’s nice to see something that used to be so popular in the past is coming back,” said Knight.
 
There are approximately 800 kids registered in Nanaimo Minor Hockey and Knight feels the sport can get a bad wrap for being too expensive.
 
“For as little as 300 bucks and maybe $300-$400 in expenses in a year you can play recreational hockey,” said Knight. “There’s so many funding programs available. People should give our office a call and find out that there’s opportunities for kids with or without money. Hockey’s for everybody and there’s lots of opportunities to get into the game for free.”
 
According to Knight local success stories like goal Dylan Ferguson getting called to the NHL, Dylan Coghlan signing an NHL entry level deal with Vegas, Chase Lang playing pro hockey, and Patrick Bajkov receiving an invite to an NHL Development Camp are all drivers of the sport.
 
He hopes some of those players will come back into the community to take on a mentorship role.    
 
“Nanaimo Minor hockey is going to launch a hockey school. The theory behind that is to get coaches who have worked in our system and players who have worked in our system to come back and help promote sport and to promote hockey in Nanaimo,” Knight said.
 
NMHA did a calculation of the number of volunteers and volunteer hours that go into just one season of minor hockey.
 
It takes about 500 volunteers and between 100,000 to 125,000 volunteer hours.
 
The NHL will be a focal point of Hockey Day in Canada with all seven Canadian teams playing.
 
But Knight hopes hockey fans of all ages will experience hockey at the grassroots level on Saturday.
 
 
dan@nanaimonewsnow.com
 
On twitter: @danmarshall77