The Save-On-Foods Oceanside Generals landed their man last week, hiring Lou Gravel as the club’s general manager.
As the director of scouting and recruiting for the Cowichan Valley Capitals, Gravel, who calls Comox home, has a wealth of hockey experience and loads of connections having also scouted for the BCHL’s Nanaimo Clippers and Salmon Arm Silverbacks, said Generals’ president Sylvain Giroux.
“He’s going to run hockey operations for our team. He’ll be in charge of hiring the coach, bringing in new players, basically everything that has to do with hockey operations, and that way I can concentrate more on the business side of our team,” said Giroux.
The hiring was made official at last week’s board meeting, “but he got permission from Cowichan to work with us last Monday, so we’ve been working with him since then.
“The reason why we got him is that he’s got tons of connections with players all over. He’s found us a player that’s coming from Florida; we’re talking to a guy from Texas about coming out …”
Gravel helps organize the annual Chowder Cup, a heavily-scouted showcase for high-school-aged players held in Boston that attracts many coaches from NCAA programs.
“He puts together like 10 teams for that every year so he’s got a ton of connections and he’s going to help us out quite a bit.
“We almost hired him last year,” Giroux said of the process. “I’ve been in constant contact with him from last year. He’s been helping out a little bit here and there, so it was kind of a no-brainer this year when we needed to turn this team around. He was available and he’s willing to do it, and we’re pretty happy to have him on board.”
ICE CHIPS
Connor McNary from Orlando, an 18-year old, 6’1”, 200-pound defenceman, is due to arrive in town on Tuesday (today). McNary impressed at the main camp for Cowichan this year but an injury put him on the shelf. Giroux said the Generals are close to closing a deal for a 19-year-old forward from the KIJHL . . . The Generals entered play last weekend with a record of 1-10-1 . . . see Thursday’s edition of The NEWS for results from the Generals weekend games at Campbell River and at home to the Westshore Wolves.
