Dylan Walchuk, like Sahir Gill, Mike Ullrich and Garrett Festerling before him, quit on the Vernon Vipers believing he was looking out for the betterment of No. 1.
Only time will tell if Walchuk’s hockey career flourishes at a higher level with the Western League Spokane Chiefs. And who knows what the Chiefs promised him to bolt the BCHL Vipers Den?
Scott Gomez of the South Surrey Eagles told me after a game at old Civic Arena he was stoked about going to play university hockey in Alaska. He would be the first in his family to get a degree.
He instead ended up with the WHL’s Tri-City Americans. Hockey people whispered that a six-figure trust fund was part of the deal. The move certainly worked since Gomez is a multi-millionaire with almost 900 games on his NHL resume.
Gill left for the Chicago Steel of the USHL and came back, helping the Vipers claim the 2010 Royal Bank Cup in Dauphin, Man.
Ullrich was convinced by the Lethbridge Hurricanes that his ultra skills were better suited to the WHL. He, too, returned to the Vipers, but not before standing up in the dressing room and stating his case to teammates, some of whom didn’t figure he deserved a second chance.
Walchuk was perhaps not willing to accept third-line duty on a very good, but injury-depleted team. His cell phone message book is full and he hasn’t returned Facebook requests from this sports department.
He told me shortly after landing back in Vernon he was going to shoot for a second U.S. scholarship deal. It worked for Hunter Bishop.
Now that he’s joined Spokane, Walchuk is ineligible for a NCAA scholarship. If he plays two years for the Chiefs, he gets two years worth of funding for a CIS school.
Festerling was a 16-year-old rookie phenom with Mike Vandekamp’s Vipers. He was wooed by the Portland Winterhawks, and after sitting alone in a Tim Hortons late at night stewing over how he was going to tell Vandekamp the bad news, made the change. He had a solid four-year WHL career.
Players, often unaware of how the real world ticks, sometimes make bad choices. They listen to and trust the wrong people. Walchuk is a fine, young man and I wish him the best.
Viper head coach/GM Jason Williamson and head scout Larry Black, who recruited the McBride, B.C. product out of Nelson Junior B, were deeply hurt by Walchuk’s decision.
Hockey is a wildly passionate game and they have every right to feel betrayed. Walchuk, who already left the Northern Michigan Wildcats feeling sour, has the right to play wherever he wants.
His arrival was greeted by fans and teammates with huge glee. His departure, while shocking, does not mean the world will end on Feb. 29. The Vipers may just step up and make the playoffs without him.
“I really feel for the Vernon guys because one, I know what they put into trying to get him to stay in college and then two, what they put into getting him back,” Chilliwack Chiefs’ coach Harvey Smyl, told Black Press Sports.
“I think they had to shake up their lineup to accommodate him, and in doing that they gave up on one and possibly two good kids. But I was quoted (by The Morning Star) a couple weeks ago saying he was exactly the type of player they needed, so to lose him now must hurt.”
Sure, it hurts, but the Vipers will move on without him. Why should they waste energy fretting about a player who, in the end, chose not to help the team?
The Vipers certainly upgraded their character by grabbing 20-year-old forward Colton Cyr from the Nanaimo Clippers at the trade deadline.
Cyr, whose uncle Paul was a superstar with the Clippers and later the WHL Victoria Cougars, was captain in Nanaimo last year under Bill Bestwick.
“He’s as fine a young man as I’ve had the distinct pleasure of meeting and coaching,” Bestwick told me Friday morning.
“His teammates will quickly appreciate him for his competitiveness and his stabilizing influence in the dressing room, his practice habits, his preparation habits. He’s more important in the dressing room than a towel, and a towel is pretty important.”
Bestwick said he asked Cyr – a five-year Clipper – and other 20-year-olds at last year’s swap deadline if they wanted to go play somewhere else.
“I wanted him to have the opportunity to play where he wasn’t the captain and not under so much pressure playing at home. I wanted him to have the chance to go, ‘That’s what it’s like.’ He said he wanted to stay and be a Clipper.”
With Cyr, the Vipers now have four proven leaders, including captain Pat McGillis. D-man Sean Robertson was captain with the Victoria Grizzlies and Ben Gamache wore the C for the Okotoks Oilers before putting on a Viper jersey.
Surveying the Interior Conference landscape, where one solid team is going to miss the playoffs, Smyl likes what the Chiefs did by adding towering d-man Anderson White and forward Kody Dhaliwal, both 20. White was in Quesnel (now Chilliwack) last year and left for the USHL Des Moines Buccaneers.
“I like the depth that we’ve added, because we’ve got variety and the ability to do a couple different things,” said Smyl.
The Prince George Spruce Kings, who visit Wesbild Centre this afternoon, picked up sniper Jarryd Ten Vaanholt of the Victoria Grizzlies and 19-year-old Zack Rascell from the AJHL Canmore Eagles.
“I think that he’s (Ten Vaanholt) a very good player if he’s in the right frame of mind,” said Smyl. “He’ll play somewhere in their top eight and be a good depth guy.”
