The Barrie Colts used Saturday’s OHL Priority Selection draft as a stage to make some dramatic announcements.
Since coming to the Colts in 2010, the rumours of Dale Hawerchuk leaving for the benches of the NHL have been constant.
In 612 games, the NHL Hall of Famer has a record of 305-269-38 and has taken the Colts to the playoffs in seven of his nine years with the team.
Already the longest-serving coach in franchise history, it was announced Saturday that Hawerchuk has signed a four-year extension with the team.
“Yeah, we’ve been close and even a few years back when it came down to that final second against London, it kind of sticks with you and adds fuel to the fire,” said Hawerchuk. “Last year, we had a great year, but we lost (Andrei) Svechnikov and some other good players and had to retool this year."
The bench boss says he has no desire to leave Barrie.
"I love it here, I love what we’re doing and are capable of doing and we’re looking forward to the next year or two as we’ve got some exciting prospects ... and (have) a lot of guys (coming back).”
One such prospect is Barrie’s first-round draft pick of the 2019 OHL draft, Brandt Clarke. The 16-year-old defenceman was selected fourth overall by Barrie on Saturday and Hawerchuk says he is excited about the possibilities with the former Don Mills Flyer star.
“We loved him right from the start,” said a smiling Hawerchuk. “We feel fortunate we got him where we got him at fourth and he’s a real general who is going to be a leader for this club for the next three or four years. He is a special player.”
The other big news from the Colts on Saturday was the return to the club of Marty Williamson, who was the team’s head coach from 2004 until 2010.
He is the team's new senior advisor and director of hockey operations, but will also continue his role as head coach of the Brock Badgers men’s hockey team.
“I’m real excited to be back and after talking with (owner) Howie (Campbell) back in January and then discussing it with my family, it just seemed like a great fit,” said Williamson. “The last month and a half, Dale and I have been talking nearly every day and I already seen from the outside all the people that admire and respect him, but now that I’m working with him, I see what a fantastic guy he is.”
Williamson said his role is to ensure the team competes every year and there's a culture that will not tolerate players not playing hard every night.
“Looking after everything hockey wise is what I’m doing,” said Williamson. “Howie wanted me to take a look at everything and give my opinions to which I’ve been known to have some strong opinions on things.
"In my 12 years in the league, I’ve never missed the playoffs and if we look at our team now, we’ve missed the playoffs two of the last three years and I just don’t think that should happen," said Williamson.
"If you can build consistency through the draft and making good trades, that’s great," said Williamson. "We seem to have things in pretty good order right now and that’s what we’ve got to make sure of going forward: we can’t have players that aren’t going to show and stuff like that. We want to make sure we’re putting the best product on the ice and giving ourselves a chance to win.”
Between a late start to the draft because of technical glitches and a long power outage at the OHL offices, Clarke was not in Barrie in time for the afternoon press conference.
However, the Colts' third-round pick (45th) Jacob Frasca was on hand and the centre from the Mississauga Senators told BarrieToday he is happy to be here.
“I’m so happy to be a part of this first-class organization and just to hear my name called by the Colts was a huge honour,” said Frasca, 16. “I know why I was drafted and that was to be a big, powerful and skilled centreman. I’m a two-way centreman that knows to help out defensively and obviously produce offensively, too. I will bring the whole package and I can’t wait.”
The other news of the day was the hiring of Greg Johnston as the head coach of Collingwood Colts, Barrie’s new Junior ‘A’ affiliate.
“I’m a Barrie boy, but my wife and I love Collingwood and go there regularly, so I’m extremely excited to be associated with the Colts name,” said Johnston, a former NHLer with stops in Toronto and Boston. “We plan on getting to work immediately to help make the first year in Collingwood a great one.”
The top five draft picks by the Colts were:
1st Round – 4th: D Brandt Clarke from the Don Mills Flyers
2nd Round – 3rd: C Ryan Del Monte from the Toronto Young Nationals
3rd Round – 3rd: C Jacob Frasca from the Mississauga Senators
5th round – 7th: LW Vladislav Dvurechenskii from the North York Rangers
5th round – 9th: G Ansel Holt from the Detroit Honeybaked 16U
