2017-18 Alberta Golden Bears

[Bob Stauffer]

After winning back-to-back National Championships in 2013-14 (in Saskatoon vs Saskatchewan) and 2014-15 (in Halifax vs UNB) Canada West power Alberta has crashed out early in the last two University Cups.
The reigning Conference Champions had as many as 11 freshman playing last season and will only be adding three or four recruits; likely two forwards, one D and a goalie.
All the recruits, who will be announced late August or early September have extensive WHL experience.
Interim Head Coach Serge Lajoie enters his third season as Alberta Head Coach as Ian Herbers (who went 119-19 with the Bears-same record as Alabama's Nick Saban) remains with the Edmonton Oilers.
Alberta who were a team in transition last season, after significant graduation following the 2015-16 season, should be a top 2 team in the Canada West this season.
The Bears will benefit from a full season from right shot PP D Jason Fram, and former 50 goal scorer from the WHL Cole Sanford, who both joined the program after Christmas last season

Click to read more...

 

[Bob Stauffer]

Loaded for Bear

Alberta announced their recruits last week:

https://www.ualberta.ca/athletics/t...rs-add-three-more-to-2017-18-recruiting-class

I have followed this program since the last 1970's.
Did 13 seasons of PxP and was Alberta's SID for eight years: on paper this is the best Golden Bears team the 15-time University Cup Champions have ever had!

The Bears added two forwards that will play in their top nine.

Steven Owre, who is head to Oilers Rookie Camp in Penticton, will likely be reunited with his former Medicine Hat Tigers' teammates Trevor Cox and Cole Sanford.

Owre had 88 points last season, Cox had 109 points in '14-'15 the same year Sanford registered 50-45-95.

Hard-nosed Brandon Magee redshirted at Alberta last season and will provide some bite down the middle as well, he registered three 60+ point seasons for Victoria in the WHL.

Tyson Baille was Alberta's best freshman last season and he will certainly play in the Golden Bears top six up front. In 2015-16 Baille put up 43-52-95 with Kelowna after scoring 37-39-76 in the Rockets WHL Championship season in 2014-15.

Another 2nd year Golden Bear Luke Philp had 82 and 77 point seasons in the WHL and should be better this year after fighting through injuries in freshman season.

Jamie Crooks, who twice scored 30+ goals in the WHL is the Bears lone 5th year forward, he tied for the team scoring lead last season with Baille with 26 points.

Jayden Hart and Stefan Legault who finshed 3rd (25) and 4th (24)in scoring will likely round the Golden Bears top three lines.

This means that Cole Linaker and Taylor Cooper, both of whom had 50+ point seasons in the WHL, likely will be on an Alberta 4th line centered by Riley Keiser who was the 3rd line C for the Edmonton Oil Kings when they won the 2014 Memorial Cup.

Defensively the Bears recruited another elite right shot puck-mover Clayton Kirichenko who had 12-52-64 and was +50 last season with Medicine Hat last season to go along with Jason Fram (57 and 62 point seasons with Spokane) who joined the program halfway through last season.

Dylan Bredo led the Bears D in scoring last season (20 points in 28 games, 46 points, +33 as a 20 year-old in the WHL ) and he is joined by hulking Graeme Craig and Ryan Rehill-both with extensive WHL experience on a deep Bears back end.

Alberta upgraded in goal as well!

Zach Sawchenko elected to not to play his 20-year season for the Moose Jaw Warriors and the two-time WHL Eastern Conference Goaltender of the Year (30-14-6-1 with a 2.79 GAA, .917 SV% last season) will battle former Phoenix Coyotes draft Brendan Burke (8-3, 1.70 GAA, .934 as a freshman last season) for the #1 job in between the pipes.

Suffice to say GM Stan Marple, who heads up Alberta's recruiting, has given Interim Head Coach Serge Lajoie a lot of horsepower to work with.

Lajoie enters his third season with Ian Herbers remaining on leave with the Edmonton Oilers.

Herbers posted a stellar 119-19 record in three seasons at Alberta winning back-to-back National titles in 2014 and 2015.

Lajoie has gone 57-30 as Bears Head Coach as Alberta played with as many as 12 freshman last season en route to winning the Conference title in Saskatoon over rival Saskatchewan.

Anything short of a 22 win regular season, a Conference Championship and advancing to the University Cup Final 4 would be considered a dissapointment in my opinion, especially after the Bears were knocked over the last two years in the USports Quarter-Finals.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

Looking very dominant in CanadaWest.
Blew out the Huskies at the dump on friday, but the National silver medalist's, from last year turn the table on Saturday 4-0 shutout. Regardless, Sask has had little turnover from last year and a couple of good recruits, especially on the backend, so dominating them 6-1 in Saskatoon is an eye opener. It looks like the Bears are better than the team we saw in Freddy in March?
Freshman Sawchenko and Burke have basically split the games, any favourite so far?
Surprised Kozun, one of Adolph's prized recruits hasn't seen more action with the Huskies, especially with Cooke getting lit up on Friday.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

Alberta needs overtime to get by T-Birds on friday, lose to UBC on Saturday night.
With back to back losses vs Manitoba a few weeks ago and a close split with UBC, the Bears are beatable, especially on the road.
Most likely a date brewing with the third place AUS team, at upcoming Nationals?

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

Bears take game 1 of CanadaWest finals 5-2 over USask.
Three pp goals, another on a penalty shot for Alberta. The Bears pp seems to be clicking, unlike the one that let them down against Acadia in last years UCup quarter finals loss.
For the Huskies, no Jordan Cooke. Will he be ready in time for Nationals??
I can see a sweep here.

 

[Rob]

Bears win the Canada West conference with a 5-1 win over Saskatchewan. Decided to pay for this game as the stream for York and Brock was almost unwatchable. The Bears pretty much dominated this series. It had nothing to do with Jordan Cooke being absent. The Huskies were just badly outplayed.
Things got dirty at the end. Brandon McGee of the Bears got a match penalty which will probably mean a suspension.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

If it's a suspension for McGee, it would mean that he would miss the first game of the University Cup.
For the Bears and Huskies, lot's of time to heal the wounded (unlike AUS or OUA), but a longer than normal layoff until the first game of the U Cup, 11-12 days between games. For Alberta about a month since they have played a road game, as usual they have hosted all their playoff games again.
As for Saskatchewan, they don't look as dominant as last year?? They will be better off to get far away from the U of A and get back some of the wounded!

 

[Bob Stauffer]

Alberta wins 16th National Title!

Though it no way, shape or form a dominating performance, it must be stated that Alberta was quite resilient in over-coming a 2-0 third period deficit in an OT win vs rival Saskatchewan and an early 2-0 deficit in a 4-2 win over St. FX in the University Cup Final.

Serge Lajoie and his players showed resiliency in the Tournament and also did so playing with-out impactful forwards Brandon Magee and Jayden Hart.
In theory only Jamie Crooks is the only 5th year that will defintely be moving on, he leaves winning 3 University Cups in 5 seasons.

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

News today that Northlands will be closed down. The venue was home to the University Cup in 2005-6.
If the Bears were to host in the near future would they have to go to the new home of the oilers??
IMO, that is too big a venue for the U Cup, too expensive for the University's budget and the drake would lack size, dressing room space, especially with 8 teams. Is there another building in Edmonton that would be suitable to host the event??

 

[RED ARMY EAST]

News today that Northlands will be closed down. The venue was home to the University Cup in 2005-6.
If the Bears were to host in the near future would they have to go to the new home of the oilers??
IMO, that is too big a venue for the U Cup, too expensive for the University's budget and the drake would lack size, dressing room space, especially with 8 teams. Is there another building in Edmonton that would be suitable to host the event??

Also, there wasn't a WHL team in Edmonton in 2005-6, now there is.

 

[Hollywood3]

Northlands was also too big for the U-Cup. I believe they just played the final there. There is a 5,000 seater I believe.

 

[AUS Fan]

Northlands was also too big for the U-Cup. I believe they just played the final there. There is a 5,000 seater I believe.

I thought it was the Alberta "semi final" game and the Gold.

 

[Hollywood3]

I thought it was the Alberta "semi final" game and the Gold.

In one season that was true. That was when Manitoba and Alberta beat UQTR and then played for the group title.

 

[MiamiHockey]

Northlands was also too big for the U-Cup. I believe they just played the final there. There is a 5,000 seater I believe.

There are no suitable arenas in Edmonton, or near Edmonton for that matter. Rogers is much too large, as was Northlands, and the only other rinks with any seating are Jr. A calibre arenas that seat 2000 or fewer.

The U of A is planning on building a twin pad on their South Campus, ostensibly to replace Clare Drake, that should be suitable for a University Cup. Until that is finished, I don't believe they are able to host a University Cup.

 

[Hockey Nightmare]

Couldn't they just close the upper bowl at Rogers Place?

 

[MiamiHockey]

Couldn't they just close the upper bowl at Rogers Place?

The cost of renting Rogers Place would be prohibitive.

 

[Bob Stauffer]

There is a distinct possibility that within 4 years the University of Alberta will have a new competiton facility (3500 seats) and practice sheet at the South Campus.
If that happens I would fully expect the Uof A to become a regular host for the University Cup again.
As someone who was on the organizing committe for 2005/06 the moment the Tournament went from 6 to 8 teams, Clare Drake Arena got taken out of the mix. The existing infrastructure in the Old Barn (built in 1958) can't support an 8-team tournament.

Rogers Place is not an option for the U of A.

 

[FreddyFoyle]

Worth noting that there was an interesting comment from the UNB AD John Richard last week.

He said the change from six to eight teams added more costs (two more teams to host, or 33% more for those accommodation and meal costs), while you have the same potential for revenue - 8 games. So while UNB was able to make a profit from hosting under the old format and make some legacy investments in the Aitken University Centre, Richard says they will be lucky to break even this time. And that is for a 3500 seat AUC that was sold out for most of the games.

 

[Drummer]

He said the change from six to eight teams added more costs (two more teams to host, or 33% more for those accommodation and meal costs), while you have the same potential for revenue - 8 games.

Also, the funding & revenue structure is different with USPORTS taking more than they have in the past.
- Rights Fee (no exceptions) of $75,000-$125,000 (bidder can select the value they want to offer within the provided range - per hosting year).
- $5,000 to the Globe & Mail (Advertising)
- 12.5% of ticket revenue (est. = 3000 x $20 x 8 = $480,000 | 12.5% = $60,000)
- 50% of revenue generated from 50/50
- Web Media Director fee $1500
- 70% of total cash value of 'title and presenting sponsorships' goes to USPORTS
- 50% of total cash value of 'major sponsorships ($10K or higher)' goes to USPORTS
- 0% of ad revenue smaller than(<) $10k is provided to USPORTS

So - there are a lot of expenses to pay and outside of ticket revenue, there is not a lot of guaranteed ad revenue. From this model - I would be selling a lot of $5K and $10K packages which you get to keep (after commission).

Tickets are the biggest revenue option = $480,000.
From this deduct
- ticket fee = $60K
- rooms = $56K
- guarantee = $100K

Now you have $264K and we haven't accounted for AUC Rental, rental vehicles, food, banquet MCs, advertising, ... this could easily dwindle to less than $100K.

I'm also assuming you sell 3,000 tickets per game, so a small rink really handicaps you.

 

[UNB Bruins Fan]

All of this raises the question - has U Sports gotten too greedy in their requirements to host this tournament?

There is no doubt in my mind the reason we don’t see more schools bid is because it just doesn’t make sense for them financially.

 

[Hollywood3]

All of this raises the question - has U Sports gotten too greedy in their requirements to host this tournament?

There is no doubt in my mind the reason we don’t see more schools bid is because it just doesn’t make sense for them financially.

That's it. The odd thing is that USports does not have expenses like the teams have.

 

[Bearpaw]

Ian Herbers just released from the Oilers today. He had a three year window to return to U of A which is now . Will be interesting to see what happens - could be the biggest recruit of the season in Canada West if he returns . Dominos could fall at NAIT as well if Serge Lajoie has the same window to return to NAIT.

I am sure Bob is wired in on this situation.

 

[Bob Stauffer]

The U of A made it Official late Friday afternoon:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ian Herbers returning to coach Golden Bears Hockey
Effective July 1st, 2018, two-time University Cup Champion Ian Herbers will return to the University of Alberta as the head coach of the Golden Bears Hockey program.
Herbers rejoins the Golden Bears after a three-year leave of absence in which he was an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers. During that time, Serge Lajoie served as head coach of the Bears, guiding the team to a 94-21-1 record, including 37-6 record in 2017/18, and the program’s 16th national championship this past March.
“We are thrilled to welcome back Ian to the University of Alberta, who now brings NHL experience to the Golden Bears. We encouraged Ian to pursue his most recent job with the Edmonton Oilers back in 2015. We have been in contact with Ian for the past few months, and we are excited to have a coach with his experience return to the University of Alberta.” said UAlberta Athletic Director Ian Reade. “We would also like to thank Serge Lajoie for his time coaching the Golden Bears over the last three seasons. To have a coach of Serge’s caliber lead the team was incredibly important to the program, which was evident in the Bears winning their most recent national championship this spring.”
Herbers’ first stint as coach of the Bears came between 2012 and 2015, with the Bears capturing three-consecutive Canada West titles, and back-to-back University Cup titles in 2014 and 2015. Between 2012 and 2015, Herbers and the Bears owned a 72-10-2 Canada West record, and a 119-19 overall record.
Herbers first joined the Golden Bears as a player in 1988, spending four seasons in the Evergreen and Gold. In 1992, Herbers led the Bears to a CIAU National Championship, the program’s 8th, as the team’s captain.


Suffice to say this is significant news for Alberta's program.

Herbers three seasons at Alberta were stellar going 119-19 overall.

2012-13: the Bears were 38-7, and lost 2-1 to Waterloo in Saskatoon at University Cup in a game in which Alberta yielded only 2 EVS shots!
2013-14:the Bears were 44-5, and won the USports title in Saskatoon.
2014-15: the Bears were 37-7, and won the USports title in Halifax.

Remember Herbers left an AHL Head Coaching job with Nashville in Milwaukee to retrn to his Alma Mater as a Head Coach. now Herbers has three seasons of NHL Coaching experience as well.
This is a big time recruit for the Bears!

As for Serge Lajoie. he went 94-36 overall, closing off with a 37-6 record this season and winning the National Title.
There will be multiple WHL organizations looking at him as Head Coach.
Saskatoon makes a lot of sense!

 

[Rob]

Too bad things didn't work out with the Oilers.

Is Lajoie gone for sure?

 

[Bearpaw]

Yes, Lajoie is gone. Strong rumour is the Blades are most interested.

When Herbers was here previously, he had a very lean coaching staff (only him and Fernando Pisani on the bench) . There were a lot more coaches involved with the Bear's over the past three seasons. Will be interesting to see how Herbers rounds out his staff .