Winnipeg Ice sold to David White, will relocate to Wenatchee, Washington

[Jumptheshark]

Here's the full interview.



It's bizarre that they would shitcan the coach and have a guy without any WHL experience drop in as GM.

The Owners owned the Wanatchee Wild. So they have some hockey experience and have their BCJHL guys still running around

 

[Yukon Joe]

The Billet system is in place with all levels of amateur Hockey, not just the WHL, and I think its a unfair characterisation that these families are much more invested in how the kid does a hockey player, than as a person/student/athlete.

I don't know.

My family has hosted international students for the last 5 years or so. They're typically kids, 16 years old, going into Grade 11. We've had kids from Spain, Germany and Japan. It's not a way of making money, but it at least covers our costs.

SInce we're also a hockey family I also reached out to the WHL Oil Kings one day. They didn't rpely right away, but when they did they mentioned how the program worked. But what surprised me was how little they paid. For 19-20 year olds (we were in the wrong part of town for 16-18 year olds as they'd go to a different high school) it was like a third less for room and board then we get - but there's access to free hockey tickets and the like.

So obviously you can't characterize the motives of all of the thousands of billet families out there, but if my kid was proposing to give live with a billet family somewhere that would be me huge concern: that they're more concerned with the hockey side of things.

 

[jetsmooseice]

I don't know.

My family has hosted international students for the last 5 years or so. They're typically kids, 16 years old, going into Grade 11. We've had kids from Spain, Germany and Japan. It's not a way of making money, but it at least covers our costs.

SInce we're also a hockey family I also reached out to the WHL Oil Kings one day. They didn't rpely right away, but when they did they mentioned how the program worked. But what surprised me was how little they paid. For 19-20 year olds (we were in the wrong part of town for 16-18 year olds as they'd go to a different high school) it was like a third less for room and board then we get - but there's access to free hockey tickets and the like.

So obviously you can't characterize the motives of all of the thousands of billet families out there, but if my kid was proposing to give live with a billet family somewhere that would be me huge concern: that they're more concerned with the hockey side of things.

Interesting experience. I mulled over the idea of billeting an ICE player but in the end I decided against it as I didn't think my house was ideally set up for it and I wasn't going to pay for renovations to accommodate it. But the idea did have some appeal just in terms of having a young junior player in the house, I thought it would be an interesting window into that world, perhaps provide the kids with a good role model of what it takes to succeed at what you're doing, etc. I have some acquaintances who billeted ICE players and they had nothing but good things to say about their experiences.

I gathered from their comments that the ICE provided enough money to defray some of the expenses (mainly food), and the free tickets plus whatever other perks. But I wouldn't have been doing it for the money, break even would have been fine.

That said, I have to ask: what needs of the players do you think are typically being neglected by billet families?

 

[superdeluxe]

I don't know.

My family has hosted international students for the last 5 years or so. They're typically kids, 16 years old, going into Grade 11. We've had kids from Spain, Germany and Japan. It's not a way of making money, but it at least covers our costs.

SInce we're also a hockey family I also reached out to the WHL Oil Kings one day. They didn't rpely right away, but when they did they mentioned how the program worked. But what surprised me was how little they paid. For 19-20 year olds (we were in the wrong part of town for 16-18 year olds as they'd go to a different high school) it was like a third less for room and board then we get - but there's access to free hockey tickets and the like.

So obviously you can't characterize the motives of all of the thousands of billet families out there, but if my kid was proposing to give live with a billet family somewhere that would be me huge concern: that they're more concerned with the hockey side of things.

Even with tickets etc and a small stipend as a billet family you are going to pay more for the kids than you get in return, so i mean if that is a concern for you, that you think that families are hosting players knowing they it will cost them more money than the stipend/tickets, then I can see why you feel that way.

edit: Food costs are the biggest hit, these boys eat like mad. No stipend will ever be big enough to cover that.

 

[hockeykid87]

So Chris Clark is staying on as an associate head coach.