Time To Shine: The Rebels’ big opportunity has arrived

By Greg Meacham

For the Red Deer Rebels, it was third time lucky. Denied the privilege of staging major junior hockey’s grandest event on two earlier occasions, the Rebels finally had their number called on Oct. 8, 2014. In the boardroom of a downtown Calgary hotel, WHL governors decided, by way of vote, that Red Deer would host the 2016 MasterCard Memorial Cup tournament.

“We were tremendously honoured to be the team and the city selected to host, but our work had just started,” said Rebels owner/president/general manager/head coach Brent Sutter, who led his team to the 2001 MasterCard Memorial Cup championship in Regina.

Putting together the winning bid was a task in itself. “When we made the decision that we would move forward with our bid, we went all in,” said Sutter. After receiving the right to stage the tournament, bid committee co-chairs Merrick Sutter, the Rebels senior vice president, and Red Deer businessman Ron LaRiviere worked in tandem to establish separate committees while determining roughly how many volunteers would be required to work the event. Meanwhile, Brent Sutter had to guesstimate how his on-ice product would look come May of 2016. He determined that additions were necessary and started the transformation early, acquiring defencemen Colton Bobyk from the Spokane Chiefs and Nelson Nogier
from the Saskatoon Blades during the 2014–15 season.

The Rebels boss then acquired Russian forward Ivan Nikolishin — via the Everett Silvertips — last summer, but as November turned into December he realized further changes were necessary.

In came Boston Bruins first-round draft selection Jake DeBrusk in late December. He was followed, in early January, by 20-year-old forwards Luke Philp from the Kootenay Ice and San Jose Sharks prospect Adam Helewka, by way of Spokane. “I wanted to give it to the first of December to see where we were at, to determine if we were going to be competitive enough to play against the best teams in the country,” said Sutter. “At that point we didn’t feel we could.”

To acquire Philp and Helewka, Sutter had to part with character 20-year-olds Wyatt Johnson and Preston Kopeck, as well as prospects and bantam draft picks. “As hard as it was to face facts, the reality is we needed to improve our team. We knew we had to have more offence and the hardest part was seeing the individuals leave,” said Sutter. “Yet from a GM’s standpoint I had to set the personal feelings aside and make sure that we had the product on the ice that we needed to have.”

Sutter insisted from Day 1 of the entire process, dating back to the formation of the bid committee, that bringing the MasterCard Memorial Cup tournament to Red Deer would be a way of rewarding the team’s fans and various supporters. At the same time, he wanted to ensure that the fans would be able to watch a competitive team in the seasons after hosting.

Sutter is convinced that the Rebels will be just fine. “To be quite honest, I would have never put our name into the mix if I thought that was going to happen here,” said Sutter. “We had a plan in place before we even made our bid presentation to the governors and we’ve stuck to that plan.

“We want to come out of this as still a good team, an organization that can continue to attract players. We have some good young players coming back next season and we’re still going to be a pretty decent team.We were able to do some of the things we did on the hockey side because we’d been building the assets we needed to make the trades. The day after the Memorial Cup is over our focus is going to be on getting ready for next season.”

There won’t be a next season for Rebels defencemen Kayle Doetzel and Haydn Fleury, at least not in
the WHL. Doetzel, 20, will play at the minor pro level or pursue a university education, while
Fleury has signed with the Carolina Hurricanes and will not be back with the Rebels as an over-age player.

“Playing in Red Deer has obviously been and continues to be a highlight of my life, so closing out a five-year career here by playing in the Memorial Cup is going to be unreal,” said Doetzel. “It will be an unreal experience for me and the other the guys in the room.”

Fleury was just nicely into his third WHL season when the Rebels were granted hosting privileges.

“Just thinking ahead, that when I was 19 Red Deer was going to be hosting…it was a very exciting time,” he said. The players were reminded over the past year and a half that it was imperative they remain focused on the here and now regardless of the knowledge they would be playing in the MasterCard Memorial Cup.

“You can’t let it control you every day,” said Fleury. “That’s not what we wanted and the coaches have helped us try and block that out the best we could.” The players have plenty on their plate as it is. They are continually involved with the community, whether it be with a reading program at a Red Deer elementary school, practising with minor hockey teams at outdoor rinks or playing floor hockey at various schools during the lunch hour.

“It’s such a great thing for these kids,” said Sutter. “At the time they may not know it. When you are 16 to
20 years of age, things happen quickly and all of a sudden you’re 21 and you’re thinking about how those years just flew by. You just hope through those years that they’ve gotten something out of it…Hopefully these experiences put them on the right path to where they want to go.”

Sutter, whose MasterCard Memorial Cup hosting bids came up short for the 2001 and 2013 tournaments, isn’t able to closely compare his Memorial Cup–winning team of ’01 to his present crew.

“Our talent level is very similar, but the game is so much different now,” he said. “Society is different, the preparation is so different to how it used to be . . . some good, some not. The way players look at things is different now. Think about how much has changed in our own world in the last 15 years. The other thing is there is so much more parity today.”

For the longest stretch, it was a trying season for Sutter and his coaching staff in battling the injury bug and convincing the veteran players that they all have roles to fill while competing
within the same system. But Sutter saw evidence that everyone was on board during the last three weeks of the regular season and through the team’s playoff run. “We know we’re competitive now. As long as we get the utmost from every individual we can play with anybody,” he said.

Nikolishin was the Rebels’ top scorer during the regular season with 82 points, including 31 goals, while new additions Helewka, DeBrusk and Philp all lived up to their offensive potential. Michael Spacek was also among the team’s top producers with 18 goals and 54 points, and Bobyk (20-27-47) and Fleury (12-29-41) contributed from the blueline. Evan Polei and Adam Musil can both score and both play a heavy game.

The Rebels suffered a big loss when Arizona Coyotes prospect Conner Bleackley underwent seasonending
wrist surgery in March.

Starting goaltender Rylan Toth missed the final month of the regular season, in which he posted a 2.67 goals-against average and .912 save percentage, and returned from a high ankle sprain during
the second playoff round.

Sutter, first and foremost, wants the 2016 MasterCard Memorial Cup tournament to be remembered as a
shining moment for the city.

“Let’s be the host of the best-ever Memorial Cup,” he said. “Let’s have people leaving here saying ‘Wow, that was a great, top-notch event in Red Deer’.”

Greg Meachem is a retired sports editor of the Red Deer Advocate who now writes for the Red Deer Rebels website.

 

MEET THE RED DEER REBELS:

Team Statistics
Head Coach: Brent Sutter (12th season, 411-253-74)
Regular season record: 45-24-1-2 – 93 pts.
Regular season standing: 2nd Central Division / 6th WHL
Playoff record: 9-8-0
Playoff finish: WHL Eastern Conference Final
BMO CHL Top 10 final ranking (March 23): Not ranked
BMO CHL Top 10 best ranking: 5 (Week 8, 9)
BMO CHL Top 10 number of weeks ranked (26 weeks): 11
WHL ranking (GF): 6th (260)
WHL ranking (GA): 6th (205)
WHL ranking (powerplay): 7th (22.5%)
WHL ranking (penalty kill): 18th (77.0%)

Individual Highlights
Season leader (points): Ivan Nikolishin, 31-51–82 (72 GP)
Season leader (goals): Adam Helewka, 42 (53 GP)
Season leader (assists): Ivan Nikolishin, 51 (72 GP)
Season leader (points by defenceman): Colton Bobyk, 20-27–47 (72 GP)
Season leader (points by a rookie):  Michael Spacek, 18-36–54 (61 GP)
Season leader (goalie):  Rylan Toth,  26-15-0-1, 2.67 GAA, .912 SV%, 5 SO (44 GP)

MasterCard Memorial Cup History
Appearances: 2nd (2001)
Last appearance: 2001
All-time record: 3 wins, 1 loss / 17 GF, 16 GA
Best result: 2001 Champions