Pat Payton
Sports Editor
Sophomore winger Brad McClure, who led Stratford Cullitons in goals scored last season with 28, will be sidelined for two to three weeks with a sprained MCL in his knee.
The 17-year-old sniper from Stratford left last Friday’s pre-season game against London Nationals midway through the first period after taking an open-ice hit.
McClure was planning to be on the ice in Owen Sound this week – trying out for the OHL Attack. He’s an Owen Sound draft pick.
“He’s going up to Owen Sound to see their doctor and training staff,” said Jason Lott, the Tribe’s director of hockey operations. “He’ll then decide where to proceed from there.”
• A couple of more recent signings for the Cullitons are defenceman Mike Pleon, 18, and forward Steve Dol, 19.
“We made a commitment to (Pleon) coming into camp,” Jason Lott said.
Pleon, from Waterloo, was a member of New Hamburg Firebirds of the Niagara West Jr. C loop last season.
Dol played for Delhi Travellers of the Southern Ontario Junior Hockey League (SOJHL) a year ago. He had three goals and three assists in Cullitons’ first pre-season game against St. Marys. Dol hails from south of Brantford.
• Former Stratford resident Paul Petrie has joined the London Nationals’ coaching staff.
“I run the defence, and all the defensive systems,” the St. Marys resident said.
Petrie is also on the Elgin-Middlesex ‘AAA’ Major Bantams’ coaching staff along with bench boss Merlin Malinowski and assistants Brenton Kemp and Chad Petrie.
Paul Petrie spent several years on the St. Marys Lincolns’ coaching staff under Malinowski.
• Seven players, who have been skating with the Cullitons, headed to Ontario Hockey League camps this week.
They are: defencemen Jordan Currie (London), Nik Knezic (Niagara) and Liam Maaskant (Erie), and forwards Ray Huether (Saginaw), Shayne Rhyno (London), Mitch McIntosh (Erie) and Ryan Watson (Windsor).
Huether, Maaskant and Watson were all members of the Huron-Perth Lakers ‘AAA’ Minor Midgets a year ago.
• Waterloo Siskins have just two returnees – one forward and one defenceman – back from their 2009-10 team, which finished in second place (43-7-1) in the Midwestern Conference, just one point behind Brantford Golden Eagles.
“We’ve got a lot of new faces, and we have a lot of evaluating to do,” Siskins’ assistant coach Mike Payne told the Gazette following a pre-season game in St. Marys last Wednesday.
“We’re looking at having a lot of youth and speed this season, but a lot of inexperience as well.”
Payne noted that Waterloo won’t have one 20-year-old in its line-up this year.
“Waterloo’s been decimated by the Jr. C teams; Walkerton has taken a lot of their players,” Jason Lott added.
“We have a rule that you can’t lose more than three players to Tier II (Provincial Jr. A). We’re going to have to put a new rule in place that you can’t lose more than three players to Jr. C.”
• Lincolns, meanwhile, recently made a trade, acquiring the playing rights to centre Mike Mandarelli, 17, from the Nationals. In return, Lincs sent forward Tom Jobson’s rights to the Nats.
Jobson, 20, from Glencoe, spent the 2007-08 season with the Cullitons, and the 2008-09 campaign with the Lincolns. Last year, the hard-shooting winger played with Mt. Brydges Bulldogs of the SOJHL.
The feisty Jobson had a powerplay goal and an assist in a 6-3 London win in Stratford last Friday night.
