On the heels of taking Seafair Minor Hockey standout Glenn Gawdin in 2012, the Broncos used their seventh round pick (144th overall) to draft forward Owen Seidel.

He also spent his early years of minor hockey in Seafair’s Hockey 1-4 program before moving onto the Burnaby Winter Club where he earned roster spots with its A1 rep teams for six consecutive seasons.

This past campaign, Seidel posted 98 points in 52 games, including 34 goals, in helping BWC finish second at the provincial championships in Cowichan. The season also included a first place finish at the Medicine Hat Hounds Bantam AAA Tournament where Seidel scored the overtime winner against the Calgary Bisons in the final.

Seidel attends the Palmer Hockey Academy and admits draft day was too big of a distraction to focus on school.

“I was very excited and a bit nervous, that I couldn’t even concentrate at school, so I went home,” he laughed.

“I kept looking at the website at the list draft prospects being chosen, and was so thrilled and grateful when my name came up with the Broncos. I received a phone call shortly after from (Swift Current Assistant GM) Jamie Porter and I was still on cloud nine that I barely remember what took place in that conversation.”

Seidel was interviewed by a Swift Current radio station and immediately felt like he was member of the Broncos team.

“It has been my goal to play in the WHL for a couple of years and and I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of their organization,” he continued.

Seidel’s next goal is to make the jump to the B.C. Major Midget Hockey League with the Richmond-based Greater Vancouver Canadians. He is now busy with off-season training that includes shooting sessions with former Sockeyes coach Ron Johnson, dryland training with Tia Clearihue and two more on ice sessions through the Vancouver Hockey School with Derek Popke and Yogi Svekovsky.

If that’s not enough, Seidel joins his BWC teammates for development sessions run by recent Canadians coaches Leland Mack and Kevin Pederson.

“All these coaches help me be a better player and work harder to achieve my ultimate goal of playing in the WHL,” he added. I am always wanting to improve my game and learn new ways to get better, faster and stronger.”

Read more: http://www.richmond-news.com/sports/Richmond+forward+selected+Broncos+draft/8448744/story.html#ixzz2V5IwbGXZ

It was about 4 o’clock Thursday morning, and Quinn Benjafield was tossing and turning in his bed.

Finally, he grabbed his cell phone and sent a text message to his best friend, Tak Anholt, not expecting any sort of response.

“He texted me back right away,” said Benjafield, from his home in North Vancouver. “He wasn’t sleeping either.”

Benjafield may have had a nervous time overnight, but he had an excellent morning thanks to the Kamloops Blazers, who selected him in the first round, 19th overall, of the WHL’s bantam draft. Anholt, who was Benjafield’s teammate with the North Shore Winter Club Avalanche last season, went 11 picks later, to the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Both Anholt and Benjafield are right-wingers.

It was a nervous few days for Benjafield, who, like a lot of 1998-born hockey players in Western Canada, were hoping to hear their names called in the bantam draft. He was watching the live webcast on www.whl.ca, and got to hear his name called early.

“It was pretty surprising . . . then it started to sink in,” Benjafield said.

The phone rang, with Blazers’ director of player personnel Matt Recchi on the other end.

“It was right after I got drafted, so I wasn’t really able to pay attention to what he was saying,” Benjafield said, with a laugh.

The Blazers got a points machine in Benjafield, who is 6-foot-0 and 155 pounds.

With NSWC, which won the provincial Tier 1 title and finished second at the Western Canadian championship, Benjafield had 132 points, 63 of them goals, in 70 games. Although he was a right-winger during the season, he played centre at the B.C. Cup last month, and feels confident at both.

“I feel like my hockey sense is my biggest strength,” Benjafield said. “Also, my ability to set my teammates up and make the players around me better.”

In his brief phone conversation with Recchi, Benjafield wasn’t told he needed to improve anything, but he knows where he needs work.

He’ll start with strength – getting bigger, stronger, faster – and will try to improve on everything else in hopes of cracking the roster of the major-midget Vancouver Northwest Giants next season.

“I’m skating with Derek Popke twice a week,” Banjafield said. “And I’m training with some (1997-born NSWC) guys, like Jansen (Harkins) and Cal Babych, four times a week.

“They’re really good, and they’ll make me better.”

Harkins, a centre, was taken second overall by the Prince George Cougars in the 2012 bantam draft. He told Benjafield what to expect on draft day.

“We’re really good friends,” Benjafield said. “He was texting me . . . telling me he hoped Prince George would take me. It’s OK this way, though.”

* * *

Unlike Harkins, whose father Todd was an NHLer, or Babych, the son of former NHLer Dave Babych, Benjafield doesn’t have any hockey bloodlines.

But his uncle, Grant Connell, was a professional tennis player. Connell, a former Davis Cup player, joined Patrick Galbraith to form the No. 1-ranked doubles team in the world for a short period in 1993.

Over his career, Connell won 22 ATP doubles titles (12 with Galbraith), and reached three finals at Wimbledon – each with a different partner.

* * *

The Blazers ended up taking 10 players in the draft, including six forwards, three defencemen and a goaltender.

After Benjafield, Kamloops took forward Jermaine Loewen of Arborg, Man., with the 48th selection. Loewen had 31 goals and 24 assists in 31 games with the Interlake bantam AAA team.

Ten selections later, the Blazers grabbed defenceman Dawson Davidson of Moosomin, Sask. Davidson had 49 points in 25 games with bantam AA Melville.

Kamloops scooped up forward Phillip Knies with the 85th overall selection.

In the following rounds, Kamloops took defenceman James Miller of Spruce Grove, Alta., forward Garrett Pilon of Kindersley, Sask., defenceman Clint Colebourn, Benjafield’s teammate at North Shore, goaltender Dylan Ferguson of Lantzville, B.C., forward Keenan Roszko of Sherwood Park, Alta., and winger Jordan Deyremenjian of Vancouver.

Pilon is the son of former NHL defenceman Rich Pilon.

Red Deer AB – Today, more and more parents are enrolling their kids in hockey 10-12 months of the year, with the hope their children will become better players.

But is it working?

Brent Sutter says he feels that too much hockey, especially for young kids, will hinder them rather than help them.

“You just don’t have as many players today that are as good athletes as they used to be,” Sutter said recently. “Too much today, especially in young players, is focused on hockey 12 months a year. They don’t play soccer, they don’t play baseball or tennis or the other things that people used to do.”

Consider Sutter has won two Stanley Cups as a player, scored 102 points with the New York Islanders in 1985 and played 17 NHL seasons. He coached the WHL Red Deer Rebels from 2000-2007, and then spent five seasons as an NHL head coach in New Jersey and Calgary, and now he’s back coaching the Rebels.

“It is so noticeable on a hockey team that the kids who have played other sports and experienced different things are always the smarter players on your team, and they are able to handle adversity better,” Sutter said. “They deal with adversity better because they are thrown into different environments and they trust their skills that they may have learned elsewhere to get them through certain things.”

And that’s leading Sutter to change the way his WHL team evaluates and scouts young players.

“I’ve really noticed it since leaving (to the NHL) and coming back to the WHL how it has changed,” he said. “We are lacking in areas that we never used to lack in. I want our scouts to look at athletes not just strictly hockey players.”

American author Neale Donald Walsch wrote, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone,” and I think that rings true when it comes to exposing kids to different sports.

Is spring and summer hockey actually stunting some kids’ overall athletic performance? Your body needs to react differently to succeed on a soccer pitch, baseball diamond and football field compared to skating on a sheet of ice, and all of them are played at different speeds and require a different thought process.

Sutter says players who focus on only one sport too earlier in their development can end up being limited in their overall athletic awareness.

“You really notice the guys who are true athletes and the ones who are not,” he said. “The ones you can take … and play baseball or soccer with them and they get it. This is noticeable even at the NHL level. The true athletes are a little bit further ahead.

“There is so much offered now to be just a hockey player, and it starts at a young age. However, they don’t need to play hockey 12 months a year to be a good hockey player.

“What happens with a lot of kids now who play hockey year round is they wear out. The fire in their bellies by the time they are 19, 20 or 21 isn’t the same as it was when they were 12 because they’ve been doing it every month for six, seven and eight years, and eventually, it wears them down. These kids need to do other activities, experiment in other sports and have other friends outside of hockey.

Seattle WASH – The involvement of parents in the athletic experience of their children is a given.  Without question, all parents should be part of this area of potential growth.  But it is often a larger responsibility than realized.  Their involvement affects their own child, the coach, the rest of the team, the other parents and the officials.  How they choose to be involved often will become the reflective memories their son or daughter have of the whole athletic experience.

This message of the parent’s role, in its entirety, has evolved from 35 years of coaching in junior high, high school, community college and college.  It focuses on the parent’s role from the perspective of the athlete.  For more than three decades I frequently asked the players on my teams a series of questions about the role of the adults (both coaches and parents) in their experience.  In this process, I learned many things that helped me as a coach.  I also learned many things that young people would like to tell their parents, but probably never will.  This information is one of my gifts back to three decades of great young people on my teams.  It is how we can show respect, help performance and enjoyment from their perspective.  The longer I am in this profession the more I become an advocate of the athlete.

When parenting and coaching are done correctly, they are traveling the same path.  Coaches and parents need to understand that when closely examined we are both attempting to teach the same lessons.   We are hoping that the young person will learn something from the athletic experience that will help them become a better adult.  Sport can provide the opportunity to teach many important lessons of life; work habits, selflessness, confidence, perseverance, accountability, courage, discipline, teamwork etc.  Too many households and too many coaches place an overemphasis on sports at the expense of sportsmanship and learning these lessons.   If we listen to the responses of athletes on what they really need from us before, during and after competition, it will help the adults keep our focus where it should be – on the needs of the athlete and the life lessons sport can teach.

No matter how well intended, most parents may not be aware of how they can meaningfully help the athletes reach their goals and improve performance.  If handled correctly, with both parent and coach working together for the benefit of the athlete, the athletic experience can provide a tremendous positive developmental encounter for all the participants.  In order to ensure that the athletic experience is, indeed, positive, everyone in the process must always remember that the kids needs come first.  What I am going to suggest, works, benefits them, and most of all, has credibility because it comes from them.

As a rule, when parents start a young child out athletically, it is a “joint venture”.  The general feeling among most parents is that they are experiencing their child’s athletic experience with them.  In turn they have a requirement to be involved.  In the process, athletics becomes a link with their children…an enhanced level of communication… something that is shared.  Another factor that impacts the situation is the fact that when children are under the age of ten, their main goal is usually to please their parents. The parent is a credible source of knowledge.  Everything the parent say is right, a scenario most parents like.  To the dismay and shock of many parents, a number of things change as the athlete enters adolescence.  As such, learning when and how to diminish the parent’s involvement becomes an issue for both parties.

As kids grow older and more independent, parents need to realize that they need to stay close, but focus on the kids needs and choices.  If nowhere else but athletics, this is their time.  Parents and coaches constantly send powerful messages to athletes, and although no two adults can completely agree on how to raise each child, as much as possible, those messages should not conflict.

Since 70% of all young people in the United States are done competing in a team sport activity by the age of twelve, it becomes even more important that a child’s parents, as early as possible, do what they can to facilitate growth, help performance and keep their own perspective.  With regard to the role of parents in athletics, the following are some of the things that I learned from having my athletes write answers to questions I posed to them.  In over thirty years of coaching, I have heard the same responses, regardless of age, gender or sport.

These suggestions reflect the athlete’s point of view.  The issues covered in the book, booklet and video focus on three important times – before, during and after the game.

In this article, I will give you one example of the responsibilities we have during the game:

Question – What do your parents do that make you feel good during the game?

• Cheer for everyone on our team, not just certain players
• Just having them there tells me it was worth my time
• I love it when people cheer for me and tell me I’m doing a good job
• Show up for every game you can, cheer for us and get excited
• Cheer positively and support us win or lose
• Cheering me on even when I do not have a good game
• When parents cheer and encourage at appropriate times in a civilized manner
• I can accept correction for bad behavior, but not for mistakes on the field
• Cheering pleasantly and not getting on the refs, players or coaches
• It is great to see them sit by people they know and catch up on old times
• Cheer for me and give me support even when I am not playing much
• Cheer for us, but not too much
• When we go home from practice or a game, letting me show them what I have learned without trying to teach me more and more.
• Playing catch or shooting baskets when we get home
• Just being there whenever possible

Bio for Bruce Brown

• 35 years as a teacher, coach, athletic administrator at the junior high, high school, junior college and collegiate level
• Coached football, basketball, baseball, and volleyball
• Former National presenter for the NAIA’s Champions of Character Program
• Director of Proactive Coaching
• Clinician – Speaking nationally to athletes, coaches, parents, school districts and corporations

Vancouver Hockey School Instructor Yogi Svejkovsky works with Anaheim Ducks Andrew Cogliano.

Richmond B.C. (Richmond Review) – As the National Hockey League lockout drags on, the number of players signing with teams in Europe is growing.

Already, more than 150 NHLers are playing overseas.

But opposite that are the just as many North American players who have opted to stick close to home—among them Anaheim Ducks Andrew Cogliano and Rod Pelley, the latter of whom is an unrestricted free agent after his contract with the Ducks expired at the end of last season.

While both players would love nothing more than to be in the midst of another NHL campaign, they’re hardly putting their feet up. In fact, they’re using this time to improve all aspects of their games.

Cogliano and Pelley are “students” at the Vancouver Hockey School, learning advanced lessons in skating and puck control from renowned skating instructor Derek Popke and skills coach Yogi Svejkovsky.

Working out this past week at the Richmond Ice Centre, they focused on drills that can be immediately transferred to game situations and make them more effective players.

“You can have a skills or skating coach show you all these fancy moves that make you look good on the ice, but they’re not real useful in an NHL game,” says Pelley. “Derek and Yogi show you things you can master and that aren’t going to be high risk—like gaining more ice when you’re down low with the puck just by shifting your body and using a cutback to get some space or a shot off. It’s great to get out and work on things that you kind of overlook during most of the season, so we’re trying to utilize the time now to work on drills that will eventually help us when the lockout does end.”Though he’s widely considered one of the top two or three skaters in the NHL, even Cogliano is seeing the benefits of the drills.

“Yogi focuses a lot on skills with your hands and protecting the puck, while Popke complements that with skating drills like how to come out of turns,” says Cogliano.

“Am I working per se on skating in straight line? No. But a lot of it has to do with edges and  being able to be quicker than the defencemen below the red line or working down low, spinning off guys and getting to the net. I feel with my game a lot of it’s getting open and trying to take advantage of my speed and they’re helping me with that.”A native of the Toronto suburb of Vaughan, Cogliano, 25, is small by NHL standards at five-foot-10 and 188 pounds. But the former first round draft pick of the Edmonton Oilers (25th overall in 2005), who played two seasons at the University of Michigan and in 2007 helped Canada win gold at the world junior championship in Sweden, has been remarkably durable. Since turning pro with the Oilers in 2007-08, he’s never missed an NHL game, including all 82 with the Ducks last season after being traded to Anaheim in the offseason for a second round draft pick.

After playing four seasons with the Oilers, which preferred a wide-open style that suited Cogliano, it was a bit of adjustment joining the Ducks—especially under former head coach Randy Carlyle.

“But now with Bruce (Boudreau, who replaced Carlyle midway through last season), it’s more up-tempo skating which I really like and that suits me,” Cogliano says.

“We had a great end of the season last year it’s too bad we couldn’t carry that momentum. But it’s why I’m doing stuff like this, so when we get to camp I’m not stalled. I have to take this (situation) for what it is and use it as an opportunity to keep things fresh and come up with new workouts. I’m feeling revitalized working with (Popke and Svejkovsky).

Cogliano, who says the five NHL seasons have gone quickly, feels while he still has plenty of room to grow, he’s matured as a pro and become a more versatile and smarter player who is ready to take the proverbial next step.

“Being and NHL player is a full-time job and you’re always thinking about how to get better,” he says.  “This career can be short for guys and I’m trying to keep it going as long as I can.”

At 28, Pelley is at a crossroads in his NHL career.

A native of Kitimat, the five-foot-11, 200-pound center was acquired last December by the Ducks along with a seventh-round pick in last summer’s NHL Entry Draft from the New Jersey Devils for Kurtis Foster, Mark Fraser and Timo Pielmeier. While not a big scorer (he’s amassed 29 points in 256 games), Pelley was a plus or even player in 30 of his last 35 games.

A second team all-star in his final college season at Ohio State University, he signed with New Jersey as a free agent in July, 2006 and split his first pro season between the NHL team and its American Hockey League affiliate in Lowell, Mass. He played most of the 2007-08 season (58 games) with New Jersey and has been a full-time NHLer since.

Pelley reflects fondly on his career in hockey, which is rooted in small-town B.C.

“Growing up in northwestern B.C., Kitimat was a great town for a young player,” he says. “We had two rinks, which is pretty amazing for a community of 9,000 people, so that meant lots of ice. From there I played on good junior teams in Prince George and Vernon and then managed to get a scholarship to Ohio State where I played out my fours years and matured as a player and person.”

“I give a lot of credit to (New Jersey general manager) Lou Lamoriello for giving me an opportunity (to play pro) and believing in me,” Pelley continues. “They were very honest and forward with me from day one and let me know what my capabilities were and where I fit in, and took me into the family. (As an organization) they demand a lot, no doubt, but that’s what winning is all about. You see the success they’ve had over the last 20 years (including five conference championships and three Stanley Cups). It was a great experience.”

He says the trade to the Ducks mid-season was an adjustment, especially moving coast to coast, but made easier by the support of the NHL players’ association and the Ducks which enabled him to focus mostly on the game.

“And I was there 12 days after Boudreau was hired, so he was kind of in transition too,” says Pelley. “But he’s bounced around a lot during his career and knows how a player feels. He kept asking me how things were going. And the Ducks couldn’t be a greater group of guys.”

But as an unsigned free agent, Pelley now finds himself playing a waiting game—not only awaiting the start of a new NHL season but signing a new contract.

“But I’m willing to do that and be ready from the day the games start,” he says. “You need complete belief in yourself. Sometimes that’s easier than others and it’s a business we’re in and being mentally strong is a big part of it. If you can get through that, there are jobs available when the lockout does end.”

By his own definition, Pelley is an honest, hard-working checking line forward—a foot solider if you will. He does a lot of the grunt work and makes the sacrifices like blocking shots. He may play fewer minutes that players on the top two or three lines, but they are important minutes. Without players like him, you don’t win Stanley Cups.

“It’s always fun and rewarding to work with good players and good people,” says Vancouver Hockey School instructor Svejkovsky, noting Cogliano and Pelley emanate both qualities.

“But whether it’s minor hockey players (Svejkovsky is director of hockey operations at the Seafair Minor Hockey Association), the (Vancouver) Giants (he is a skills coach with the local major junior team), or NHL players, while there are differences in a variety of things in terms of drills they’re very similar,” he says. “Any player has a window to get better each day. Games can be mentally draining, but coming on the ice (like Cogliano and Pelley) to work on things that can get you better is most important. Obviously it takes more details to work with better players, but it’s still about teaching and understanding how fix this skating motion or that shot or move that can make a player better—and being able explain why it’s important.”

As a former NHLer himself (a first round draft pick of the Washington Capitals in 1996), Svejkovsky is also able to relate well to the pros and what they need to be effective.

“I’m lucky enough to see a lot of players that helps me set the curriculum,” he says. “And the game is changing constantly, so with the Giants I’m able to see what’s changing and help the players develop. Right now the biggest change is that every player has to be able to (contribute in all areas). Defencemen need to be part of the offence and forwards part of the defence.

“And with the speed of the game, it’s  important to anticipate and read plays. You have to be a student of the game, no question, while constantly working to get better at the things which make you who you are.,” he adds.

Popke, who founded the Vancouver Hockey School, is a widely-respected skating consultant and has worked on-ice with numerous junior and pro players as well as the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs. But even was surprised by the  quickness of Cogliano.

“The power and speed he can generate is amazing , but we changed a couple things that can make him ever quicker. He was surprised, and said he’d never been shown some of this stuff before.,” says Popke.

Cogliano and Pelley contacted Popke looking for some training opportunities that would be more than just simple skating and skating with the puck.

“(Typically) when coaches tell players to  turn around cones and stuff like that, no one shows them details incorporated with the turns,” Popke says.

“Cogliano and Pelley were saying they can usually go to a skating coach or a skills coach, but they don’t know the other aspect. Here, they’re getting (to learn) with two guys with two different niches. While Yogi shows them the puck skills, I’m breaking down the skating. Cogliano was even saying with the turns, he didn’t know how many players in the NHL knew them. Coaches don’t have time to work on these during the season.”

Further reflecting how much the game is changing and evolving, Cogliano and Pelley also noted that power skating when they were in minor hockey was just skating up and down the ice.  Lttle or none of the detailed instruction kids get now was available .

“Working with these NHL players is a challenge for us too ,” says Popke.

They constantly want to get better and as an instructor you want to push yourself too.”

Vancouver B.C. – Skating Instructor Derek Popke works on-ice with Anaheim Ducks Forward Andrew Cogliano.

Vancouver B.C. – Derek Popke and Yogi Svejkovsky demonstrate puck protection to Anaheim Ducks forwards Rod Pelley and Andrew Cogliano.

Vancouver B.C. – Vancouver Canucks forward Manny Maholtra was the latest player to stop by and sign autographs for Vancouver Hockey School students. Manny participated in skating drills with skating coach Derek Popke.

Cup Winners Willie Mitchell and Brent Seabrook during practice at Van Hockey School

Vancouver B.C. – Stanley Cup Winners Willie Mitchell and Brent Seabrook both took to the ice thursday with Derek Popke @derek_popke and Vancouver Hockey School (@vanhockeyschool).

Mitchell and Seabrook took part in a combination of high paced skating and flow drills. Paired together, the two NHL veteran defenseman made crisp passes and had a lot of jump for a mid-August training session.

Mitchell will head back to L.A. at the end of August and Seabrook to his waterfront property in Kelowna B.C. while the two wait for news on the potential NHL lockout and CBA negotiations.