Dawes, Weise, other former NHLers set to sign with Sask. Senior A team

A Saskatchewan Senior A hockey team is set to make headlines around the hockey world.

The Round Lake Bears – located on the Ochapowace First Nation – confirmed to 650 CKOM that they will be signing multiple former NHLers in a bid to help them win a Senior A provincial championship, repair the image of the hockey team and – hopefully – help them get accepted into a Senior A hockey league on a permanent basis.

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The Bears signings include former NHLer Nigel Dawes, who is also the KHL’s (Kontinental Hockey League) sixth all-time leading points scorer.

Dawes played 18 season professionally. He was in the NHL from 2006-2011, spending time with the New York Rangers, Arizona Coyotes, Calgary Flames, Atlanta Thrashers and Montreal Canadiens. He also played in Russia and Germany from 2011-2023.

Former Montreal Canadiens winger Dale Weise is also expected to join the Bears in the coming months, along with former NHLers Martin St. Pierre and Keaton Ellerby.

“It’s kind of a small world,” said Thomas Pratt, the assistant manager of the Bears. “They all kind of know each other, so it’s kind of crazy how everything kind of ended up gelling together.”

Pratt said he started reaching out to the former NHL players over Facebook during the summer. He said both Weise and Dawes responded and told him they were in. That then led to Dawes and Weise reaching out to St. Pierre and Ellerby about playing.

“All these guys know each other,” Pratt explained.

“They all played in the KHL together – St Pierre and Nigel were actually linemates in the KHL for two to three years.”

It’s anticipated the former NHL players will join the Bears at some point between January and February before the team starts provincials. A date has not yet been set for the provincial championship.

But no specific date has been set for the new players to join the team as the Bears actually don’t have a league to play in right now. At the moment, the club can only play in tournaments and the Senior A provincial championship.

According to Pratt, the team was part of the Senior A Triangle Hockey League, but the league folded when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the Bears were left looking to find a new league.

A new league was created after the Triangle League folded, catering to the southeast part of the province shortly after pandemic restrictions were lifted, but the Bears were not accepted into it.

Pratt said the Bears claim have been shut out of other leagues, despite multiple applications.

“With no league, basically our options is to go play Indian tournaments and then go kind of pick up the best (players) we can get,” he said.

Pratt admitted there used to be a negative reputation surrounding the Bears, but he’s adamant that the team is past those days and his players are ready to show other teams across Saskatchewan that they’re not who they used to be.

“There was just some issues off ice with some guys, but a lot has changed since then and we can’t carry on that same brand forever,” Pratt explained.

“We do evolve as people, too, so we’re just trying to change up our act and do whatever we have to do. We’re just trying to get into a league and try and show the people that we deserve to play there and deserve to be in a league.”

Because the Bears aren’t in a league at the moment, the team cannot play in Senior AAA provincials and attempt to win the Allan Cup – Canada’s national men’s Senior A championship.

By trying to repair their image, owner Winston Bear is hoping the club will be able to help fully utilize the Chief Denton George Memorial Multiplex, which he said is underutilized because of a lack of hockey teams in the area.

“We have a big facility that seats about 2,500 people,” Bear expained.

“We have no senior team, no junior team, no midget team, even. I tried to coach the bantam team a couple years ago and they have nowhere to go after, and a lot of them can’t afford AA or AAA or anything like that.”

Bear said he’s hoping that adding some star power to the team gives it the extra push it needs.

“We built this Round Lake team again just so those kids had the opportunity to see that there’s some place to play,” he said.

“When we bring in these big names – it gives them that goal to say I could play with these guys too.”