Future ownership group excited for Notre Dame Hounds’ move to Warman

The Notre Dame Hounds of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) appear to be taking a one-way trip north to Warman next season.

On Tuesday, the league announced that the historic Junior A franchise will relocate to Warman, pending a full-league approval at the SJHL’s annual general meeting in June.

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The Wilcox-based team is being purchased by Saskatoon businessmen Cole Kachur and Jonathan Abrametz, along with other investors. Abrametz said he wanted to buy the Hounds and move the team to Warman as a way to give back to a community that means a lot to him.

“I’ve dreamed of being a part of a hockey team ownership group for as long as I can remember,” he said. “I knew that giving back to the community in a sports-related way was something I was very passionate about.”

He said Warman is very passionate when it comes to the sport.

“I’ve had kids play there. I know the community, know the arena. Warman is just where you go when you think hockey. They’re excited about hockey. They love hockey. It’s is just the perfect location for junior hockey,” he explained.

According to SJHL commissioner Kyle McIntyre, the Hounds went up for sale this past November after the prestigious hockey school decided to shift it’s focus and consider how it could best serve its student athletes.

“I think the College of Notre Dame’s board of directors has developed a new vision for the school, and that vision is quite exciting,” McIntyre explained.

“They’re going to go a different opportunity in terms of academics and programming, and unfortunately part of that was the Junior A Hounds were not kind of part of that new vision or realignment.”

McIntyre said discussions about moving the Hounds began in November, and have continued ever since. He called Tuesday’s announcement bittersweet, but said he thinks the relocation will work out for everyone in the end.

“From our standpoint and the college’s standpoint and the new ownership group standpoint, it’s a win-win-win. It’s great for the college, it’s great for the SJHL, and it’s going to be great for the community of Warman,” McIntyre said.

Despite the relocation of the team, all of the current programs at Notre Dame will continue running as normal.

Over the coming months, Kachur and Abrametz will be busy getting the support needed to complete the move. The ownership group will have to sell season tickets and get the support and approval of Warman’s city council for upgrades to the Warman Home Centre Communiplex.

Warman Mayor Gary Philipchuk said he’s looking forward to hearing from Kachur and Abrametz about their plan.

“It is past our budget time, so we want to make sure that we can budget for it and make it work,” Philipchuk said.

Warman Mayor Gary Philipchuk said the move will be great for his community, though the local arena may require some upgrades along the way. (Brittany Caffet/650 CKOM)

The mayor said any upgrades that do need to happen will have a minimal impact on the city’s taxpayers.

Philipchuk said he thinks the move will be great for the community, as it continues to grow both its population and its hockey programs.

“With our addition of our extra rink that will be done this summer, we were hoping that we may have other opportunities, but this actually came to us as a surprise to us,” Philipchuk added.

Abrametz said if the sale gets approved, he and his partners will be eventually looking to make the team a community non-profit organization.

“Our mentality is, we’re going to have this team for five years. We’ve got a plan to transition it over to a community non-profit,” Abrametz said.

“We’re going to operate it as a non-profit, so really this is just a temporary stewardship and relocation of a franchise.”

Disappointed, but still lots of hockey in Wilcox: Mayor

Wilcox Mayor Mike McPhail said he understands why the business decision was made to move the SJHL team from Notre Dame to Warman.

“We’re disappointed as any town and village (would be),” he said. “Hockey is such a core part of life in Western Canada and Saskatchewan for sure. We’re disappointed to lose the team but we still have a number of hockey teams coming through our school here with Notre Dame.

“The junior team has sort of lost its strength in the marketplace here. There wasn’t a ton of fan support going on. As with any sports team, you would like to see strong support from the community and I’m sure Warman will do a great job of supporting that.”

McPhail has lived in Wilcox for five years and was elected mayor this past November. He says he’s noticed the fan support dropping since he arrived in the community.

“You could see some excitement within the community and the fans. There were a lot of kids who had gone through the Notre Dame hockey program that were playing on the junior team. It seems over the last number of years — not that there’s anything wrong with having imports at all — but it seemed like there were a lot more players coming from outside the program and I think that may have hurt the fan support a little bit the last number of years,” McPhail said.

While they lose this team, McPhail said the rinks will still be full as the school has plenty of hockey programs running, including U18 mens and womens teams.

“I’m not sure how many teams the school has in total but I think it’s somewhere from 10-15 from prep to U18 AAA teams. So (there’s) still lots of stuff going on to keep the rink busy,” McPhail said.