Reeve’s New Life In The Swift Lane Going As Planned
Mike Babcock and Jamie Reeve meet again tonight.
A year after helping Babcock in the Spokane Chiefs’ drive to the Western Hockey League finals, Reeve has stepped up in the fraternity of coaches.
Last season, he was coaching Kimberley, B.C., in the Rocky Mountain Junior League while also working with Chiefs goaltenders.
This year, he’s the assistant at Swift Current, where the Chiefs play today at 5:30.
When Swift Current coach and general manager Todd McLellan hired Reeve in the off-season, it gave the Broncos one of the youngest coaching staffs in major junior hockey. McLellan is 29, Reeve 32.
Tonight, Reeve puts everything he knows about the Chiefs to work for the Broncs, who have taken the early lead in the WHL East despite working out of the league’s smallest market (pop. 15,000).
Twenty-year-old center Josh St. Louis is off to a strong start. So are Ukranian winger Sergei Varlamov and Czech defenseman Michal Rozsival, who have given Swift surprising depth.
Reeve’s imprint is in young goaltender Lindsey Materi, the 17-year-old who in nine starts has rejected 182 of the 201 shots he’s faced.
Terry Friesen, the veteran who’s had five more starts than Materi, has one shutout but is struggling by comparison. The Broncs were 7-0-1 with Materi in goal heading into Tuesday night’s game at Prince Albert. They’re 7-5 in games Friesen starts.
Reeve takes the blame with the credit.
“I’m on the same page with the younger guy (Materi),” he said this week. “It’s almost been tougher on Friesen, having me around. I’ve shown him some things I kind of like and it’s like golf, getting the lesson and trying to put it to work. I’m hoping it’s a case of having to take one step back before you can step forward.”
With McLellan filling the demanding role of coach and GM, Reeve finds himself with plenty of responsibility. He ran practice Thursday while McLellan left to watch players on the Broncos’ protected list. The next day Reeve was on the road, checking out the listed kids.
Reeve has seen some of the Chiefs’ listed players.
“Their goaltender of the future, Shawn Fleming, is playing midget hockey in Swift Current,” Reeve said. “Some nights he’s pretty much unbeatable.
“Brandon Cote (the Chiefs’ first pick in the last bantam draft) is great,” he added. “He might be the best player out of that whole draft. He’s a diminutive guy - about 5-8 - but thick. He reminds me of a cross between (Greg) Leeb and (Trent) Whitfield. He has that kind of speed to go with smarts and tenacity.”
On the subject of goaltenders …
What’s with Brian Boucher - probably the league’s top goaltender - and the Tri-City Americans?
Boucher was scratched from the lineup in Spokane on Saturday night - no explanation given - and didn’t start when the Ams lost Monday night in Kelowna.
Last week, Americans general manager Bob Brown told Prince George broadcaster Glen Dufrense that trading Boucher “was one of the things on our mind right now.”
Although Brown softened that comment in later statements - saying in one instance that he doesn’t want to be the guy who trades Boucher - the goaltender’s availability is a hot topic.
Brown is caught in the classic WHL squeeze. Should he keep a 19-year-old who’ll probably be in demand as the Jan. 24 trade deadline approaches or trade him for a better future?
Brown, who as GM at Kamloops built a reputation of pulling off the sweet deal, may never have a better opportunity to jump-start the struggling Ams.
So who’s in position to deal, assuming one is in the works? A team in the hunt for a Memorial Cup ride, a club with a deep roster and strong listed players, like Brandon or possibly Regina, somewhere east where the trade can’t haunt Brown.
Spokane and maybe Portland could meet the suspected asking price but the question is whether either would deal with Brown.
Chiefs GM Tim Speltz did pull the trigger on a deal with Seattle last year for Jan Hrdina, so there is recent precedent for trading within the division.
Although a deal to Spokane remains unlikely - the Chiefs have two of the WHL’s top-rated goaltenders - a possibility exists, should it become obvious the Chiefs are one player from a title.
Around the WHL …
Chiefs right winger Ty Jones is projected by one scouting service as the 17th pick of next summer’s NHL draft. That would make Jones the second pick out of the WHL, behind Seattle’s Patrick Marleau. … The WHL rescinded Trent Whitfield’s game misconduct stemming from a disputed checking-from-behind major that Whitfield picked up here on Nov. 2 in Spokane’s 6-1 win over the Brandon Wheat Kings. … Brent Reiber, the referee who was the subject of Bryan Maxwell’s celebrated wrath last March, is out of the league and working in Japan.
, DataTimes