IceDogs Look To The Past To Continue to Rebuild Credibility

Freddie and Dougie Hamilton when they played together for the Calgary Flames in 2017. Photo courtesy NHLPA.com

Throwback styles, jersey retirements and honouring the past are not and should not be unique occurrences.

They are nice moments that show that a franchise has cared about and wants to honour their past. The Niagara IceDogs have done that in honouring the likes of Stan Mikita, Rudy Pilous and others.

However for the first time they are choosing to honour players from the Niagara IceDogs era. On February 7th, 2027 brothers Freddie and Dougie Hamilton will have their jersey's retired. The two brothers are a natural choice and it's also noteworthy that they are being honoured together, given their impact on the team when they played. Other candidates such as Andrew Aggozzino, Mark Visentin, Ryan Strome and Alex Pietrangelo will surely have their day.

You can forgive a person of my vintage for wandering down memory lane when the two were named because the game and the approach to roster construction has changed to the point in which the four and five year players with the same OHL franchise have became a thing of the past.

Dougie and Freddie were part of an IceDogs core who stuck with the team for their whole junior careers. They went on to a conference and league final in the "good old days" when the IceDogs played at quirky, ancient and tiny Jack Gatecliffe Arena. Sellouts of 3,145 were the norm and fire codes, while not broken, could be questioned.

Both brothers went onto NHL careers with Dougie being an active NHLer with the New Jersey Devils and Freddie bouncing around a bit before retiring. Currently he's working in the Toronto Maple Leafs front office.

Dougie (left) and Freddie (right) when they were both IceDogs. (Photo courtesy of the CHL)

When you look at the stats of Dougie and Freddie they read as follows:

Dougie: 203 games 40 goals 147 assists 187 points +89

Freddie: 258 games 108 goals 144 assists 252 points +49

All with the IceDogs. No trades. No NCAA aspirations. Drafted and developed by the team. They were not the only ones. Andrew Agozzino played 318 games , Alex Friesen played 292 games and goalie Mark Visentin played 166 games. They grew up, developed and became a championship calibre roster with the IceDogs.

Currently, the IceDogs have Ivan Galiyanov who just passed his 200th game in an IceDog jersey and Callum Cheynowski has played 158 games in Niagara, though he started his career in Hamilton. No one else on the roster is close to a 100 games played in the black, white and red.

Yes, these are different times and players today are afforded all sorts of options when it comes to junior, or college hockey. I am not saying that this era is better than that era but I can't help but reflect fondly on the players who pulled on a sweater on their draft day and left the OHL wearing that same jersey.

QUICK QUIPS:

Speaking of what is old may not be new, there are lots of rumblings of a Memorial Cup format change with eight or even 16 team formats being floated. It is time to change the format, and have long thought an eight team format at two different venues is the way to go. A 16 team format would be a wild departure, and should at least be looked at it. Any changes likely won't go into effect for a couple of years.

The CHL remains without a national TV deal at the time of this writing. We might get some sort of clarification closer to the US/Canada Top Prospects Challenge being played at the start of December in Quebec. My guess is that we are getting a similar structure as years past with the prospects game, the league championships and the Memorial Cup getting covered.