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Familiar names on Hurricanes board |
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Written by Dale Woodard
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Thursday, August 20 2009, 10:12 PM |
Some familiar faces are back, and some familiar faces are in.
With the 2009-2010 Western Hockey League season drawing near, the Lethbridge Hurricanes board of directors held a vote among its shareholders to decide who would sit on its 15-man board at the 23rd annual general meeting of the shareholders Wednesday night at the Ramada Inn.
When the final votes were tallied, two incumbents returned and three known names joined the fold.
Returning to the board for the coming season are Auke Elzinga and Dave Olson.
Joining the board in time for the coming season are past members Dick Gibson, Pat Shimbashi and George McCrea.
The trio fills the spots of Dave Whittaker, Herman Elfring and Don Clark. Clark and Whittaker chose to step down from the board, while Elfring has stepped down to serve as the Hurricanes’ governor to the WHL.
Rounding out the board this year are Brian McNaughton, Herb Beswick, Parrish Hanelt, Shaun Haney, Shawn Hass, Keith Hitchcock, Barry Knapp, John Koliaska, Duane Ptycia, Jim Whittaker and Brian Wichers.
“With Dick coming back (that) gives us a little bit of experience,” said McNaughton, who serves as the board’s president. “The guy is very enthusiastic on the hall of fame and the alumni side. Then we’ve got some distinguished experience in someone like Pat. He’s been around a long time and has been at the elite level and was here when this franchise started. So I think we’re going to have that experience.
“(With) George, quite honestly I don’t him well, but he made a very good presentation (Wednesday) night and I think he’s going to bring some good ideas.”
Gibson resigned his position on the board after getting the colour commentator’s job on The Lounge broadcasts. He was let go during the season after becoming an Internet sensation with his on-air comments during a Hurricanes’ brawl against the Medicine Hat Tigers at the Enmax Centre. Gibson continued to work with the alumni committee and was instrumental in organizing the induction evening featuring the Sutter brothers and John Chapman.
Shimbashi was one of the former owners of the Calgary Wranglers and sold the team to the city in 1985. He served on the board after that. He has stayed active in the community since then, and once owned Paradise Canyon Golf Resort.
McCrea coached rep hockey in the area for years.
Meanwhile, Elzinga and Olson return to the fold.
“Auke has turned this franchise around in the past five years and I expect him to continue to provide that leadership and drive the financial side of the business and keep us on track,” said McNaughton. “Dave has worked very hard on the Enmax renovations and he’ll continue to do that as well as serve with his other duties.”
For Elfring, the growing interest in spots on the Hurricanes board, combined with family matters, prompted his stepping down from the board.
“With the interest we had with the number of people that were running, I made a decision that it was time for me to step aside,” said Elfring. “We had some other people that had shown interest in being involved with the hockey club. We had a great turnout (Wednesday) night. There were 11 people that had their name stand for a position.”
And their were other factors prompting Elfring’s decision, one being a venture into grandparenthood.
“I just recently retired,” he said. “I have a couple grandchildren in Germany and one coming in Vancouver. So we plan to do a bit more travelling. That was one of the other factors. It wasn’t just all about hockey.”
However, Elfring will still be a presence around the ’Canes as governor, a position he has held for the past 15 years.
“The board had decided they had some continuity and consistency at the board table. So they appointed me to represent the Hurricanes as governor for the next three years,” he said.
“I can still attend the (Hurricanes board) meetings. I obviously don’t have a vote, but I’ll still be involved if the board needs help or wants my input.”
Wednesday night’s meeting was tense at times as shareholders voiced grievances, particularily in regards to the release of former Hurricanes head coach Mike Dyck and the firing of former general manager Roy Stasiuk.
Negative or not, McNaughton — who took the lion’s share of the vitriol — deemed the feedback to be healthy.
“I don’t think it necessarily needs to be so personal, but I think it’s healthy that people come in and truly voice their opinions on a regular basis,” he said. ”It’s an annual meeting and the only time where the shareholders get to vote and I guess the message we got is they want more opportunity to voice their opinions and we need to provide that. That’s going to be one of our commitments going forward, to provide more of these opportunities. They only get to vote once a year, but we’re going to hear from there more often.”
More contact with the shareholders is one of the board’s goals for the coming season, said McNaughton.
That includes holding the information meeting in February, something the board didn’t do this past season.
“In hindsight, that wasn’t a good decision,” said McNaughton. “But we’ll definitely put that back on. Quite honestly, based on the pulse of what’s going on, we may call more of them. I don’t think we’re going to make a committent to do more than one right now, but if we feel there’s a need there’s no reason why we can’t. We (can) call them on an as-needed basis.”
While the board felt the heat at times during Wednesday’s meeting, McNaughton noted the progress the board has made over the past few years.
“I think financially it’s been a major turnaround and that goes to the credit of the finance committee,” he said. ”But I also believe that on-ice we’ve improved dramatically over the last five years. I think we’re in the top half of the league and that was one of our objectives.”
McNaughton also noted the board’s committent to the community, particularly the renovations at the Enmax Centre, slated to be complete by 2012.
“There’s a significant amount of initiatives going back into the community. Not just with the On-Side (initiative), but I think the Enmax renovation is a huge commitment by us,” said McNaughton. “I think it’s more than just benefitting the Lethbridge Hurricanes and that’s what people don’t seem to quite grasp.
“This is going to benefit all user groups in that facility. We’re obviously in there for 50 or 60 nights on the year, but the rest of the time everybody gets to benefit. So I think that’s a huge accomplishment and as was noted (Wednesday), we’re the only non-government support of that initiative.”
Like McNaughton, Elfring gave the thumbs-up to the board he’s stepping down from.
“We’ve got a great board,” he said. “I know we’ve had some criticism and that’s OK. We all understand people have their opinions but I can honestly say we have 15 well-respected business people and they do an awesome job for the organization. And not just this board, but the previous boards we’ve had over the last 20-some years. They’re all in it for the right reasons even though some people question that.”
NOTES — The Hurricanes open training camp Thursday at Adams Ice Centre . . . Kyle Beach (Chicago), Eric Mestery (Washington) and 2009 NHL draft pick Carter Ashton (Tampa Bay) have all been invited to attend training camp of their respective NHL teams. Undrafted free agents Carter Bancks (San Jose), Austin Fyten (Detroit) and Brennan Yadlowski (Philadelphia) have also garnered invitations to NHL camps . . . See Saturday’s Lethbridge Herald for a look at Pat Shimbashi’s road back to the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
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