All summer we’ll be going team-by-team to profile new players coming in for the 2020-21 season with recaps of offseason commits and acquisitions. We will also have interviews and scouting reports from the coaches.
Next up is the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.
The Salmon Arm Silverbacks are coming off their best season since 2015-16 and an impressive four-game sweep of the Victoria Grizzlies in the first round of the BCHL Playoffs before the league shutdown.
Despite their successful season, they made a coaching change and promoted then assistant Tyler Shattock to the role of interim head coach.
Shattock, who enjoyed a successful WHL and minor pro career as a player, had been with the team as an assistant since the 2018-19 season, so he wasn’t entering uncharted territory.
“I think it was easier for the players because they knew me and what I expected because I had been around,” said Shattock. “The transition here, I thought, was pretty easy. Usually, when you’re coming into a new situation, there are big changes, but the guys had a pretty good familiarity with me and knew what I was going to bring.”
Looking ahead to the 2020-21 season, Shattock no longer has the interim tag and is officially the team’s head coach and assistant general manager. He, along with the rest of the Silverbacks staff, has been busy recruiting top-end talent all offseason.
If you look at the team’s list of recruits, you’ll notice that five of the nine players are from Quebec, but according to Shattock, this was pure coincidence.
“I think that’s just kind of how it worked out,” he said. “We identified players and they just happened to be from out there. We’re just trying to bring the best players we can to Salmon Arm to give us the best chance to win. It doesn’t really matter where they’re from for us, but obviously we have a guy out east that does a lot of our scouting and he recognized these guys as good players. We watched video and agreed.”
New Recruits:
Paul Doré (2002, F)
Hometown: Gatineau, Que.- Previous team: Kimball Union Academy
Ranked as the 187th North American skater by NHL Central Scouting ahead of the 2020 draft, Doré spent the last three seasons at Kimball, finishing his career there with 81 points in 107 games.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“We’ve had some success with other Kimball Union kids here. We have a lot of respect for that program. He’s going to bring some offensive punch to our lineup. He’s played with another guy on our team, [Drew] Bennett, who speaks very highly of him. We’re bringing in a good kid who should be able to score some goals for us.”
Lucas Matta (2002, D)
Hometown: Kleinburg, Ont.- Previous team: Lake Forest Academy (USHS-Prep)
- College commitment: Northern Michigan University (2021-22)
Matta led the charge for Lake Forest last year when it comes to offensive production from the back end. He was the team’s third-leading scorer overall with 41 points in 41 games.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“Lucas is a guy that we’ve been on for a while. We think he’s going to be an extremely good player for us. He put up big numbers at Lake Forest last year. He’s got a full-ride to Northern Michigan next year. We think he’s going to come in and hopefully fill the shoes of Akito [Hirose] leaving and be a real offensive threat, but at the same time, take care of his defensive responsibilities.”
Jagger Benson (2000, D)
Hometown: Lynnfield, Mass.- Previous team: TIlton School (USHS-Prep)
- College commitment: University of Vermont (2021-22)
Benson was a productive offensive defenceman at Tilton the last two years, leading the team in scoring from the blueline in both of his seasons there. He finished his career there with 21 goals and 34 assists for 55 points in 56 games.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“Jagger is a guy that we had actually identified a couple years back. We wanted him to come here last year, but a couple things fell through, so we stayed on him all year and he was able to make it out this year. He’s a really skilled defenceman. We’re obviously losing some offence from our back end with Akito Hirose and guys like that moving on. We think that he can come in and fill a role for us there.”
Danny Ciccarello (2001, F)
Hometown: Kirkland, Que.- Previous team: St. Mark’s School (USHS-Prep)
The 19-year-old led his team in scoring in two of his three seasons at St. Mark’s and was just one point back of the team lead the other year. 2019-20 was a huge year for Ciccarello as he finished his campaign with 70 points in 29 games.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“He’s another guy that we were really happy to get. He was high-scoring in his prep league. He’s a really good kid. We’re looking for him to jump into an offensive role for us for sure.”
Tucker Hartmann (2002, D)
Hometown: Southboro, Mass.- Previous team: St. Mark’s School (USHS-Prep)
A teammate of Ciccarello’s at St. Mark’s, Hartmann was the team captain last year and provided plenty of offence from the back end. He played at nearly a point-per-game pace over his four seasons there with 108 points in 112 games.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“Tucker is another kid from St. Mark’s, so him and Danny [Ciccarello] know each other really well. He’s a super-intelligent kid who can read the game well. He should be able to come in and bring some offence from the blueline for us.”
Cody Hoban (2001, F)
Hometown: Guilford, Conn.- Previous team: The Loomis Chaffee School (USHS-Prep)
- College commitment: Dartmouth College (2021-22)
Hoban is coming off a breakout season offensively for Loomis Chaffee where he put up 19 goals and 18 assists for 37 points in 23 games in his final season.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“Cody comes from the same area and played for the same coach as [Hunter] Sansbury from our team. He knows him and speaks very highly of him. I think he’s going to bring some offensive ability to our team. We’ve kind of tried to hit the same areas where we’ve had success with other guys recently.”
Phillipe Jacques (2002, F)
Hometown: Quebec, Que.- Previous team: Stanstead College (CAHS)
The 17-year-old was a force for Stanstead in his lone season there in 2019-20. He notched 59 points in 55 games to finish third in team scoring.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“He’s a big kid – tall and rangy. He can play both the wing and centre. We’ll look for him to come in and be a good player for us. He’s a little raw, but there’s lots to work with there. He’s 6-foot-3 with lots of talent. He should be a good player for us.”
William Lavigne (2002, D)
Hometown: Blainville, Que.- Previous team: Notre Dame Hounds U18 AAA (SMAAAHL)
The Quebec native moved out west for the 2018-19 season and spent the last two years in Saskatchewan playing in the Hounds U18 system. He put up 33 points in 43 games last year, with 29 of those points being assists.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“We had a kid here last year, [Luke] Mylymok, his dad Jeremy runs the Notre Dame program in Saskatchewan and he speaks very highly of Will as a kid and as a player. He’s a young guy, but we’ll be looking for him to come in and play that role as an offensive defenceman for us.”
Joaquim Lemay (2002, D)
Hometown: St-Pierres-les-Becquets, Que.- Previous team: Mount St. Charles Academy U18 (18U AAA)
- College commitment: University of Nebraska-Omaha (2021-22)
Lemay had 26 points in 63 games for Mount St. Charles in Rhode Island last year.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“He’s another Quebec kid. He was high on our list. He’s a good puck-moving defenceman, that should be able to shore up our back end and give us some really good depth. He’s a really good two-way guy.”
Acquired via trade:
Carter Loney (2002, F)
Hometown: Winnipeg, Man.- Previous team: Steinbach Pistons
- College commitment: University of Minnesota-Duluth (2021-22)
The 17-year-old is ranked as the 167th North American skater by NHL Central Scouting ahead of the 2020 draft. Last year, in his first full season of Junior A, he put up 50 points in 52 games with Steinbach.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“We’re super excited to get him. Everybody we talked to speaks very highly of him and we saw a ton of video on him. He’s going to come in here and we expect him to be a high-scoring guy for us. We expect him to be one of the best players in the league from everything we’ve heard and watched. He’s a big acquisition for us to really give us an offensive punch here.”
Riley Kohonick (2000, G)
Hometown: White City, Sask.- Previous team: Notre Dame Hounds (SJHL)
The 20-year-old was a standout for the Hounds last season, ending his second SJHL season with a .920 save percentage and three shutouts.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“Obviously, we were in the unfortunate position to lose both our goaltenders. He’s another guy that comes from the Notre Dame program and [Jeremy] Mylymok speaks very highly of him. We’re bringing him in to fill the boots that [Ethan] Langenegger is going to leave, so we’re expecting him to be really good for us.”
Braden Fischer (2002, F)
Hometown: Winnipeg, Man.- Previous team: Winnipeg Blues (MJHL)
Fischer had a productive season as a 17-year-old for Winnipeg in 2019-20, finishing with 45 points in 58 regular-season games.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“We watched video on him and talked to some different schools about him. We really think that he’s going to come in and maybe be under the radar and catch people by surprise, but we think he’s going to be a really good player for us and put up some points. He plays the game the right way. I think you’re going to find that he’s going to get a scholarship by the end of the year.”
Daniel Panetta (2001, F)
Hometown: Belleville, Ont.- Previous team: Wellington Dukes (OJHL)
- College commitment: Colgate University (2021-22)
Panetta is an OJHL veteran having spent the last three seasons with Wellington. Last year he had his best offensive output when he notched 44 points in 54 games.
Shattock’s scouting report:
“He’s a Colgate commit and we had [Matthew] Verboon here a couple years ago who went to Colgate. He’s played two or three years over there in Ontario and he was looking for a new challenge before he heads off to Colgate, so we hopped on that as soon as we could.”
Photo credits: Dan Hickling/Hickling Images (Doré, Matta, Benson, Hoban, Kohonick), Adam Richins (Ciccarello, Hartmann), Notre Dame Hounds (Lavigne), Steinbach Pistons (Loney), Ed McPherson/OJHL Images (Panetta)
