A pair of former Bonnyville Pontiacs players will get a chance to play hockey at the professional level after being offered opportunities from teams in the Central and East Coast Hockey Leagues in the United States.
Matthew Register from Calgary, a Pontiac from 2006-2010, and Donnie Harris from Fort Ashby W.Va., a Pontiac from 2009-2011, both signed contracts with professional hockey teams recently. Register signed with the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League and Harris signed with the Colorado Eagles of the East Coast Hockey League.
For Register, who played his entire junior career with the Pontiacs, the move to professional level hockey marks another step forward in his hockey career.
Through his time spent as a defensemen for the Pontiacs, Register recorded 94 points during the 166 games he played with the team. It was in his last year that Register shocked the league with an unprecedented 61 points in one season, an impressive feat for a defensemen in the league and one that earned him the W.G. Scott Memorial Trophy for the Alberta Junior Hockey league's (AJHL) best defensemen.
The award demonstrates the improvements Register made during his time with the Pontiacs. Learning how to make himself a better player was an attribute that most stood out about Register, according to Pontiacs head coach Chad Mercier.
"You would be hard pressed to find a guy from year one to year three that made the improvements he made in his game," said Mercier of Register. "I think he shocked a lot of people around the league and around the province with his play.
"There is a lot of things he had to learn along the way to become the player that he became, and that for him should be as gratifying as anything," continued Mercier. "The changes that he made and the maturing that he had to go through not only as a player, but as a person in those three years, to really come and have a year that very few defensemen in our league have ever had statistically... he deserves a lot of credit for that."
For Register, who had to deal with some adversity after a scholarship opportunity fell through after his time with the Pontiacs had ended, an offer from a professional level hockey team, Mercier said, demonstrates the ambition he has to further his hockey career.
"For Matthew it's been a bit of a difficult time since leaving, he's kind of bounced around a little bit," said Mercier. "A lot of guys might have walked the other way, (but) he's obviously stuck with it, he's believed in himself and starting to put the work in and found himself with a tremendous opportunity to further his hockey career.
"To sign with a team like that doesn't surprise me one bit and it wouldn't surprise me to see him take advantage of it and continue to move up the ranks if he so chooses to put that effort in."
While Register will be playing in the Central Hockey League with the Tulsa Oilers, Harris will be moving to the east coast to join the Colorado Eagles of the East Coast Hockey League.
Harris spent the 111 games he played with the Pontiacs as a defensemen scoring 34 points over the course of two years.
Mercier saidalthough Harris grew up in an area with only a small hockey culture, he has always put hockey first.
"He's always hockey, it's always been first and foremost for him and so it's nice to see him get a heck of an opportunity only a couple of years out of playing for us."
Harris' natural skill set is what made him such a stand out player during his time with the Pontiacs. Mercier said if he can continue to develop his hockey sense and ability to think the game alongside those skills, Harris will find success in his professional career.
"I think even when he was here, he skated like a pro, he passed like a pro, he shot the puck like a pro, he had pro size," said Mercier. "I think for Donnie it was understanding the game... He played in a non-hockey culture growing up (so) just reading the game, thinking the game, has been a slow process for him but he's a guy that if he continues to grow in that area and continues to improve in that area, he's another guy that could turn it into a good career for himself."
No matter where they end up in their careers, Mercier explained that both Register and Harris deserve the opportunities they have been given and deserve to be rewarded for their tremendous commitment to the game and the communities they've played in.
"We're certainly as an organization and a community very proud of these guys. They came here committed. One kid's a Calgary city kid, the other kid's a kid from West Virginia that made a commitment to (come to) small town Alberta and invested in the community, gave back to the community while they were here with countless hours of volunteer time, and put a lot of effort into their hockey. To see them get rewarded and move on and have opportunities to continue on, I think should be gratifying for everybody."
