A Look at this years Hockey Night in Simcoe County 10. #Barrie

On Thursday, August, 10th the Barrie Molson Centre will host the 10th annual Hockey Night in Simcoe County. The precedes from this year’s event will raise money for hospitals across the county including Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie (RVH), Orillia Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital in Orillia (OSMH), Georgian Bay General Hospital in Midland (GBGH), and the Barrie Colts Foundation.

RVH has been a beneficiary of this event for its 10-year history. PC leader Patrick Brown, whom runs the event says that over the 10 years the event has raised $1,800,000.

Per the official site, RVH hopes to use the funds raised to add an eight-bed child and youth mental health inpatient unit and day program. Muskoka is apparently the only county in Ontario without one of these and the good people at RVH hope to use this years raised money to add one.

Georgian Bay General Hospital says on the site that they hope the raised funds will go towards adding a much-needed CT scanner at the hospital.

Still little news on the complete list of people who will be a part of this year’s event, but the people evolved already are reason enough to be excited for this year’s event! Here is a look at those included so far.

Players

Dale Hawerchuk – Barrie Colts head coach, 1st overall pick by Winnipeg Jets at NHL Draft in 1981, 1,409 career NHL points and 2001 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee.

Kevin Labanc - No American born member of the Barrie Colts has ever put up the points than Kevin Labanc. Over 3 seasons in Barrie he scored 81 goals (10th all-time for Colts), 188 assists (3rd all-time for Colts) for a total of 269 points (4th all-time for Colts). Labanc would go on to get drafted by the San Jose Sharks 171st overall at the 2014 NHL Entry Draft. In 2016-17 he would play 55 games in his rookie season with the San Jose Sharks. He scored 8 goals and added 22 assists and went on to be named the teams rookie of the year.

Joseph Blandisi – Former Barrie Colts captain who spent 2 years with the Colts. In 78 regular season games with Barrie he put up 142 points. Blandisi was signed by the New Jersey devils, where he is currently spending his playing career.

Mark Scheifele - Scheifele had one of the best rookie seasons in Barrie Colts history in 2010-11. His 53 assists is the 2nd most for a rookie Colt. He also is 2nd all time for rookies with 75 points and his 22 goals is 5th all time. He is also top 8 in team history for goals (84), assists (133) and points (217). He has played in 306 NHL games for the Jets posting 90 goals, 137 assists and 227 points.

Tanner Pearson - Played 2 seasons with the Barrie Colts where he would put up 52 goals and 81 assists in 126 games played. He would go on to be drafted 30th overall, in the 1st round by the Loss Angeles Kings. In 2013-14, he won a Stanley Cup with the Kings.

Andreas Athanasiou - Drafted 81st overall at the 2010 OHL Priority Selection, Athanasiou would play 2 seasons with the London Knights before getting moved to Barrie. Over 4 OHL seasons he would play in 252 games scoring 111 goals and 110 assists. In 2013-14 he would score 49 goals with Barrie which is the 4th highest goal total in a single season in Colts history. In 2012 he was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings 110th overall. He has played 101 games with the Wings and has put up an impressive 27 goals and 16 assists over about a season and a half worth of games.

Daniel Tkaczuk - Over 4 seasons in Barrie Daniel saw 238 regular season games where he totaled 334 points. His 145 goals and 189 assists was enough to average him 1.40 points a game. He would go on to be drafted 6th overall in 1997 by the Calgary Flames. He started his coaching career in 2011-12 when he was hired as an assistant coach for the Owen Sound Attack. He spent 4 seasons in Owen Sound before getting a job with the Kitchener Rangers and moved on to the AHL to be an assistant coach for the Chicago Wolves. He has since been hired by the St. Louis Blues as a skills coach for the upcoming 2017-18 NHL season!

Ryan Suzuki - The Barrie Colts 1st overall pick at the 2017 OHL Priority Selection will be at this years game. The AHMMPL Champion is coming to Barrie after a championship season in London where he led the league in assists and points. In 32 games, Ryan scored 19 goals and added 40 assists. Should be a great chance to come out and check out the highly touted new kid.

Connor McDavid
Bernie Nicholls
Mike Gartner
Gary Leeman
Wes Jarvis
Ric Jackman

Refs

Ron Hoggarth – NHL official from 1971-1994. Officiated 1,000 regular season games and over 150 playoff games.

Blaine Angus – NHLOA Alumni. Officiated from 1991-2006.

Special Guests

Zach Hofer – Probably the most amazing participant at this year’s event. is an extraordinary 13-year-old boy who will be running, walking, biking, and scootering all the way from Barrie to Ottawa, beginning Sunday, August 13th. Zach’s journey is to raise funds and awareness for the Child and Youth Mental Health program at RVH. He’s been attending events, speaking at schools and creating a lot of important conversation about mental health and youth involvement in our community. So far, Zach has raised over

$25,000 and plans to keep going! To follow his journey or donate, visit zachmakestracks.ca.

Walter Gretzky – Wayne Gretzky’s dad. You have probably heard of him..

Participants are normally named off all the way up to the event so any updates, added players or changes at all well be added here so keep an eye open.

For tickets, click here and for more on the event you can visit the official HNISC site here.

This is our 4th year covering the event for the blog and here are some of the pictures we have managed to capture.