Dan Falloon
Fort Frances Lakers’ forward Tyler Stevenson hoped to be here sooner. But now that he’s finally made it to Borderland, he’s making the most of it.
The 19-year-old sits second in team scoring with 11 goals and 19 assists. Those 30 points have him tied for 12th in the SIJHL scoring race.
Stevenson had contacted the then Fort Frances Jr. Sabres last season but head coach Wayne Strachan couldn’t find a way to work a player like him into the roster.
“We felt that with our depth up front, we probably couldn’t work him into the lineup with the ice time he needed as a skilled player,” noted Strachan.
“We did a lot of research on him,” he added. “We knew he was a skilled player and we were pretty set in our top two or three lines.
“We just felt that adding another player of his calibre wouldn’t have helped him any because he might have only been a fourth-line player with us last year,” Strachan said.
But with the roster turnover during the off-season that transpired when the Sabres morphed into the Lakers, Stevenson’s stock skyrocketed with Strachan.
“When we knew we had the opportunity [to acquire him], we knew he would definitely come in and be one of our, probably, top-six forwards,” Strachan explained.
“When the opportunity came available that he wasn’t going to play in Neepawa [with the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Natives], we were one of the first teams to call and we’re definitely happy that the opportunity came our way to get him here.
“He’s a Laker and hopefully will be for his last year next year, too.”
Stevenson, who was playing Junior ‘B’ with the St. Albert Merchants when he contacted the Sabres, later was picked up by the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Temiscaming Royals.
He scored six goals and two assists in 13 games with the Royals before being shipped to Neepawa in the off-season.
“We felt he probably needed more ice time to develop, which he got when he went to Temiscaming,” noted Strachan. “He learned the junior game and obviously it’s paid off.
“He’s just come in here and helped us out a lot.”
In Neepawa, the Natives boasted a deep roster and Stevenson faced long odds to make the team.
“It was kind of an interesting situation with Neepawa because I had asked to be traded closer to home,” said Stevenson. “When I got traded, they got a new coach and it was tough coming in to make that team.”
Stevenson was happy to join the Lakers since he grew up in Edmonton with defenceman Conner Foster and former Laker Ben Hilborn, so he had some familiarity with the team’s personnel.
“One of my friends, Ben Hilborn, was here at the start of the year. Coach talked to him about me and he gave me a call,” recalled Stevenson. “I was on the wire from Neepawa and luckily we got a deal done with these guys to come out at the start [of the season].”
The Lakers jumped at the chance to acquire Stevenson, snaring him and Blake Boaz from Neepawa for future considerations.
In addition to playing with friends, Stevenson also was happy to end the ride that in the past year has taken him from Edmonton to Temiscaming to Neepawa and now Fort Frances, where he’s firmly entrenched as a Laker.
“At the time, I was kind of rattled because I had been moved around so much,” he admitted. “But now that I look at it, it’s probably the best thing that could have happened, that I ended up here.
“I got a positive out of everything.”
Strachan, meanwhile, was thrilled that last season’s scouting didn’t let him down—and has been pleased with his top-line forward this season.
“He has been a pleasant surprise,” Strachan said of Stevenson. “He’s a great leader. He’s a veteran player that understands the game, and understands what it takes to play the game.
“He’s good in the dressing room.
“He’s definitely a skilled player that can find the net and has a lot of good offensive habits,” Strachan lauded.
Those habits were on display in Sunday’s 5-1 road win over the K&A Wolverines as Stevenson played sidekick to sniper Colton Kennedy for the game’s final goal.
Strachan demonstrated how the play showed Stevenson’s offensive smarts.
“Kennedy passed it over to him, and he probably had a slight breakaway, and the goalie slid over,” Strachan recounted. “For Tyler to read that and pass the puck back to Colton for a goal that Colton scored backhand, that sticks out in my mind.
“He probably had the opportunity to get a good scoring opportunity but he realized that the goalie had over-committed.”
Stevenson, for his part, praised Kennedy for making his adjustment to the Lakers an easy one.
“He’s such a good player that it’s easy to play with him. You just have to find the right spots on the ice and he’ll get you the puck,” he enthused.
With Hilborn, Foster, and Stevenson, as well as former Jr. Sabre Brendan Baumgartner, all hailing from the Edmonton area, Stevenson explained how the northern Alberta pipeline flows to Fort Frances.
“Everyone who’s played out here from Edmonton has had a good experience,” he noted. “They’ve heard from the other guys that it’s a good place to play and some of them make the call and come play out this way.”
And now that Stevenson has found a home here, he’s hoping to stick it out and finish off with an SIJHL crown.
“We’re going to be such a good team next year,” he promised. “We’re so young this year that with all the guys that can come back, we’ll really push to win the league.
“I really want to come back and be a part of it.”
