Lucas Punkari
Fort Frances native Scott Parsons will be plying his trade in the MJHL this winter between the pipes for the Winnipeg Blues.
“I was protected by Winnipeg in mid-December and while it hasn’t come together quickly, the process went a lot quicker than I thought it would,” said the 18-year-old, who suited up for the Kenora Thistles ‘AAA’ Midget program last season.
“I didn’t expect to be signed right after the spring camp, but they have apparently watched enough of me this year to see how I can play and how I will be able to play for their team,” he noted.
Once his season with the Thistles ended in early April after they competed in the Telus Cup West Region championships in Kenora, Parsons took part in the Blues’ spring camp April 12-14, where his play was enough to impress the team’s brass.
“Right before we went out for our last session, [Blues’ scout] Tim Schick asked me if I wanted to be there,” Parsons recalled.
“And when I told him that I would love to be there, he offered me a contract.”
But the former Muskie netminder already had agreed to attend a camp in Alberta the following weekend with the AJHL’s Whitecourt Wolverines, so he decided to wait and see what happened there before making a final decision.
“I did get an invite to their main camp later this year, but I was hoping to be offered a contract following that weekend,” Parsons admitted.
“Once I got back and talked things over with the family, we decided that it was a good situation for me in Winnipeg,” he said.
“And I would rather have that sure bet instead of going to a camp and not being signed at all,” he reasoned.
Although the Wolverines’ camp was not quite what he had hoped in the end, Parsons said he did learn a lot from that experience that he plans to use going forward, especially when it came to facing some of the top players in Alberta.
“It just showed me how strong the talent levels are with the players out west, especially when you are playing against guy who will be in the WHL,” he remarked.
“There were eight goalies in Whitecourt, and I thought that I stacked about the same as everyone else did.
“They didn’t ask anyone to sign with them coming out of the camp, so it’s not like anyone out-performed the competition during the weekend,” he added.
Parsons will be joining a Blues’ squad that reached the MJHL semi-finals last season before losing to the eventual league champion Steinbach Pistons, and will be joining forces with one of the two netminders that helped the squad make it that far.
“They have two 1993 goalies in Isiah Plett and Byron Spriggs,” he said. “And from what I understand, they are in the process of trading one of those two before the season starts.
“I’m personally expecting to get in about 20 games during the regular season, but that will depend on whether or not I can take the starting job,” added Parsons.
“The Blues generally do well in the league, so from a team aspect I’m hoping that we can get back into the semi-finals again.”
Besides the fact he will be entering the world of Junior ‘A’ hockey, Parsons will have to get used to playing in a bigger city than the ones he’s been used to calling home for the last couple of seasons.
“Winnipeg won’t have as much of a small-town feel than the last couple of years in Fort Frances and Kenora, as you won’t have a lot of people noticing who you are and that kind of thing,” he reasoned.
“Plus, with the Jets being there, we won’t be the centre of attention in Winnipeg, so we won’t have a huge amount of people at our home games,” he added.
With the Blues’ main training camp slated for late August, Parsons already has a few things he would like to improve on as he heads to Winnipeg for the next step in his hockey career.
“I just want to be able to control my depth, and I want to start being more aggressive this year as I’ll need to take up more space in the net at a higher level,” he said.
“Generally, I want to keep everything under control and not be overly-aggressive or too conservative in goal.”
