After Todd Harkins traded his son Jonas to the Regina Pats Friday in a four-player deal, nobody can accuse the Prince George Cougars general manager of nepotism.
Unless of course you consider it preferential treatment to trade the rookie defenceman to a Pats team guaranteed to play in this year’s Memorial Cup national championship.
Jonas Harkins was sent to Regina along with the rights to 20-year-old winger Jesse Gabrielle. In return, the Cougars received 16-year-old left winger Kjell Kjemhus, 15-year-old defenceman Ethan McColm, and the Pats’ third- and fifth-round picks in the 2018 WHL bantam draft.
Moving his just-turned 17-year-old son to another WHL team was difficult for Todd Harkins and his wife Kirstin, who have watched Jonas develop on and off the ice since he moved to Prince George two seasons ago to play for the major midget Cariboo Cougars. But the Cats GM decided it was best for the Cougars and for Jonas to give him the added responsibilities that come with living the life of a junior hockey player away from his family and removed from familiar surroundings.
“We just felt it was time that he find another place to play in and we were excited that there were teams asking for him for awhile and because of the limited icetime here and a couple injuries we just felt it was time for him to move on,” said Harkins.
“I had to make a trade that made sense for our hockey club and that’s what I tried to do. He was excited about the trade. It’s more about the future and the opportunity to play and be Jonas Harkins and get his dad back. Now he can call me as his dad and not his general manager. That was always hard for me and my boys and so I think he’s thrilled for the opportunity not only this year but next year and what the future holds because they’ll be a younger team next year and he’s going to get lots of icetime.”
Kjemhus (whose name is pronounced ‘Chell Shay-moose’), has spent most of this season with the Kelowna-based Pursuit of Excellence academy program, playing in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League (CSSHL). The five-foot-10, 161-pound native of Grande Prairie, Alta., played 18 games for the prep team and had four goals and seven points as well as 77 penalty minutes. He also had four goals and 37 penalty minutes in 12 games for the academy’s 18-and-under team.
He was held without a point in three games with the Pats this season. In 13 WHL playoff games last year he picked up one assist and had a plus-one rating. The Pats drafted him in the fourth round in 2016.
“Kjell Kjemus could be our captain one day,” said Harkins. “He’s a heart-and-soul, very committed player who wants to be a professional and he approaches the game in a professional manner.
“He bumped into Bruce Franklin, an NHL scout for the Anaheim Ducks, in the Regina airport and Bruce called me and said, ‘You’ve just got yourself a gem of a hockey player and gem of a person.’ Those are good things to hear.
“He’s an honest player who does the little things to help teams win. He was the captain of his bantam team and you just don’t play as a 15-year-old in the (WHL) playoffs like he did last year if you don’t do good things to help the team win.”
McColm, an eighth-round pick of the Pats in 2017, is playing this season for the Eastman Selects of the Winnipeg City triple-A Midget Hockey League. He stands six-foot-two and weighs 157 pounds and is their top-scoring defenceman with six goals and 26 points in 21 games. He had five goals and 16 points in 33 games with the Eastman triple-A bantam team last year.
“He’s a big lanky defenceman who skates really well that we thought we might get in the late rounds of the draft last year because of where he was playing and a lot of people didn’t see him last year,” said Harkins. “But he kept getting better and better and teams noticed him at the Manitoba Cup. I know that he continues to improve and he’s got to get stronger and thicker but he’s excited to be a Prince George Cougar.
“We’re just trying to add to our depth and try to bring some youth back in here and it didn’t really affect our roster at all. It’s a great trade for both teams.”
Gabrielle was a key addition to the Cougars after he arrived in the summer of 2015 in a trade from Regina. The five-foot-11, 205-pound native of Moosomin, Sask., (230 kilometres east of Regina) started the season playing pro in the American Hockey League for the Providence Bruins and in 21 games had one goal and three assists. He was drafted in the fourth round of the NHL draft, 105th overall, by the Boston Bruins. He was the choice of Cougar fans for the Dorothy Johnson Memorial Award as most popular player on the team last season.
“Jesse has the opportunity to come back and play in the Memorial Cup and I think we owed that to Jesse for being a great soldier here,” said Harkins.
“That deal only happens with the Boston Bruins. They just said ‘would you have interest in getting Jesse back to junior playing meaningful minutes?’ I don’t know how deep we can go in playoffs but the one team that is going really deep is Regina because they’re hosting and I just felt that was a good fit for him and everybody wins in this situation.”
Last season, with the Cougars, Gabrielle scored 35 goals and had 29 assists for 64 points in 61 games, coming off a 40-goal, 75-point season in 2015-16. He started his WHL career with Brandon.
“We are really excited to add a scorer of Gabrielle’s calibre,” said John Paddock, the Pats general manager and head coach, in a team release. “He had a really productive last two seasons in the WHL and now brings some experience at the pro level to our team.”
The Cougars selected Jonas Harkins in the second round of the 2015 bantam draft, 29th overall, after he led the North Shore Winter Club to the Western Canadian bantam title. Last year he helped the Cariboo Cougars win the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League championship and played in the Telus Cup national tournament.
The six-foot-three, 209-pound native of North Vancouver played 14 games for the WHL Cougars this season and just returned to the lineup after missing a month with a concussion. He picked up his first career WHL assist Monday in Langley against the Vancouver Giants.
Jonas grew up in the shadow of his now 20-year-old brother Jansen, a former Cougar who now plays in the AHL for the Manitoba Moose.
“It was a unique situation that we had our sons here and we enjoyed every minute of it, it’s not every day you get to have your junior hockey player stay and play in your backyard,” said Todd Harkins. “(Kirstin) knew this could eventually happen because I’ve been talking to teams and she was shocked and stunned at first because he’s our youngest and he’s leaving the home and spreading his wings. We’re happy for him but we’re going to miss him.”
The WHL trade deadline is on Wednesday.
