It was just like old times again for Ryan Howse and Brandon Manning, together at the rink again playing hockey.
This week and next they’re teaching kids some of the finer points of the game.
The longtime friends, who first got to know each other as nine and 10-year-old atom teammates playing in the Prince George Minor Hockey Association, laced up their skates Monday as guest instructors for the Northern Ice Sports multi-sport spring camp at the newly-christened Chad Staley Memorial Arena.
Until this hockey season, Howse and Manning hadn’t skated together since they were on the verge of turning pro, playing in the Western Hockey League with the Chilliwack Bruins.
Howse joined the Bruins in 2008 as a 16-year-old after he helped the Prince George Spruce Kings get to the RBC Cup national junior A final at the end of the previous season and he played four full seasons as a left winger in Chilliwack before the franchise shifted to Victoria and became the Royals.
Selected third overall in the 2006 WHL bantam draft, Howse as the first-ever pick for the expansion Bruins, who joined the WHL that year. He was drafted into the NHL three years later by the Calgary Flames in 2009, chosen in the third round, 74th overall, and scored 51 goals and 83 points in his final junior season as a 19-year-old. He ended up playing two years of pro hockey in the AHL and ECHL before he retired in 2013. Howse got into coaching in 2015 and now serves as head coach of the Cariboo Cougars 15U team.
The Northern Ice camps are scheduled all five days this week and for three days next week while the kids are off school for Spring Break.
“The biggest thing is you want them to enjoy it, especially in a year like this where there’s not a lot of games but I think there’s a lot of opportunity to reach out and work on specific things and mainly keep a smile on everyone’s face and be productive,” said the 29-year-old Howse. “The best part about it is you get to do things you normally wouldn’t do in a regular year. We just need something positive to come out of this experience for the kids and we think we have the right people in place to do that.”
The first week of Northern Ice camp is open to kids aged 9-15 who have hockey experience. The second week is geared to kids 8-15 without experience in the game. Howse said he wishes he had a similar camp to attend when he was still a kid growing up in Prince George. Located at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club, the Staley rink is 125 feet long and 55 feet wide, about two-thirds as big as a regular-sized rink.
“This is perfect because you’re touching the puck a lot, you’re always moving and you’re not spread put,” said Howse. “It’s a little tighter but it’s perfect because you’ve got to make those decisions quick. Especially for the younger group, you get lot out of it.”
Former Spruce King forward Sam Muchalla is also one of the camp hockey instructors. Muchalla was a high-scoring winger in his three seasons with the Spruce Kings before he went on to play college hockey at Northern Michigan. The camp hockey staff also includes Ty Edmonds, a former Prince George Cougar goalie, who works with Howse on the Cariboo Cougars and Chase Astorino, the Cariboo Cats’ strength and conditioning coach. All five coaches are conducting off-ice seminars for the kids in the camp.
“The things I would do to have this at a young age, you wouldn’t get me off this,” said Howse. “I did a pro-D day camp with Brandon about a month ago and that was the first time we’d been on the ice together in a camp, and with me coaching now and him having this year off this kind of made sense. We kind of feed off each other, it goes really smoothly on the ice.
“I was the first pick in that expansion area and I stayed with that (Chilliwack) team until it ended and to do it with one of my best friends from Prince George, we were basically inseparable for the four years we spent in Chilliwack. And now to give back and share our experience, you never know who’s out here and who will one day play in the Western Hockey League of the BCHL.”
Manning went undrafted at the WHL and NHL levels but has turned his skills as a defenceman into a professional career that’s stretched over nine seasons. He played his 17-year-old season with the Spruce Kings and joined Howse and the Bruins in the 2008 WHL playoffs, then played three full seasons in Chilliwack, finishing his junior career as a 20-year-old in 2010-11 with 21 goals and 53 points in 53 games. He broke into the NHL with the Philadelphia Flyers and has played 255 NHL games for the Flyers, Chicago Blackhawks and Edmonton Oilers, collecting 14 goals and 34 assists for 48 points in his career. Manning was a free agent after last season but declined the offers he received, choosing to stay in Prince George while he and his fiancée Shea-Marie await the birth of their first baby.
Manning knows how valuable hockey schools were in his own development and he’s always wanted to get involved in teaching the game to share his knowledge with the kids.
“Obviously I’ve always kind of put me career first in the summer and I have had some opportunity to jump on the ice with groups, here and there, but with the off-season being so short it’s tough when you come home,” Manning said. “You have friends to see, family to see, training and getting ready for training camp so I’ve kind stayed away from the on-ice stuff.
“This year, with taking the year off, we kind of had the opportunity with Mike and Chris (Northern Ice owners Peterson and Hunter) and the new rink to do some stuff. Me and Sam were talking about doing something like this for years and we had this opportunity with Ryan so for the three of us to get out here and start something is pretty cool.”
At 30, Manning is still close to the prime of his career as a hockey player and he knows there are pro teams who good utilize the services of a hard-nosed defenceman with plenty of experience tracking down the best shooters in the world.
“Watching some of the guys now I’m finally starting to miss hockey, a year without playing, and we’ll what we have this summer and we have to jump over to Europe we’ll weigh that option,” he said. “But with the baby coming we’ll just play it by ear and hockey’s over it’s over, and if not, we’ll see what we can do.”
Participants in the multi-sport camps are also getting a taste of indoor soccer (run by Northern United FC), rock climbing (run by OVERhang climbing gym) and basketball (run by Northern Bounce Basketball Academy. Manning likes the idea of kids playing more than one sport and says it’s still possible to to make their hockey dreams come true playing for a local team.
“I think a lot of people think you have to do only hockey all the time and you’ve got to be from a big town or go to Kelowna or Vancouver to skate and play with the best and I think (the camp) is a good way to show kids at a young age that I grew up here, I came back here and I trained here,” said Manning, who played baseball and lacrosse as a kid.
“If you can tell those kids at a young age they don’t have to leave Prince George, as long as you work hard, you can kind of do what I do.”
Twelve-year-old Markus Sale was among the first group on the ice Monday morning. He plays for the Prince George peewee Tier 1 Cougars and their season has been limited to just six exhibition games due to the pandemic. His team’s practice schedule ended two weeks ago, so Sale jumped at the chance to work on his hockey skills with a couple pros.
“It’s cool to be around them, they’re pretty good coaches,” said Sale.
“It’s good to be on the ice still just to work on your skating skills and shooting and passing. I learned about edgework on my skates and to keep your head up and knees bent. Our last practice was Thursday but it was still a fun year.”
