Eric Brewer accomplished his first official duty as part-owner of the Prince George Cougars from the other side of the continent.
The 35-year-old Tampa Bay Lightning defenceman got on the phone at his home in Florida and contacted some of the bantam players the Cougars picked Thursday in the WHL draft in Calgary to welcome them to the team.
For Brewer, a 16-year NHL veteran who played three seasons for the Cougars from 1995-98 and played well enough as a junior to get drafted fifth overall by the New York Islanders in the 1997 NHL, coming back to the WHL as an owner is a dream come true.
"It's such a good opportunity coming back to the team where the experience I had was so good and it was such a positive highlight in my life," said Brewer. "I'm a lucky guy, I love the game and and I love the Western League as well, so this opportunity was tough to ignore.
"I talked to a couple of the kids after they got drafted and they were were pretty excited, which is great, and it's kind of exciting for all of us too to get in the swing of things and get this thing rolling. I never thought this would come up, to be honest."
Brewer and Vancouver Canucks defenceman Dan Hamhuis are part of a group of local investors in the Cougars franchise that includes majority owner Greg Pocock and Prince George businessmen Ernest Ouellet, Raymond Fortier and John Pateman.
Hamhuis, a 10-year NHL veteran played for the Cougars from 1998-2002 and has never been a teammate of Brewer's but they are friends away from the rink and both have Prince George wives and mutual friends. Now, as WHL owners, with their ties to the NHL they share at least one more common bond that stands to benefit the Cougars.
"The most obvious thing is we've been in the kids' shoes, we've been in the families' shoes that are making the decision to send their kids to Prince," said Brewer. "We know the kinds of questions they're asking and the things they expect and hopefully we can answer their questions.
"The WHL is a great place for young guys to learn about travel and learn about playing a higher level of hockey and having a physical gap between ages. You get some kids who are transitioning to pro hockey and some kids who came from bantam hockey. It's big eye opener for everyone when they start."
While he and Hamhuis are still playing in the NHL, Brewer says neither will have the time to get involved in the day-to-day operations of the team. That will come when their playing days are over. Until then, they both plan to learn more about the business side of running a hockey team as positive role models for Cougar players and their fans.
"There are a lot of capable people on the business side of the Cougars who will do a great job for the franchise and the city," said Brewer. "Our goal is to get back on the map and be a part of Prince George households and be a part of the community again. That's something that's going to be slowly earned back. We know there's a lot of work to be done and we're clearly committed to doing that."
According to Pocock, the first order of business for Cougars is to hire a general manager and a vice-president to run the business operations. Doug Soetaert, a former GM of the Everett Silvertips, and Don Nachbaur, the current head coach of the Spokane Chiefs, are among the names rumoured to be on the Cougars' shortlist. Mark Holick, who is under contract for the next two seasons, will be retained as head coach and is also interested in the GM post, as is Todd Harkins, the team's head scout and director of player personnel. Pocock says once a new GM is in place, the Cougars will have a better idea of how they plan to go about rebuilding the team.
"We have a very strong core of young players and I think the team is not that far away from being a success on the ice as people think they are," Pocock said. "The first thing we have to do is get the right hockey guy and get the right business guy, and from there we can start filling our personnel and implement our plan and move forward."
Andy Beesley, who has resigned as the city's associate director of recreation and cultural services effective Friday, is expected to join the Cougars and is likely to take on the role as the Cougars business manager/vice-president.
The Cougars franchise had been owned for 22 years by Rick Brodsky, who bought the team in 1992 when it was based in Victoria. Attendance has steadily fallen over the past decade and for the past three seasons the Cougars have ranked last in the 22-team league in attendance, a far cry from the mid-to-late-1990s when their crowds were the envy of the WHL. It's a longterm project for the Cougars to rebuild ties with the local business community and Pocock says there's no immediate fix that will bring fans back to CN Centre.
"We're not assuming that because there's new ownership the place will be full," said Pocock. "We have to prove on an ongoing basis we're worthy of their business."
Giving fans a winning team would speed that process. The Cougars finished fourth-worst in the WHL last season (27-37-3-5) and have missed the postseason in five of the last seven years, going three seasons without a playoff game.
Sources close to the deal believe the team sold for $7 million but Pocock said the purchase price and the share of the franchise each of the partners will hold once the deal closes later this month will remain confidential.
Fortier is the founder of Farr Fabricating Ltd., a Prince George steel manufacturing firm, while Pateman is vice-president and chief operating officer of Western Industrial Contracting, a general construction contractor in the city. Both are former partners of Pocock's in Prince George Hydromechanical, an industrial cleaning contractor he now operates. Ouellet is the principal owner of Northern Enviromats Ltd., a producer of portable wooden mat structures used for drilling rigs and equipment for road and pipeline construction.
"We're delighted to have an ownership group of this calibre step forward and purchase the Cougars franchise," said WHL commissioner Ron Robison. "Not only are they all highly successful businessmen but they're all from the Prince George area and there's no better way to approach ownership than to have local people involved who are committed to making sure the Cougars franchise will work.
"It certainly brings great credibility to the ownership group to have two of arguably the most popular players in Prince George Cougar history. Dan Hamhuis and Eric Brewer are both very accomplished NHL players who had great experiences in the WHL," Robison added.
"Their plans are focused on getting the community engaged in the team again to make the community feel it is their team. It was arguably one of the best franchises in the WHL but also in the Canadian Hockey League in terms of the type of atmosphere where you couldn't buy a ticket. We think it has potential to go right back there."
Pocock and Hamhuis made the presentation to the WHL board Wednesday morning, and the deal was unanimously approved. The Cougars were represented in Calgary by Brodsky and Thompson. This marks the end of an era for Brodsky and his family, who have been involved in WHL ownership for 40 of the league's 46-year history.
"It's taken a lot of negotiations on Rick's part and on our part to make a deal happen," said Pocock. "Rick made the first approach about us buying the team and it was his preference to see the team remain in Prince George and I thank him for the opportunity."
The new ownership group will be introduced at a media conference at CN Centre scheduled for Tuesday, May 13, from 12:15 to 1 p.m.
