As general manager of the Cariboo Cougars and longtime former coach of the Prince George-based major midget hockey team, Trevor Sprague knows his team has a key role in developing players capable of making the jump to junior hockey .
As an overseeer of that pipeline of talent, Sprague now has a formal tie to one of the destinations his players strive to reach, the Prince George Cougars. Sprague, 41, had been hired as the Cougars' northern B.C. and B.C. Hockey Major Midget League scout.
"(Cougars vice-president, business) Andy Beesley and I have been friends for 15 years and have always worked together and I know a lot of the local ownership," said Sprague.
"For myself, I bleed the north and with Prince George Minor Hockey and all the associations within the north that fall under our umbrella, we want to develop some of the best hockey players in the country."
This will be Sprague's second time around as a Cougars' scout. He was with the team in that capacity from 2014-16, joining the team after five years scouting for the Portland Winterhawks.
Under Sprague's watch, the Cariboo Cougars have won three league championships and the 2015 Mac's Midget World Invitational hockey tournament.
"At the end of the day we want guys who are committed to playing in the north, we don't want players going south to do anything," said Sprague. "We want guys to be proud of where they come from and they want to play in the north and play for what's on the front of the jersey. Regardless of what that logo is, from the first-year bantam age group to the WHL, we want to make sure the players in the north have a good place to develop."
Cariboo Cougars head coach Tyler Brough is a former Prince George Cougar forward and the minor midget team assistant coach is longtime former WHL Cougar goalie Ty Edmonds and that binds those two midget teams that much closer to the Prince George Cougars.
"These guys have a lot of passion to make sure we keep these guys home and hopefully they're good enough to play for our WHL team and represent the north," said Sprague. "Between Tyler and Ty and myself, they'll know who the top guys are here in northern British Columbia. Hopefully they fit their model and their organization but at the end of the day when it comes to junior hockey there's a lot of teams that like our players, too."
Cougars director of scouting Bob Simmonds have also added Leland Mack, Rob Rogers, Tim Mills and David Reekie to their scouting staff.
Mack will be their Pacific region scout. He's currently head coach of the Burnaby Winter Club's bantam prep team in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League. He spent several years as a birddog for the Seattle Thunderbirds and served as an assistant coach for B.C.'s under-16 team in the 2019 WHL Cup.
Rogers will focus on B.C., having covered the province as a Spokane Chiefs' scout. Mills will work for the Cats as their Okanagan scout. He worked for the Swift Current Broncos from 2013-19.
Reekie, a former WHL goaltender (2004-07) who played for the Regina Pats and Everett Silvertips, will have Regina and southern Saskatchewan as his territory.
They join a staff that includes senior traveling scout Ron Bonora, Lyle Feser (southern Alberta), Brett Jarvis (Saskatchewan and Manitoba) Kirk McCuspey (Manitoba), Cole Todd (Lower Mainland) and Rae Metz (Arizona and United States).
