The 2024 calendar year was an interesting one for the North Bay Battalion.
The Troops had a third successful playoff run to the Eastern Conference final in the spring of 2024, and nearly completed the reverse sweep; coming back from a 3-0 series deficit to the Oshawa Generals only to fall in a heart-breaking game 7.
However, in the spring of 2024 the organization went through some changes. It started with assistant coach Scott Wray leaving the organization to take on the head coaching duties with the Owen Sound Attack.
Wray was replaced by North Bay native Matt Marquardt behind the bench during the summer months. However the big news was the departure of longtime president Mike Griffin, as Battalion owner Scott Abbott announced that Adam Dennis was taking on the position as president and director of hockey operations. Assistant General Manager John Winstanley moved up to the general manager position while Ryan Oulahen added assistant general manager to his title of head coach.
The longtime Battalion owner is pleased how the transition has unfolded.
"In terms of the changes in the front office they have evolved very well. John Winstanley has done an outstanding job in concert with Adam Dennis and Ryan Oulahen in scouting, developing relationships with other teams and fostering potential for trades whatnot down the line," Abbott told BayToday during a recent weekly media conference at Memorial Gardens.
Abbott recognizes the loss of Anthony Romani to injury early in the season has hurt the Battalion squad on the ice. At the Christmas break the Battalion sport a record of 13-15-3 and sit in 5th spot in the Central Division; three points behind the Brampton Steelheads with a game in hand.
"In terms of the roster, we took some heavy hits in terms of talent that graduated and since then in terms of talent that has been injured for much of the season." noted Abbott.
"Losing a 58 goal scorer on October 11 does not help certainly but I think the coaching staff has done a very good job and the players have done a very good job in maintaining a competitiveness to this point and we look for better things to come."
New NCAA-CHL agreement
Scott Abbott has seen his scouting staff take risks on players who were committed to take the NCAA school route in the past.
In 2000, the Troops selected Ryan Kesler in the 5th round. In 2005, they waited until the 10th round to take a gamble on selecting James Van Riemsdyk. Then of course, more recently in September of 2021, Adam Dennis made a trade for the rights to Adam Fantilli who had committed to play NCAA hockey at the University of Michigan.
A landmark decision in November 2024 between the CHL and the NCAA will allow all major junior hockey players to officially become eligible players for NCAA Division 1 Hockey in the U.S. on August 1, 2025.
"We saw it coming and we had a lot of discussions about what the effect would be," said Abbott about the change.
"We think on balance it is probably a good thing for the OHL and the CHL. There are pros and cons. It will cost us perhaps some things and will provide us with others and probably more than we lose and it is certainly a good thing for the players and gives them more options moving forward after playing here and can play in other places they could not get to before."
See related: How will NCAA rule impact the North Bay Battalion
See related: Battalion add NCAA commit from BCHL
See related: Last chance Battalion to lure Adam Fantilli
The Battalion has already taken advantage of the landmark deal as the Troops recently signed Ryder Cali, a NCAA commit who was drafted by the Soo Greyhounds and opted to play junior 'A' hockey with the Milton Menace of the Ontario Junior 'A' Hockey League to save his NCAA eligibility. Cali recently signed with the Troops.
Meantime, the Troops also added crafty 2006 birth year forward and NCAA commit Nick Wellenreiter who was playing junior in the independent BCHL junior league. The University of Maine commit who is expected to join his NCAA team in 2025-26, was signed as a free agent in November.
Three Battalion overage players have taken advantage of the new rule as Jacob and Andrew Leblanc have committed to Princeton University for 2025-26 while Owen Van Steensel has committed to Clarkson for 2025-26.
Abbott believes the new agreement will keep some teams and players from manipulating the system.
"I think we are going to be able to draft players now without them saying 'I am going to school' and then ending up on certain particular OHL teams anyway because they got stopped on the way to school somehow," said Abbott.
"So I think we will get those players to play CHL hockey now they are not cutting themselves off from the NCAA future by doing so. I think it may mean we lose some overagers to NCAA schools - they will go play there instead of staying here - that may be the case.
"We are already seeing players leaving BCHL which existed to keep the options open which went independent from Hockey Canada so that they could recruit across the country. Wellenreiter is one player here that played there, there are others in the OHL and WHL already so I think that's probably the case and we will get a broader reach of players, younger and may lose the odd one who is older."