There has been plenty of news regarding the Swift Current Home Hardware Legionnaires this week.
Most importantly, the Saskatchewan Hockey Association announced that 12 teams will participate in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League in 2020-21 and the Legionnaires were among the teams set to go forward.
The SHA Board of Directors has recently been reviewing many aspects of hockey in Saskatchewan, including the male Midget AAA program. They had invited teams to apply to be a part of the league. 10 existing teams were accepted, while the Beardy’s Blackhawks and Notre Dame Argos were not. New centres that were awarded AAA Midget franchises were Warman and Estevan.
View the SHA Memorandum here: https://sha.sk.ca/news/archives/sask-male-midget-aaa-aa-initiative
A similar process took place in the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League last year, which resulted in one less team when the Melville Prairie Fire were not accepted. The Swift Current Diamond Energy Wildcats were accepted to continue in the now seven-team league.
A job posting for the Legionnaires head coaching position for the 2020 season was also posted on the SMAAAHL website. Darren Evjen is currently in his fourth season as head coach of the Legionnaires.
The Legionnaires are currently fifth in the 12-team league with a 10-7-0-0 record. They will host the league leading Saskatoon Blazers on Friday at 8 p.m. The Legionnaires are coming off a 6-2 win over the Blazers on Sunday when Justin Dueck stopped 54 of 56 shots.
Goaltender Jacob Herman has also been returned to the team from the Western Hockey League’s Prince George Cougars. The veteran netminder has an 8-1 record with a .930 save percentage and a 2.04 goals against average with the Legionnaires this season.
Lastly, the Legionnaires announced that they would return to Mac’s AAA Midget World Invitational Hockey Tournament in Calgary for a third straight year. The team finished with a 1-1-2 record at the 25-team event last year. They were awarded the Team Sportsmanship Award and defenseman Joe Arntsen, now with the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the WHL, was named to the Second All-Star Team.
