(file photo/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

Mustangs Trade

Mustangs add 20-year-old forward with local connections

Jul 16, 2020 | 12:09 PM

The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) is looking to start their season on Sept. 25, and teams are getting ready.

The Melfort Mustangs made a trade on Wednesday, July 15 adding 2000-born forward Leighton Burns-Marion from the Calgary Canucks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) in exchange for a Player Development Fee.

Marion is listed at 6-1 and over 180 pounds and is a “big, strong, power forward” with good skating ability according to Head Coach and General Manager Trevor Blevins.

“He’s hard on the forecheck, hard on the back check,” Blevins told northeastNOW. “Really has an established work ethic that we’ve been watching here for the last couple of years.”

Burns-Marion, a Regina, Sask. native, has spent the last two seasons with the Calgary Canucks, playing in 92 regular season games, scoring eight goals and adding five assists. He also added two points in three playoff games in 2018/2019. Prior to his time in Alberta, Burns-Marion played his U18 AAA hockey in Saskatchewan. His first two years of U18 AAA were with the Notre Dame Argos where he was actually an assistant captain in 2016/2017. Then, for his last season of U18, Burns-Marion decided to go to the Regina Pat Canadians club. In 128 career regular season games in the Saskatchewan U18 AAA League, Burns-Marion scored 17 goals and added 17 assists for 34 points. He also had one assist in seven playoff games.

MFD recruiting

Melfort Fire Department holding recruitment drive

11h ago

BUSTED

RCMP seize 50 kg of cocaine during traffic stop near Maidstone

16h ago

Nasty weather continues

Snowfall to continue through Tuesday across northeast Sask.

17h ago

The Mustang new addition also has a few local connections. Burns-Marion played the 2013/2014 season with the Northeast Wolfpack U15 AA squad and also has some family in the Melfort area.

“Did that play a major part? No, but maybe a minor one,” Blevins said. “It was a situation where maybe it was attractive where he would report to Melfort, being that he lives in Calgary now.”

The trade by the Mustangs puts the team at seven players who are going into their 20-year-old season. Included in that are forwards Colton Schell, Adam Nobes, and Ben Chase, along with defencemen Vaclav Prospal, Andrew Hunt, and Gabe Odowichuk. Back in 2018, the Canadian Junior Hockey League had made an announcement that every league would have to cap their 20-year-old roster spots at six per team by the beginning of 2020/2021. The SJHL normally has eight spots open for those players, and Blevins said he hasn’t heard anything different about this coming season, so they will plan as normal.

“Saskatchewan is still a good place for them to come,” he said. “And it keeps our league very competitive.”

There’s also some questions that have risen regarding two of Blevins players who currently live in the United States. Both Chase and and Prospal live south of the border and the waters are murky still on if they will be able to report this season. The Canada-U.S. border remains closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving Americans throughout the SJHL in limbo.

“Fingers crossed if the border opens up,” Blevins said. “But there’s been no direction really that they would get any special treatment, nor should they I guess. It’s just a matter of hopefully things get better down there.”

There’s no word on if Americans would be allowed to come to their teams early and quarantine for 14 days, as imposed by the federal government, before they join the team at training camp.

–

mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6