Add another major publication – Sports Illustrated – to the always growing list of media outlets throughout North America that have done feature stories on hockey phenom Connor McDavid since he joined the Erie Otters as a 15-year-old at the start of the 2013-14 OHL season.
Sports Illustrated has a four-page article in its latest magazine entitled “The Next Next Next One.” McDavid, the highly touted No. 1 pick in the 2012 OHL Priority Selection who’s already expected to be the top pick in the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, also has been featured by media outlets such as the New York Times, USA Today and ESPN.com, The Hockey News, Toronto Sun, The Globe and Mail in Toronto) and Le Journal de Montreal.
McDavid, 16, a native of Newmarket, Ontario, finished second among all OHL rookies with 66 points in the regular season. He won a gold medal, and led all scorers with 14 points in seven games, with Canada in the IIHF U18 World Championship in Sochi, Russia.

Sherry Bassin continues to deny reports of the Erie Otters’ impending move to Ontario. First, it was Hamilton. Now it’s the Chatham-Kent region.
“Absolutely no truth to it,” Bassin, the OHL club’s managing partner and general manager, said in response to a Chatham-Kent Sports Network report Tuesday stating that a deal has been reached to sell the franchise to a “prominent local businessman.”
Bassin previously has denied reports of the franchise’s potential move to Hamilton, including a report that he has spoken with Michael Andlauer, owner of the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs, about purchasing the Otters. “Everytime I turn around, I’m going to five different places,” Bassin said.
According to the Chatham-Kent Sports Network report, an announcement regarding the Otters likely would be made following the Memorial Cup, the CHL’s annual championship tournament, which begins Friday and runs through May 26 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Bassin said he continues to receive inquiries about the Otters. “That’s it,” Bassin said, referring to not moving any closer to selling the franchise. Bassin said franchises can’t be sold and moved without approval from the OHL through a lengthy league-mandated process. “The process is so complicated. It’s so involved,” he said.
David Branch, OHL commissioner and CHL president, wasn’t immediately available for comment Wednesday, since he was traveling to Saskatoon.
Bassin, who moved the franchise to Erie from Niagara Falls, Ontario, in 1996, has one year left on a two-year lease agreement with the Erie County Convention Center Authority, which operates Erie Insurance Arena. The Otters are set to play the 2013-14 season in a newly renovated arena.
Chatham-Kent Sports Network reported that a recent meeting between the Otters and “the organization that operates their arena” to work on a new lease had been canceled twice in the span of a week. Bassin said he has had no meetings scheduled with the ECCCA. “We’ll look at that. We’ll see how things go,” Bassin said of pursuing a lease beyond next season, referring to waiting to evaluate the final arena renovations and community response toward the team next season. Casey Wells, ECCCA executive director, didn’t immediately respond to a telephone message Wednesday.

- Victor Fernandes

Sherry Bassin continues to deny reports of the Erie Otters’ impending move to Ontario. First, it was Hamilton. Now it’s the Chatham-Kent region.
“Absolutely no truth to it,” Bassin, the OHL club’s managing partner and general manager, said in response to a Chatham-Kent Sports Network report Tuesday stating that a deal has been reached to sell the franchise to a “prominent local businessman.”
Bassin previously has denied reports of the franchise’s potential move to Hamilton, including a report that he has spoken with Michael Andlauer, owner of the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs, about purchasing the Otters. “Everytime I turn around, I’m going to five different places,” Bassin said.
According to the Chatham-Kent Sports Network report, an announcement regarding the Otters likely would be made following the Memorial Cup, the CHL’s annual championship tournament, which begins Friday and runs through May 26 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Bassin said he continues to receive inquiries about the Otters. “That’s it,” Bassin said, referring to not moving any closer to selling the franchise. Bassin said franchises can’t be sold and moved without approval from the OHL through a lengthy league-mandated process. “The process is so complicated. It’s so involved,” he said.
David Branch, OHL commissioner and CHL president, wasn’t immediately available for comment Wednesday, since he was traveling to Saskatoon.
Bassin, who moved the franchise to Erie from Niagara Falls, Ontario, in 1996, has one year left on a two-year lease agreement with the Erie County Convention Center Authority, which operates Erie Insurance Arena. The Otters are set to play the 2013-14 season in a newly renovated arena.
When asked about pursuing a lease extension with the ECCCA, Bassin said, “We’ll look at that. We’ll see how things go.”

- Victor Fernandes

The city of London, Ontario, and the OHL’s London Knights will host the 2014 Mastercard Memorial Cup, the league announced Tuesday.
The Knights earned the right to hold the CHL’s annual tournament, which includes champions of the OHL, WHL and QMJHL and the host club, over the Barrie Colts and Windsor Spitfires. Officials from all three clubs made formal bid presentations to the site selection committee this past April 17.
The Knights’ potential roster, which has more than 22 players eligible to return from a team that won a second straight league championship Monday, proved to be in the Knights’ favor. “The site selection committee determined that while all three clubs possess sufficient elements for a suitable host city,” OHL legal counsel Gord Kirke, a committee members, said in a statement, “it is the projected quality of the London Knights Hockey Club next season that is the decisive factor.” The 96th annual tournament will be held at Budweiser Gardens in London May 16-25, 2014. The Knights begin play in the 2013 Memorial Cup Friday in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, against the host Saskatoon Blades.

Veteran D Spencer Abraham figures Dane Fox and Jimmy McDowell are locks for two of the Erie Otters’ three overager spots for the 2013-14 OHL season. The departure of D Jack Kuzmyk, who recently informed club officials he has chosen to enroll in school instead of trying to play his final season in major juniors, leaves as Abraham as the only other OA on the current roster.
Yet Abraham doesn’t think he’s a sure thing right now. “I’m going to have to earn my spot,” he said. OAs need to be among the best players on the team. So where doe Abraham feel he fits in?
“I can be a depth guy,” he said, who can serve as a mentor to younger Ds like returnees Justin Felker and Darren Raddysh, soon-to-be signed 2013 second-round pick Jesse Saban and highly-touted 2012 pick Travis Dermott.
“They’re young guys coming into the league,” said Abraham, who heads into his fourth year in the OHL. “It’s a tough league. I can show them the way they need to work and the way they need to act.”
* Taking the next step: Defense prospect Patrick Murphy needed to get thinner, faster and stronger to have a chance to play for the Otters next season. He’s spending the offseason doing just that.
A more streamlined version of the Otters’ fifth-round pick in the 2011 OHL Priority Selection looked impressive during the club’s rookie development camp this weekend at Mercyhurst Ice Center.
“I wasn’t fast enough and too soft in the corners. That’s where I needed to step up to stick around,” said Murphy, who spent brief stints with the club the past two seasons.
* Hitting his mark: First-round pick Dylan Strome tossed a strike Friday night at Jerry Uht Park, when he threw the ceremonial first pitch before the Erie SeaWolves game. Strome wishes he was more accurate with his shots in Saturday’s scrimmages at MIC. He scored in the first scrimmage featuring mainly players with 1996 and 1997 birth years.
Yet he was stopped on a few quality chances in the second scrimmage.
Yet on the plus side, he quickly learned how much of a jump he will face from minor midgets to the OHL. Besides being a faster game, he said, “you’ve got to brace yourself for every hit.”
* A weekend off: C Connor McDavid enjoyed a leisurely weekend at MIC. He didn’t skate because he’s only a week removed from winning a gold medal at the IIHF U18 World Championship in Sochi, Russia. Besides, he’s still savoring the memorable experience, and not because he led all players in the tournament with eight goals and 14 points.
He enjoyed playing some of the best players in the world in that age group. McDavid also appreciated what he saw on the ice at MIC this weekend.
“It looks good out there,” he said. “I’m looking forward to training camp.”
* Getting offensive: C Kyle Pettit developed into a reliable defensive forward for the Otters last season as a 16-year-old rookie. Yet he focused on his offensive game this offseason. He has worked strictly on offense four days a week.
“It’s nice to get an offensive approach to my game,” he said.

Trent Fox has played hockey with his older brother, Dane, countless times in his life. But those times were in their driveway back home in Thamesville, Ontario. This weekend is different. This time, they’re both members of the Erie Otters organization.
“It’s exciting,” said Trent Fox, 16, the club’s fifth-round pick in the 2013 OHL Priority Selection who had 15 goals and 28 points in 27 minor midget games with London Knights Gold this season. “It will be a dream come true (if he earns a roster spot with the Otters. “I just have to do the hard work and do the little things to make it. That’s what I’ll do.”
Dane Fox, 19, who enters his overage season with the Otters, has served as his younger brother’s mentor heading into his first experience at the OHL level. “He’s been asking questions. I’ve just been calming him down and telling him what to expect and what to do and what not to do. He’s listening and asking questions. So I know that he’s ready to come out here and play.
Trent Fox didn’t last long in his first on-ice practice Friday during rookie development camp at Mercyhurst Ice Center. He left the ice early because of an ongoing battle with strep throat.
* News and notes: First-round pick Dylan Strome has officially signed with the Otters. … Strome will wear No. 19 as a rookie next season. Defenseman Artem Kuleshov wore that number as a rookie this season. But he isn’t expected to rejoin the club next season. Goaltender Oscar Dansk occupies one of two spots designated for European-born players. The Otters also hold the No. 5 overall pick in the CHL Import Draft this summer. … Defenseman Justin Felker was cleared to resume skating last week after being off the ice for four months because of a compression fracture in his neck that was originally feared to be career-threatening. … Center Jake Evans (knee) should be cleared to skate in the next two weeks.

- Victor Fernandes

The Erie Otters have hired Chris Hartsburg and Vince Laise as the new assistant coaches on coach Kris Knoblauch‘s staff. They were introduced, along with first-round pick Dylan Strome, to the media and a group of season-ticket holders and fans during a welcome reception Thursday at Erie Insurance Arena.
Hartsburg, 33, whose father, Craig Hartsburg, was a defenseman in the NHL and now is associate coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets, spent the past four seasons as an assistant with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips. Hartsburg, a native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, will focus on the defense and penalty kill.
Laise, 30, a native of Bramalea, Ontario, will handle off-ice training, video breakdown and assist Knoblauch with the power-play units. He has worked with many professional athletes at the Athletic Training Center, a hockey training facility in Mississauga, Ontario. He also has worked with Strome.
He was an assistant coach this season with the Brampton Bombers, a Junior B club in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. He spent the 2011-12 season, his first in coaching, with the Oakville Blades of the Ontario Junior A Hockey League.
Knoblauch said he has someone in mind for the club’s part-time goaltending coach. But he planned to wait until the OHL releases the schedule for the 2013-14 season before making a decision. Knoblauch said the team’s schedule would need to fit into that undisclosed candidate’s plans.

- Victor Fernandes

Erie Otters D Adam Pelech underwent surgery Tuesday to remove pins from his surgically repaired wrist, managing partner/GM Sherry Bassin confirmed today.
Bassin said Pelech will be ready for training camp in late August. He also will be able to train at some point this summer. “It’s just a question of healing,” Bassin said.
Pelech has undergone three surgeries on that wrist since fracturing it early in the 2011-12 OHL season – the first to repair the break in the fall of 2011, the second in May 2012 to remove a screw inserted during the first procedure.
In other news, Bassin said the roster for this weekend’s rookie development camp at Mercyhurst Ice Center will be finalized today. He expects 25-28 players with 1996 and 1997 birth years to participate in the camp. Yet Bassin remained tight-lipped on who he has hired to join coach Kris Knoblauch‘s staff. The staff will be unveiled Thursday night during a welcome reception for first-round pick Dylan Strome at Erie Insurance Arena.
Bassin previously has said he could hire two full-time assistants and a part-time goaltending coach.

- Victor Fernandes

The Erie Otters are raising ticket prices by an average of $1.50 per ticket for the 2013-14 OHL season because of increased costs for managing what will be the club’s first season in a newly renovated Erie Insurance Arena, said Jamie Cieszynski, assistant director of operations.
Single-game tickets for premium seats (formerly called platinum seats) will increase to $16 in advance and $19 on game days from $14.50 and $16.50, respectively, this past season. Reserved seats (formerly gold seats) will move to $14 in advance and $17 on game days, compared to $12.50 and $14.50.
Platinum seating will include sections 6, 7, 8, 18, 19, 20 and the first two rows along the glass on the north and south sides of the arena under the current configuration, although names and numbers for sections and rows will change next season. Reserved seating will consist of all other sections and rows.
The organization has improved the format for student tickets, as well as added special ticket pricing for senior citizens, to offset the overall increase in ticket prices. The $10 kids ticket, which covered children ages 3-12, has been changed to a $10 student ticket for children ages 5-18. All seating areas are available to students. Adults 65 and over will enjoy a discount from the normal single-game ticket prices. Premium seats will cost $14 in advance and $17 on game days. Reserved seats will cost $12 in advance and $15 on game days.
Season-ticket holders also face a price increase. Premium and reserved seats for adults will cost $476 and $425, respectively, compared to $425 and $375 this past season. Senior citizens can purchase their season tickets for $425 (premium seating) and $374 (reserved seating). However, the first 97 fans to pay for season tickets in full will secure their seats for the 2012-13 season’s prices. Other fans that pay for their seats in full by May 1 will receive a $25 discount per seat. Season tickets for students will remain at $306.
The Otters will enter next season off two of the worst years in franchise history, in which they posted a combined 29-92-7-8 record and missed the playoffs both times.

Center Dylan Strome and defensemen Jesse Saban and Cole Mayo – the Erie Otters’ top three picks in the 2013 OHL Priority Selection – will play in the U16 OHL Gold Cup May 9-12 at Sportsworld Arena in Kitchener, Ontario.
The annual event features Ontario’s top Under-16 players, and serves as an evaluation and selection process for Team Ontario. Strome and Saban will play for Team GTHL Red, while Mayo will play for Team Alliance.