Over its history, the Victoria Grizzlies have seen several alumni play professional hockey. While some players made the National Hockey League, others skated in the minor leagues.
Players like Jamie and Jordie Benn, Alex Newhook, and Tyler Bozak are currently on NHL teams while others like Myles, Gerry, and Leo Fitzgerald, and Jordan Sigalet all had American Hockey League careers.
Looking at Victoria players who made the AHL reveals several things. While many had lengthy careers, others only played in the AHL for a short time. Some had long careers in the ECHL, which is a professional level below the American League. The next thing is Europe, as many former Grizzlies and Salsa crossed the Atlantic after finishing their North American careers.
For this article, I want to highlight several former Grizzlies players. These players made the AHL before playing in the ECHL. Many also played hockey in Europe before ending their careers. However, before exploring their careers, I need to lay down some ground rules.
In the interest of keeping this brief, I’ll only look at a select handful of players who skated for Victoria between 2011 and 2015.
The unique examples
Defenseman Nolan De Jong is unique among Grizzlies alumni who made it to the AHL. Unlike others though, he didn’t play in Europe and retired several seasons after making his pro hockey debut.
De Jong made his pro hockey debut in 2017 after attending the University of Michigan. He played for the AHL’s San Antonio Rampage before going to the ECHL.
He split the 2017-18 season between the Colorado Eagles of the ECHL before joining the AHL’s Utah Grizzlies. During De Jong’s final season in 2018-19, he was loaned to several different AHL teams, playing in San Jose, Stockton, and Colorado.
After joining the Wichita Thunder of the ECHL, De Jong played the remainder of the 2018-19 season there and is now retired from pro hockey.
Forward Shawn McBride is also unique among Grizzlies alumni in that his career hasn’t taken him to Europe just yet and he is still playing pro in North America.
After four seasons at American International College, McBride made his pro debut with the Hartford Wolf Pack at the tail end of the 2018-19 season. During 2019-20, McBride made his ECHL debut with the Norfolk Admirals and is currently with the Idaho Steelheads.
The regular examples
Forward Joel Lowry finished his junior hockey career at the end of the 2010-11 season. After attending Cornell University for four seasons, Lowry made his pro hockey debut with the AHL’s Ontario Reign. Between 2015 and 2017, Lowry split his time between the Reign and the Manchester Monarchs of the ECHL.
During the 2017-18 season, Lowry was loaned to a number of different AHL teams. He played for the Utica Comets and Springfield Thunderbirds before joining the T-Birds full-time for the 2018-19 season.
After playing two seasons in Springfield, Lowry headed to Europe, joining the Iserlohn Roosters of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in 2020-21. This season, he is playing in Austria for the Vienna Capitals of the ICE Hockey League.
Our final example is forward Myles Powell, even though he didn’t finish his junior career with Victoria after being traded to Cowichan Valley prior to the 2013-14 BC Hockey League season. I’m still including him in this article because he has taken a similar path as other Grizzlies alumni.
After finishing his junior career with the Capitals, Powell attended the Rochester Institute of Technology. After the completion of the NCAA’s 2017-18 season, Powell made his AHL debut with the Rochester Americans. Weeks later, he debuted in the ECHL with the Cincinnati Cyclones.
Powell split 2018-19 between Rochester and Cincinnati and following the season, the Ams traded him to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Powell spent the 2019-20 season between the Baby Penguins and the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers.
In the 2020 off-season, Powell signed on with the Florida Everblades of the ECHL and spent one year in Estero. For the 2021-22 season, Powell is playing hockey in Sweden. After playing 22 games with Vasterviks IK, Powell joined HV71 Jonkoping.
More to come
Most of the Grizzlies who sign AHL deals play four years of NCAA hockey. Depending on which path they take, the current group of Grizzlies may take years to make their pro debuts.
However, with this season’s current group, I can see several Grizzlies making the AHL – and some even playing in the National Hockey League. The crop is led by super rookie Matthew Wood, who is projected to be a potential first round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.
