Mentorship Cup

The Mentorship Cup, a week-long event put on by the Gary Roberts and the NHLPA in Missisauga, Ontario, wrapped up back East yesterday with an inter-squad game that involved the top 42 15-year-old players in the nation.

Team Spezza edged Team Schenn in a shootout to cap off the week of hockey training that included leadership development skills, nutrition etc.

Ice first round pick Colin Shirley was among the 42 players at the camp, as was Cranbrook product G Payton Lee, who played the first half of the game for Team Spezza yesterday.

Shirley is already pencilled in to play for the Saskatoon Blazers AAA Midget squad this season while Lee, who played last year for the Pursuit of Excellence school in the Okanagan after playing his formative years up until his first year in Bantam in Cranbrook would likely play Major Midget in BC.

Drafted by the Vancouver Giants in the 2011 Bantam Draft, residency rules for BC Minor Hockey dictate that he plays in Nelson with the Major Midget Ice if he were to go that route. He could play Midget with POE but the competition wouldn't be as good as most of the top 15-year-olds now play in BCMML. Evaluation camps for MML went this weekend so Lee likely got an exemption, as did the rest of the BC players at the Mentorship Cup; F Jake Virtanen (number one overall pick to the Hitmen), LW Ryan Gropp (Seattle, 6th overall), D Joe Hicketts (Victoria, 12th overall), D Josh Thrower (Hitmen, 2nd round, 23rd overall) along with Lee (28th overall).

There is a transfer rule within the BCMML that does allow goaltenders from other areas to play for other regions within the MML as the Major Midget Ice had goaltenders from Langley (Christian Pickles) and Kelowna (Jarod Schamerhorn) last season, so that might come into play.

I was also a bit brain dead the other day (ahh, summer) not to mention graduated forward Kevin King signing a one-year deal in Syracuse with Crunch for next season. He'll rejoin his former coach in Mark Holick and his former assistant Brad Lauer who'll be an assistant with the Crunch this season.