Thursday, October 16, 2008

Daychief and McCabe: The Skinny

Confirmation came today that Winston Daychief and Brad McCabe are no longer members of the Seawolf Hockey team. There's no official release from the school. In his blog Doyle Woody indicates that Steve Cobb said they departed for "personal reasons". Privacy issues keep schools from saying much more but that only leads to speculation and rumors. So I'm going to speculate based on the bits of information I've heard.

Brad McCabe wasn't thrilled with having to compete for ice time. He and Shyiak didn't see eye to eye during his freshman year. He gave consideration during the offseason to not coming back. Brad didn't meet some mandated academic standards and was therefore a healthy scratch. Then he decided that he made the wrong choice by coming back. So he decided to leave.

Winston Daychief was "let go" because of academic issues. No further explanation warranted in this case as far as I'm concerned. Anything further might impugn Winston's good name. I really liked what Winston brought to the ice. He was certainly a hard worker.

I've got no issue with Brad's departure. I don't fault a 19 year old for making a choice and then changing his mind when his situation has unexpected challenges. It would have been less disruptive for him to just not come back from the offseason. But not a biggee. Young men all over college hockey find themselves in similar circumstances every year. Some leave. Brad was one of those. Good luck to him.

I only hope that the University did everything possible to support both of these guys academic efforts and I'm very inclined to believe that they did. Here's why; one of the reasons Dr. Cobb gave for renewing Coach Shyiak's contract for another 4 years was the excellent performance of the hockey team in the classroom. Dr. Cobb told me a couple of weeks ago that Shyiak was directly responsible for that. I'm assuming there are team rules which impact that. Both Winston and Brad appear to have ran afoul of those rules to varying degrees.

It's a bit of a drag that both of these guys are gone. They both brought a set of skills that would have benefitted the team under good circumstances. But their departure is mitigated by the play of guys that otherwise might have been sitting on the bench. Selby, Haddad and Smith fill the hole in the lineup. They may not match the potential production of Daychief and McCabe so everyone else will have to pick up their own production. This is an opportunity for Jade Portwood and Tyler Moir. They're going to see a lot of ice time for sure now. I also finally got some indication that August Aiken is still in the pipeline to play in the 2nd half of the season.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's a big blow losing McCabe, he has good potential to go far in Hockey. I wish him the best

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the clarification Donald, but I am not as generous as you are. I think it sucks big time what McCabe did.

I heard he wasn't happy about Whitten leaving, but he should not have come back to school for such a short period and then quit. I can't stand quitters. As far as I am concerned, he deserted his teammates.

Anonymous said...

Its a huge blow to the team to have 2 players that have a year invested to depart. Its bad for everyone. Hopefully others will step up but Depth is always an issue in the WCHA I wonder if the Coaches are going to bring in 2 players at Half or wait. Maybe the team can rally around this situation this weekend.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully Aiken will be in at the half.

Anonymous said...

Good luck to the boys this week-end.

Go Seawolves!!!! !

Donald Dunlop said...

Aiken (or anyone else) coming in the 2nd half is something nobody should count on until he shows up on the roster and the school announces it. Who knows what technicality might crop up and screw the pooch?

Kris said...

Fairbanks is ridiculously awful at broadcasting hockey games.

Anonymous said...

Yup, that was the most frustrating coverage I have ever watched. I am grateful that they did it, but guys ... follow the puck!

Anonymous said...

Daychief and "hardwork" should never be in the same sentence and as for him leaving the team; thats the best move Shiyak has yet made.

Anonymous said...

I'm really disappointed to see McCabe go. I've always been pulling for him because he played juniors with my brother-in-law.

That being said, I'm really kind of disappointed that he would think after what, 1 season at Junior A that he would come onto a WCHA team as a freshman and not have to compete for ice time?

Anonymous said...

Shiyak has made the worst decision of his "career" in letting Daycheif go. The only reason Shiyak is there for is academics..the team was in last place last season, and now he has let go one of the best players the Seawolves has ever seen. Atleast now Daycheif's name won't go down a shit hole in being associated with such a crappy hockey organization. Way to go Shit-yak hope your getting comfortable down thurr.

Anonymous said...

We haven't seen the last of Brad McCabe. UAA just wasn't the right fit for him and I applaud his decision to leave the program early in the season instead of staying and being miserable. People may think he was selfish to leave but in reality having even one unhappy player on a team can devastate good chemistry. I hated to see McCabe and Daychief go but it is for the best. (Does anyone know where Chief is?) The Seawolves are doing just fine without them and Brad is on his way to bigger and better things. I hope Chief is doing well where ever he ended up.

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