Beardy hired as junior hockey GM & coach

Dean Beardy of Sachigo Lake First Nation wrote on his K-Net web page that he would need a three-piece suit and a haircut for the Greater Metro Hockey League (GMHL) player draft.
He might have been kidding but Beardy takes seriously his new job as president, general manager and coach of the Shelburne Red Wings. The Red Wings hired Beardy last month to the lead the tier-two Junior-A team, although he doesn’t start full-time on his one-year contract until July 1. He is taking a leave of absence for that period from his job as Sachigo’s economic development officer.
“Management is confident that the organization will thrive under Beardy and his new direction with the club,” the Red Wings’ Russian ownership group said in announcing his hiring April 3.
The team finished last out of 20 teams – mostly based in and around Toronto, plus one in Quebec – that played in the GMHL in 2013-14, so there is nowhere to go but up.
“We will be very competitive, finish somewhere in the top ten … and play well in the playoffs,” Beardy predicted for the upcoming season. “It is going to be a difficult task at first but I will give my full effort … to meet all expectations.”
Certified as a hockey scout through Sports Management Worldwide (SMWW), Beardy worked last season as part-time scout and recruiter for the 10th-place Alliston Coyotes. He was hired for that role by Alliston’s GM and head coach, Joe Murphy, who was selected first overall by the Detroit Wings in the 1986 NHL draft, played more than 700 games in the league and won a Stanley Cup as an Edmonton Oiler. Murphy found Beardy through a scout website hosted by SMWW.
The GMHL’s Coyotes and Red Wings share the same owners, and all seven First Nation players recruited from northwestern Ontario by Beardy last year spent time on Shelburne’s roster, some of them after being traded from Alliston.
Murphy told Wawatay News he was impressed by the quality of Beardy’s scouting reports and the work he put into them. “(Based on) Dean’s dedication, his love and knowledge of the game, and his scouting … I recommended him for taking the reins in Shelburne.”
Through an SSMW online course in 2009, Beardy learned the intricacies of hockey management and scouting from Harry Sinden, the former Boston Bruins president, GM and coach, and Mike Oke, current general manager of the Peterborough Petes, a major junior team in the Ontario Hockey League.
Beardy has also coached men’s and youth hockey teams in Sachigo Lake.
In Shelburne – best known for hosting the Canadian Old Time Fiddle Championship each August, according to the town’s website – he’ll be living about 100 kilometres northwest of Toronto. Shelburne has a population of around 7,000.
Draft Day
The 2014 GMHL entry draft took place May 11 about an hour drive away, in the town of Innisfil. Players 15 to 21 years old are eligible for selection in the annual draft and for play in the league, which has now expanded to 22 teams.
After Shelburne traded away its pick in the first round of the draft, Beardy chose Jarvis Angees from Kasabonika Lake First Nation in the next round as a future Red Wing. Beardy described Angees, a five-foot-10 centreman, as having a full set of high-end offensive skills, speed and good on-ice vision.
“I’ve seen him (play in) different places – Sioux Lookout, Dryden, Bearskin Lake,” Beardy said after the draft. “He’s a great player. He’s going to be good in the league.”
Beardy selected Chad Linklater, a forward from Sandy Lake First Nation, with Shelburne’s next pick.
His choices in later rounds included Darr McKay, a Sachigo Lake defenceman who has been playing minor hockey in Thunder Bay, and Justin Anderson, another Kasabonika Lake centre but bigger (six-foot-two) and younger than Angees.
The same day, Beardy accepted a trade offer, acquiring defenceman Gunther Fiddler of Sandy Lake, who had 13 points in 38 games for the Lefroy Wave in his first GMHL season.
“It was good experience,” Beardy said of his first draft. “It was a fun day.”
Shelburne also drafted two players from Ukraine and one from Croatia. Other teams selected players from overseas as well, from such countries as France, Denmark, Norway, Latvia, Sweden, and Russia. The Sturgeon Falls Lumberjacks even drafted two players from Mexico.
Unlike other Canadian junior leagues, the GMHL is independent from Hockey Canada and there is no limit on how many players teams can import from other countries. Shelburne actually entered the GMHL in 2009 as an all-Russian team and Russian players still made up about half of the team’s lineup last season.
World Hockey Centre
The GMHL itself plays to mixed reviews.
Critics in a couple of online hockey forums suggest the calibre of play in the GMHL is generally below that of other tier-two Junior A leagues in Canada, and that its ‘pay-to-play’ model is unique and too expensive. The Red Wings charged a player fee of $8,500 in 2013-14, plus $500 per month for billeting with families in Shelburne.
Others argue the GMHL succeeds in its focus on player development, and that its fees are in line with elite midget hockey programs and far cheaper than some private hockey academies. The GMHL website features a long list of graduates from the league who have gone on to play higher levels of hockey at U.S. colleges, in top North American junior leagues and for teams overseas.
Five players from Kitchenuhmaykoosib who played in the Northern Bands tournament in Dryden this spring, after their GMHL seasons in Shelburne and Lefroy had ended, showed marked improvement in their games. They received financial sponsorship from their community to play in the GMHL.
“Remote First Nation players are self-taught, (so) it takes time for them to adjust to a higher level of hockey,” Beardy said. “There are a lot of gifted players on our side of the woods, they just need to be pushed a little harder to bring the best out of them.”
To that end, in addition to running the Red Wings, Beardy has agreed to recruit for the World Hockey Centre (WHC) in Shelburne and be involved in its development of players. Affiliated with the GMHL, the WHC serves as an “official training camp” of the Red Wings and the league’s other teams. It offers summer immersion hockey schools, focused on skills training and player promotion. From scouting at the Northern Bands tournament and elsewhere, Beardy invited several First Nation prospects to attend the WHC this summer.
“Dean now has a collection of guys who are going to learn at a 15, 16 years old … the game and off-ice habits and eating habits,” Murphy said. “They are going to be prepared to play junior hockey and be prepared to do the schooling and the things to be quality young men.
“There are a lot of great things Dean is doing to help these young men.”
Beardy, meanwhile, sounded upbeat about the results of the GMHL draft.
He even wore a tie to the event to look his part as a hockey general manager. “It almost choked me too,” he said, “so I had to take it off.”
For the full story of Dean Beardy’s journey from Sachigo to the GMHL, please read the summer edition of Sagatay, the inflight magazine of Wasaya Airways.