The Thunder Bay contingency on the Kam River Fighting Walleye has grown by two.
In a pair of transactions, the defending Bill Salonen Cup champions picked up forward Jett Mintenko and Defenceman Caleb Labelle.
Both skaters were rookies for the Hearst Lumberjacks of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League (NOJHL).
The 19-year-old Mintenko collected 34 points in 53 regular season games to go along with six points in as many post-season games.
He did play in the Thunder Bay Kings program between 2019 and 2021 before transferring to the Kenora Thistles Under-18 AAA team for the 2021-2022 season. That year, he also skated in seventeen games with the Fort Frances Lakers, picking up ten points.
Mintenko said the finish of the season in Hearst made him think about coming back home.
“I was at the rinks watching [the Walleye], there was a little bit of jealousy just wishing that was me playing, still being able to win a championship. So when [there] was an opportunity to talk to [Fighting Walleye General Manager] Kevin McCallum about possibly coming home, I was sold right away,” reflected Mintenko.
Mintenko noted that returnees Ryan Doucette and Jeremy Dunmore further sold him on the idea to be a member of the Fighting Walleye, who have been to back-to-back league finals before winning it all in 2023.
The Fighting Walleye can return up to seven Thunder Bay products from last year’s squad, including Rookie of the Year in the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL) Max Leduc.
Labelle, who turned 18 in January, played on the Under-15 AAA Thunder Bay Kings.
He started last season with the Lindsay Muskies of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) before ending up in Hearst.
“I weighed out all my options [after the season], and I decided [that] I wanted to come back home, live my own bed, be with my friends and family,” Labelle responded, when asked about the trade to Kam River. “It's a great atmosphere over there. They [have] a winning mentality, which I love, and I hold to myself [to that standard]. I decided to go with them because they like to win or just as much as I like to win.”
Labelle did mention that the Thunder Bay North Stars were an option to perhaps sign with, but did reiterate the winning mentality that the Kam River Fighting Walleye have, coming off the Bill Salonen Cup Championship.
The Hearst Lumberjacks won 43 games last year out of 58, but fell in the East Division semi-final in six games to the Powassan Voodoos.
The Walleye and Lumberjacks will face off at Norwest Arena at night on Friday September 1st and Saturday September 2nd, which will be followed by an afternoon tilt on Sunday, September 3rd.
“Hearst is a really fast team,” said Labelle. “They're definitely a very hard team to play against. It’s going to be a really good battle. I would love to win with my new team here and bring back the [Teleco] Cup to the Walleye. That's definitely a big goal in mind to start off the season on the right foot.”
Mintenko added, “[The Lumberjacks] are a great program to be a part of. I've talked to my buddies that are still on the team for next year. We have some friendly competition going on. I think those games will be high intensity and they'll be fun to watch for sure.”
This will be the fourth edition of the Teleco Cup.
The inaugural event in November and December 2020 saw the North Stars win the eight-game series over the Fighting Walleye with five victories.
In 2021, the Fighting Walleye went undefeated against the Lakehead Junior Hockey League (LJHL) selects.
Last year, the Soo Eagles won two of three games against the Fighting Walleye.
