The Cancellation of the OJHL season on Tuesday, April 13, 2021 also signalled the end of the Oakville Blades 2020-2021 hockey season. The Blades could not dress for a single game this year, which is unfortunate for the club, especially for the graduating players hoping to get one great final season before they leave and venture into a new chapter in their hockey lives.
The team plans to bring back many players that were supposed to play this year. The Blades will be losing four players to division one scholarships and age ineligibility - the most significant of the four is captain Alton McDermott, who is going to Canisius College in Buffalo. The club wishes him and the rest of those four players the best of luck in their future hockey endeavours.
The Blades are now planning to prepare for the 2021-2022 season. The hard part of preparing for this season is that no one knows when the team will be allowed back on the ice.
But when the team can hit the ice, they're still unaware of what protocols they will have to follow. Once those are set in place, the team has plans to scout players. A club member told me, “We will be looking at starting our prospect camp; we can get that up and running if we can get permission from the league and also Hockey Canada."
"We will have the opportunity to look at some new talent for the future because we are losing some guys to graduation and division 1 programs," he said, "but we also got a select group of guys coming back. Our main focus will be prospect camp, and for me personally, it will be looking at game film, looking at other players and looking to see how we can get better.”
During this downtime, players continue to work out in their home gyms and rollerblade outside to keep their skating skills sharp and keep safe during this lockdown.
It was a very unfortunate end for the Blades. The organization is moving forward and preparing for next season. We hope it is a successful and safe one for these players and staff.