Skip to content

New players, new bosses for Panthers

The Port Moody Panthers might want to invest in some name tags for the opening of their training camp later this month. The Junior B hockey team hasn’t let the hot summer weather cool their pursuit of new players.
Port Moody Panthers

The Port Moody Panthers might want to invest in some name tags for the opening of their training camp later this month.

The Junior B hockey team hasn’t let the hot summer weather cool their pursuit of new players. To date, seven new faces and one returning familiar one will be on the ice to get ready for their first exhibition game on Aug. 19.

The familiar player will be veteran forward Trey Caldwell, who had seven points in 31 games in his rookie season with the Panthers in 2015-16. Last season he had five points in 10 games before he was traded to the Delta Ice Hawks in October of Logan Hunter. There, he got two points in 21 games before he was released to join Bellingham in the Tier II Western States Hockey League.

Among the new faces will be a couple of goalies, Thomas Watts of Port Coquitlam, and Michael Lauriente of Surrey. Watts, 16, is a graduate of the PoCo Midget A1 Pirates where he compiled 17 wins, 21 losses and five ties last season. Lauriente played his last season of Midget hockey with Semiahmoo’s A1 team.

Up front, the team also signed Port Moody native James Pederson, Coquitlam’s Mark Cherkasov, PoCo’s Jack Hamilton, and Daniel Sclater.

New faces on the blue line include Luke Allard, whom the Panthers acquired from the Grande Prairie JDA Kings. He’s originally from Maple Ridge and played four games with the Ridge Meadows Flames in 2014-15 before he went to Alberta. He also had a 12-game stint with the Junior A Dryden Ice Dogs.

Port Moody native Noah Findlater will also be on the blue line at training camp. He played his last two seasons with Port Moody’s A1 Midget team and helped them win a provincial championship last spring.

The Panthers have finished fifth in their division for five years running and haven’t qualified for the Pacific International Junior Hockey League playoffs since the 2011-12 season.

The team enters this coming season with new owners and a new management team led by Peter Zerbinos, who was previously the director of operations for the Delta Ice Hawks for six seasons and the team’s general manager for two. 

He’ll have a familiar face behind the bench, as new head coach David McLellan had the same job for the Ice Hawks from 2010 to 2013. Before that he was with the Burnaby Express of the BC Hockey League for five season, the last three as head coach and director of hockey operations.