Portage Terriers

The Portage Terriers have announced their season schedule for the upcoming year on their social media. 

The team kicks off the season with a back-to-back against the Neepawa Titans on September 20 and 21, playing the Saturday night in Neepawa, and on Sunday back in Portage.

For the first time since the COVID-19 Pandemic, the league has handed the schedule-creation responsibilities back to the teams. 

Commissioner Kevin Saurette shared why that change was made.

The Portage Terriers have acquired D Rylan Bray (06) from the Neepawa Titans for a Player Development Fee.

Bray (6’2, 170) started last season playing six games for the Titans before being moved to the Yellowhead Chiefs U18 AAA. “Rylan is a skilled puck moving defenceman,” says Terrier head coach and GM Blake Spiller. “We are excited to have him join our organization.”

Heading into his 18-year-old season, the Neepawa product was drafted in the 7 round (#145 overall) by the Red Deer Rebels (WHL) in the 2021 WHL Bantam Draft.

The Portage Terriers joined the other members of the league for the MJHL Draft on Sunday morning. 

Portage made selections in the first, fourth, fifth and sixth rounds.

Ninth overall, they selected Jonah Lemoine of the U18 Brandon Wheat Kings. Terriers Head Scout Angus Moar shared his perspective on the selection.

"He's a skilled right winger from Brandon. He has always been a contributor to the Brandon AAA programs."

With their next pick, 48th overall, Portage selected Jack Perrier from Darlingford. Moar added his thoughts on who Perrier is as a player.

The Portage Terriers will be protecting local players F Koy Funk (08) and D Lawson O’Ray (08) ahead of the MJHL entry draft on Sunday, June 2.

Each MJHL team is eligible to select up to two local players from their region to be added to their protected list. The draft will begin at 10 am on Sunday and will be updated live through RinkNet Live Draft Centre technology. See full list of MJHL Auto protected players here.

Another former Terrier has announced their commitment to university hockey.

Ashton Fishley announced this week that he has committed to play at the USPORTS level in Regina with the University of Regina (U of R) Cougars.

The Portage Terriers annual Rookie Camp was the main event at Stride Place this weekend. Over 100 young hockey players took to the ice in hopes of impressing the Terriers staff and trying to earn a shot at coming to training camp in the fall. Angus Moar, the Terriers' Head Scout, describes the process of finding these young players.

Tayem Gislason has become the second Portage Terrier from this season to announce his commitment to college hockey. He shares where he'll be playing.

"I just committed to Ontario Tech University. It's a USPORTS school here in Canada, so I'm pretty excited."

Gislason had previously explained he hoped to have his decision "very soon." He'll join a Ridgebacks team that finished their season with a record of 14-15-0. The team also saw their captain, Sean Ross, sign a professional contract in the East Coast Hockey League.

Another former Portage Terrier has committed to a post-secondary school while pursuing hockey. However, he's not from the group you might be expecting.

Brock MacDonald committed to Elmira College today, after splitting this past season between the Colorado Grit and Kenai River Brown Bears of the North American Hockey League. 

The Portage Terrier have eight players graduating from junior hockey this season, and PortageOnline caught up with all of them to discuss their time spent in the city.

Daniel Siso, Jayden Catellier, Slade Stanick, Parker Korman, Ashton Fishley, Gabriel Laflamme, Aidan Brook, and Tayem Gislason all aged out from the squad at the end of this past season. Four of the players had spent at least parts of three seasons with the team.

The 2023-24 season is over, but Blake Spiller isn't sitting around and taking time off. He's already working on off-season activities, including scouting young talent for the draft this summer.

"There's always things happening. There's a TELUS Cup regional this weekend in Winnipeg, so our scouting staff and I will attend and then we have our Spring Camp on May 2nd and 3rd."

Spiller said the year that just ended was a tough one, largely due to inconsistency and also struggles the run at the Centennial Cup in 2022-23.