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The historic Notre Dame Hounds, now known as the Warman Wolverines, will seek a fresh start after relocating to their new home city.
The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League team’s home opener takes place Friday at the Warman Home Centre Communiplex.
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The Hounds went up for sale in November of 2024 after the prestigious hockey school decided to shift its focus and consider how it could best serve its student athletes. The Wilcox-based team was purchased by Saskatoon businessmen Cole Kachur and Jonathan Abrametz, along with other investors.
Abrametz joined the CKOM Morning Show to discuss the season outlook and the buzz in the community.
“When it comes to the Wolverines we’re very excited,” he said. “We’ve been working really hard to make this happen (and) all the pieces are coming into place.”
It’s shaping up to be a packed house at the Warman Home Centre Communiplex, with only a select few standing room tickets being made available.
“We are sold out,” Abrametz said. “But we’re going to release an additional 100 standing room tickets, (so) it’s going to be a packed house.”
Abrametz said this year’s outlook is “very promising.”
“We’ve got some really talented players joining us this year,” he said. “We have some veterans from the Notre Dame franchise that are rejoining us, (and) we have some players that played in the WHL joining us.”
Abrametz said there are all kinds of festivities happening before the puck drops.
“Wally our mascot is going to make his appearance,” he said.
The Warman Wolverines’ first home opener comes with a new level of excitement, something that Abrametz said the city has been trying to do for quite some time.
“(Warman) has been hoping for an SJHL team for a long time, in fact we’re not the first ones to try and get an SJHL team into the city,” he said.
That growing anticipation is something the Mayor of Warman Gary Philipchuk is feeling as Friday night draws nearer.
“It’s very exciting for the City of Warman, and it’s exciting for our community,” he said.
Philipchuk said he believes there is some importance to having a team like the Wolverines in the community.
“Having role models at this level (and) just seeing the pathways that it’s shown players in the past is really special to our community,” he said. “We’re seeing that (the Wolverines) want to work with our community, they’ve been out with kids’ sport fundraisers and different aspects like that.”
Wolverine logos can be already seen all over the city. Philipchuk said it puts a smile on his face every time he sees someone wearing some merchandise.
“It’s a sense of pride to our community that we’ve taken that next step,” he said. “We have something special within our city and something that we can rally behind and really support.”
The Wolverines kick their season off against the Humboldt Broncos on Friday in Warman with the puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m.
—with files from 650 CKOM
