A disappointing end to a
promising season has Port Hope Predators
General Manager Tim Clayden pondering his
future with the club.
“I ask players to look in
the mirror, but I have to look myself,” said
Clayden. “I brought in a lot of good hockey
players that didn’t have a lot of heart. A
lot of our young players had more heart and
character, and some of our 19- and
20-year-olds didn’t deliver. I’m responsible
for not bringing in the right players.”
Clayden has been asked by
team brass to return to his post next
season, but the GM will take some time to
discuss his future with his family before he
makes a firm decision. Clayden lives in the
Parry Sound area and routinely makes the 700
kilometre round-trip during the regular
season.
“I need to get home and
make sure I have the support of my family.
I’m going to take a few weeks and look in
the mirror, and reflect on what I’ve done.”
Though the Preds finished
the regular season on a tear, a slow start
that kept the team out of the top two spots
in the division cost them in the long run.
“We took too many nights off in the regular
season. Not working hard enough to get (the
first round playoff bye) didn’t work to our
advantage.”
The Kingston Voyageurs and
Wellington Dukes, who earned the two byes,
were well rested when they began their
playoff runs and are now battling it out in
the East final.
Clayden also points to
separate suspensions that kept both himself
and Coach Brian Drumm away from the team for
significant periods at the beginning of the
season as distractions, which the team never
truly recovered from.
“We lost control of the
hockey club, and we never really regained
the control that we needed,” said Clayden.
Though they weren’t able
to collaborate for the entire season,
Clayden enjoyed his first year working
alongside Drumm.
“Brian and I were at
logger heads for a lot of years,” he said
about the former coach of the Cobourg
Cougars. “I enjoyed getting to know him and
working together.”
Although the team didn’t
fulfill its championship ambitions in 2008,
Clayden doesn’t consider the season a
complete failure. The club has a solid
returning nucleus of young players that are
attracting NCAA attention, including Tyler
Miller, Ben Finney and Alex Tillaart, while
a few players who won’t return will move on
to college and university hockey.
“If we can get three or
four players (to the NCAA), it’s great.
That’s a winning season too.”
Even so, the GM can’t help
but wonder what could have been with the
2007/08 Preds. “Our ownership treats myself,
our players and staff second to none. Our
billets welcome kids into their homes, (and)
they grow and develop as young men. Port
Hope has good fans, volunteers, fantastic
billets, and I think the best ownership.
They deserve better.
“I’m disappointed in the
outcome, and in myself.”
