Pistons tap Cairns to captain team this season

The Steinbach Pistons have announced their captain for the upcoming season.

Cole Cairns, a fourth year player from Winnipeg will wear the ‘C’ for Steinbach this season. The forward has played 129 games in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in the regular season and playoffs combined.

In the 2023/2024 season he split time between Steinbach and the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the Western Hockey League.

Last season he scored 18 points in 39 regular season games as Steinbach battled injuries all year. Cairns was part of the 2022 MJHL draft and was selected by Portage in the fifth round. The MJHL last held a player draft in 2024.

Cairns is the first Steinbach Pistons captain from Manitoba since Zac Patrick donned the ‘C’ in the 2021/2022 season. Patrick was also initially a Portage product but wasn’t drafted by any team in the 2016 MJHL draft.

The last time Steinbach had a captain for a full season who was drafted in the MJHL was Tyson McConnell in 2018/2019 (Curtis Ireland was named captain for the cancelled 2020/2021 season).

Steinbach’s regular season is set to begin Sept. 18, with the team’s home opener the next night.