SPORTS FLASHBACK 1984: Penner to coach ‘AAA’ Millers

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This article was published 21/07/2024 (335 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Steinbach Millers hockey club will be competing in a series of exhibition games with Winnipeg Tier One teams during the 1984-85 season, as a Triple-A minor hockey program is introduced in Manitoba for Under-18 players this winter.

Steinbach Millers coach Gil Penner said “AAA” hockey is being implemented in an attempt to reorganize minor hockey across Canada to include an “elite” program for the more talented players.

Each province will decide its own criteria for a team to be designated “AAA”, Penner said. For this season, in Manitoba, at the “Under-18” hockey level, all Winnipeg Tier One teams and any “Under-18” regional team will be considered “AAA”. In addition, any rural-city team has the opportunity to classify itself “AAA” for the program.

The Millers, who will be travelling to Sweden in December, will be playing a double home and away schedule with five Winnipeg teams, as well as the two regional teams, Central Plains Flames and Interlake. There is also a possibility that the eight-team loop will be joined by Kenora.

Penner, who is assisted by coaches Keith Duncan and Gerry Lafreniere, said the program will be a challenge and a learning experience for the 16-year-old, who is looking at extending his hockey career beyond minor hockey.

The Steinbach Millers have five Steinbach players on the regional squad, with four players from Ste Anne, three from St Adolphe, and one each from Oakbank, Ile des Chenes, St Pierre, Vita and St Malo.

The inaugural “Under 18” Millers will have five 15-year-olds on the team, with the balance being 16, Penner said.

The former technical director of hockey for the Manitoba Amateur Hockey Association said that there will be no Triple A hockey program at the “Under 15” level this year.

The playdowns will proceed as they did following the 1983-84 season, with the eventual “Under 15” winner declared the “AAA” provincial champion.

Author’s Note:

At its annual meeting, in November of 2019, Hockey Canada revised the naming of all minor hockey age divisions used in minor hockey across Canada. Hockey teams called Pee Wee, Bantam and Midget for decades would in future be “Under 13”, “Under 15” and “Under 18”. There would be no change in the names for “Junior” and “Senior” hockey.