Pistons celebrate season at year-end banquet

While the season may have ended a little early for the Steinbach Pistons’ liking, the team still gathered April 15 at the Pat Porter Centre to recognize some outstanding achievements at their year-end banquet.

The team gathered just a few days after their game six loss to the Virden Oil Capitals in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League semi-finals to hand out awards and recognize their crop of graduating 20-year-old players.

“None of us wanted to be here today, but we are here nonetheless to celebrate a season,” head coach and general manager, who was celebrating his birthday April 15, said.

“A lot of wonderful things took place and a lot of guys had incredible years. What took place in the Southeast Event Centre this year is a celebration on its own.”

This was the team’s full first season at the Southeast Event Centre. With that new building came a much higher game-day standard, including a 20-person production team.

That emphasis on game-day experience and strong results on the ice paid off, with Pistons director of sales and marketing Jamie Peters reporting over 54,000 fans attended Pistons games this season, supported by over 50 volunteers for each game.

“The number of people required to do what we do now is incredible,” Dyck said.

In addition to the usual crop of year-end awards, the team honoured the players who are aging out of junior hockey. Evan Kabal, Brett Kaiser, Connor Paronuzzi, Liam Doyle, Grady Hoffman, Chris Quizi and team captain Sam Noad all shared memories of their time in Steinbach for the crowd.

Hoffman recalled a time in his rookie season, where the players all attended a Super Bowl party and subsequently nearly everyone missed curfew, despite a Monday morning practice.

“Everybody’s in the video room, and there’s no computer, there’s just Paul (Dyck) sitting there with a clipboard,” Hoffman said, drawing laughs from the crowd.

“He says ‘so we know who was late for curfew. We’re going to go around the room. We’ll know if you’re lying.’ Long story short, we were all bag skated that day.”

Kaiser was the last on-ice connection to the team’s 2023 championship, won in the final game at the Centennial Arena.

Dyck got emotional when addressing the 20-year-olds after they shared stories, remembering when he returned to Germany to meet some friends he made when he played there two decades ago. They picked up right where they left off all those years ago.

“I have very few on-ice memories actually,” Dyck said, reflecting on his own playing career.

“It’s all about the life-long friendships that I’ve formed… That’s honestly the best part about our game. The game is great, but it’s people. It always comes back to the people. It comes back to the room, it comes back to your teammates. Sometimes you realize that more when you’re older but it’s so cool when they’re 18, 19, 20 and recognize that.”

Noad was named the regular season most valuable player, with Dyck praising the captain’s ability to bring his team into the fight on a night-in, night out basis. Steady defenseman Luke Bogart and winger Jackson Kostiuk split the playoff most valuable player award.

Goaltender Chris Quizi, who was given the community service award, also won the fan favourite award. Quizi made a special trip to Clearspring School to say good-bye to the students before he returned home.

Mitchell product William Picklyk was named the rookie of the year.

Pistons Award Winners

Top Scorer — Jack Greenwell

Community Service — Chris Quizi

Academic Excellence — Brett Kaiser

Most Improved — Charlie Velner

True Grit — Cole Cairns

Rookie of the Year — William Picklyk

3 Stars Award — Jack Greenwell

Top D-Man — Liam Doyle

Fan Favourite — Chris Quizi

Regular Season MVP — Sam Noad

Playoff MVP — Jackson Kostiuk/Luke Bogart