Panthers Announce Captain and Alternates

August 30, 2023
Panorama Recreation Centre
North Saanich, British Columbia

The Peninsula Panthers Organization took a gigantic step and certainly a leap of faith in going younger at the helm when they brought in 27-year-old Tyler Stanton as their new Coach and General Manager.  Stanton was only three years old when Pete and Coreen Zubersky purchased the Panthers back in 1999 but a lot of water has flowed under the proverbial bridge since then and now Stanton finds himself making key decisions for the Club.  He brought a young staff with him including Colin Carter, Connor McClelland and Grayson Vickers but has a security blanket with a veteran of the hockey wars in Assistant Coach Hans Kossman.

Stanton and his staff have been busy over the off-season since he was brought into the fold in April putting together a roster that he hopes can compete near the top of the VIJHL.  And on Tuesday night, Stanton unveiled his leadership group, the four players on the Cats who will wear letters this time around.  Evan Crawford wore an 'A' last season and was bumped up and will be the Captain of this year's version of the Panthers.  His Alternate Captains will by 20-year-olds Julien Phillips and Reid Fryer and 18-year-old Ethan Lingard.

Stanton and his coaching staff have mulled over these decisions for the past number of weeks and feel comfortable and excited about this group of letters.

"It goes without saying, that we are lucky enough to have a very strong mature returning core this year for the 2023/24 season, and with that, I believed it was time to announce our leadership group for the coming year.  We did that last night after practice. Wearing the "C" this year will be #2, 20-year-old Evan Crawford. Evan changed his number from 28 last season.  Over the past four years in the league with the Panthers, Evan has demonstrated leadership in his play but off the ice as well. He is a tremendous voice in our room and phenomenal with the younger guys. I could not be more excited to announce this to a very well-deserving individual."


Stanton was clearly excited about Crawford but was equally excited about his three Alternate Captains:

"Our Alternate captains will consist of 20-year-olds Reid Fryer and Julien Phillips and 18-year-old Ethan Lingard.  They too are no strangers to the Cat's Program with Fryer set for his 4th year with the Club and with Phillips and Lingard entering into their 3rd campaign. All have been a part of the 2021/22 VIJHL Championship team, a season filled with adversity with the death of Grant Gilbertson.  And all four were leaned on heavily at the time of need and went on to display tremendous leadership both on and off the ice. Our entire Organization could not be more pleased to honour these 4 individuals and I know their goals for this season will be as lofty as the Coaching staff's."

Crawford, Phillips, Fryer and Lingard will all be in the lineup Friday night when the Panthers welcome in the Victoria Cougars.  The game will be their final exhibition game and a tune-up for September 8th when the Cats will welcome in the Westshore Wolves to open the 2023/24 Regular Season.