Predictably, Wendell Vye didn't last a full season with the Neepawa Natives.
I was skeptical about the length of this marriage when the acquisition was made over the Summer and now comes word from CKLQ in Brandon that Vye has left the Natives and requested a trade back to Dieppe in the Maritime Junior Hockey League.
I should point out that I don't know Wendell or Bryant Perrier on a personal level at all. But, people in hockey circles talk and the scuttlebutt that I received over the offseason led me to believe this was not going to be a full hockey year together.
When I, originally, posted in the Summer on my blog; I made some comments that were not fair to the Natives or to Vye. My comments prompted a call from Cam Dickie, who was involved in a lot of the player moves for the Natives, and Dickie told me the Natives got Vye based on a family connection in Neepawa and that Vye was simply a young man looking for a place to play. Surely, playing time wasn't the issue as he factored in 30 decisions in Neepawa's 32 games. Did the family member move away? Or, is it something else altogether? Incidentally, Dickie's association with the Natives also, recently, ended.
The truth may never be known. Usually a player has one side to a story and a coach will have another and the truth is somewhere in between the two versions, regardless of who the player and who the coach is in these types of situations.
Neepawa is 10 points out of first place with two games in hand, so the competitiveness of the team shouldn't be an issue. The club has gone through a lot of turnover this season and doesn't resemble the one that made some very intriguing offseason acquisitions that would lead a Junior 'A" hockey observer to believe the Natives may have been positioned as the division favorites going into the start of the year.
This much can't be denied when it comes to Perrier and the Natives: they generate a ton of interest. Six of the seven most recent threads on the MJHL Message Board (Network 54) are about the Neepawa Natives. I don't remember any one person or team dominating the hot stove like that. Jeff Pister and Jeff Wiest were both coaches that people would post passionately about, but neither of them can hold a candle to the present day state of affairs in Neepawa.
Dickie and the players were close as he recruited them. He had a fall out with the club president telling him tio butt out and in typical Dickie fashion he spoke his mind. This was right when the team was in the middle of a 15 game winning streak. Dickie could have kept his mouth shut but he was defending the coach. Perrier got put in a tough spot and Dickie told him that he would take the bullet and that Perrier should not defend him. Meanwhile the president got everyone in Neepawa riled up. Dickie and Perrier had over 50 wins in just over 80 games in Neepawa at this point. Sad times because it was a great combo. Perrier could coach, Dickie could be the ass kicker with the players. When Dickie and one of his recruits had a battle over the kid's play and the kid got sat, the president jumped on it and it all snowballed. Perrier got caught in the middle and now most of Dickie's recruits asked out. Dickie talked most of them out of it but he couldnt stop all of them. The real victim in this is Perrier who has done nothing wrong, and the players who went to Neepawa because of Dickie. The bottom line is if Dickie doesn't tell the president off, everything is good. But that is his style. Too bad because Neepawa went from the worst program in the country almost to top twenty in the country in a year. But the board hasnt changed and I guess there is a reason they were where they were. Dickie is a hothead and so was his brother. But they can build teams. Too bad for Neepawa because they were starting to become a force. If the president had any balls he would have told Dickie he used up his one chance, and let it go for the sake of the team. But thats why losing programs lose right.
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