Funk set to lead after restart

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This article was published 30/12/2020 (1750 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Reilly Funk is starting his second season in the USHL with an extra, unintended role.

He’s about to become an unofficial supplier of Youngstown Phantoms jerseys to a legion of admirers back home in Manitoba.

Truthfully, it’s not hard to see the appeal of the jerseys. And not just because the 20-year-old centre from Portage la Prairie is wearing them.

“These uniforms are phenomenal,” said Funk by phone Wednesday. “My favourites are the (home) white jerseys. They’re so nice. We’ve got white gloves and helmets and, yeah, I think they are likely the best in the league this year…

“The greys are totally different but they’re stunning as well. It’s just I think most people prefer the whites. They look phenomenal and they’re nice and clean and everybody wants it. (My friends) are all texting me saying, ‘If you can get me that jersey.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, it’s a little harder than you think with 100 people asking.’”

Funk’s more immediate concerns are on the ice. The Phantoms have struggled out of the gate to fifth place in the Eastern Conference and are set to resume league play on Sunday after a two-week, pandemic-inspired break.

“We’re 2-8 right now and we’ve definitely had some struggles early on,” said Funk, who has four goals in nine games. “We’ve been in every game and lost a lot with like a minute left. Obviously that’s not the start we wanted. We’re five points out of the playoffs already but we’re only 10 games into the season, we’ve got 44 left. We are behind but in no way are we out.”

When the season restarts, Funk’s leadership skills will be put to the test.

His teammates voted him captain during the break and the decision was unveiled earlier this week. He wore an ‘A’ for the MJHL’s Portage Terriers in 2018-19 and served as captain of the U18 Central Plains Capitals in 2017-18.

“The first day back we had a team meeting and (head coach Brad Patterson) just announced the As and a C and I’m so honoured that I’m able to wear the C for the team,” said Funk, who will start a four-year scholarship at Northern Michigan University next fall. “It’s awesome, that feeling, just knowing the boys respect you and they want you to be your leader.”

TIME FOR A CHANGE: defenceman Hudson Thornton was like many, stuck in neutral earlier this month with an uncertain future.

By mid-December, the 17-year-old from Winnipeg had decided to leave the BCHL’s Chilliwack Chiefs for the USHL’s Fargo Force.

The Chiefs, with whom Thornton played in 2019-20, have yet to play a regular-season game while the Force leads the USHL’s Western Conference with a 9-3-2-0 record.

Earlier this season, Thornton’s USHL rights were traded by Omaha to Chicago before landing in Fargo. 

“It was always kind of in the back of my head as an option to go play in the league but when we figured it out that games weren’t looking too promising going forward in the BCHL, I checked out the option of Fargo and it kind of worked out,” said Thornton. “It was a pretty quick turnaround — I think I was in and out of Chilliwack and into Fargo within four days.”

Fargo had room for Thornton when blue-liners Owen Gallatin and Nick Strom went down with long-term injuries. Thornton has one goal in four games and is playing top-six minutes with the Force.

“I was pretty exciting to have an opportunity to be with a team three hours away from your hometown and especially a team that’s as good as Fargo,” said Thornton, who made a verbal commitment to University of Minnesota Duluth last year.

“Moving to a new team mid-season, it has ups and downs but I came in right away and the organization and billet family and teammates just kind of made me feel at home right away. They made my job easy on the ice.”

WHAT’S NEXT? Concern about the fate of the much-delayed WHL season has reached a critical juncture.

Will there even be a season? No one really seems to know but a day of reckoning seems to be near.

Provincial and state health authorities with WHL teams might consider easing pandemic restrictions by mid-January, thereby allowing the league to begin some form of shortened season.

“I’m in B.C. and I think Jan. 8-10 are going to be big,” said agent Scott Bonner, who represents a number of high-profile NHL players who are graduates of the league, as well as current WHLers such as Winnipeg’s Seth Jarvis, who this week signed an entry-level deal with the Carolina Hurricanes. “There’s going to come a time when the Western league says, ‘Hey, this is too late.’

“Unless they’re going to go into the spring league model, they’re running out of runway now. And I think the challenge the Western league has versus say that B.C. junior league or the (MJHL) is the Western league is dealing with five or six governments or health authorities. And those other leagues are dealing with one individually.”

The frustration of living during a pandemic has become very difficult to accept for hockey players. Bonner hears about it frequently.

“You reach out to them and we’re at a point now, ‘OK, how you doing? How’s your workout?’ That’s what we ask clients,” said Bonner. “The kids say, ‘the workouts are always pretty much the same and I’m bored stiff.’ The question comes back, ‘When are we starting?’ ‘Sorry guys. No idea.’”

 

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14