After a "Wild" offseason, Hunter returns to Saskatoon as Captain.

[dshervill 45]

To call Braxton Hunter's offseason this past year strenuous would be an understatement, after being eliminated in game 7 of the VHLM playoffs last season Hunter essentially went AWOL. He took no media interviews after the game and left a letter to management and a few of the players on the team that he needed to return home to London for an urgent family matter. With asking GM Doomsday about Hunter he provided no comment as well by saying;

"We are aware of Braxton's whereabouts and why he needed to take this absence from the team. He will join us in offseason activities when he is ready to do so." Without providing any further comments about Hunter's whereabouts the local London media was on the "Hunt" for one of Saskatoon's brightest young stars. 

It was 3 weeks into the offseason when we had our first "Hunter sighting" which was coined by the local London media, leaving a local grocery store with an almost fully grown beard and looking like he was a person who didn't want to be found. After trying to get a word out of Hunter he jumped into a car and left in a hurry. With this being the only sighting we had of Hunter into the offseason so far, the social media experts got their fingers flying, with rumors that Hunter was going to be retiring from Hockey this early, to some even saying he was kidnapped and being held for ransom. With all of these rumors and seemingly no answers in sight, Hunter then disappeared again. 

Another month into the offseason we learned that Hunter actually flew from London to Calgary, after being spotted in the Calgary airport. Taking to questions and hopping into a car and was off, no words were even spoken by the Wild forward as again we waited for when we would have another interaction with probably the most bizarre offseason story we have had in quite some time in Saskatoon. With no end in sight we reached out again to the organization who provided no input on what was going on with Hunter. 

But just as we had thought all hope was lost, that we had lost another VHLM young star, Hunter made his presence known. 

In Saskatoon, three weeks after his sighting in Calgary and two days before training camp opened, a press conference was called by Hunter in cooperation with the Saskatoon Wild to finally put all the rumors to rest and to give everyone an idea on how and why the offseason was handled like this. The day had finally come, the media room completely filled and even the standing room at the back. 

Hunter entered the room, clean shaven and in a suit stepping up to the podium and finally addressing the media, GM Doomsday standing near and clearly showing support for Hunter;

"First off I'd like to apologize for my absence and making people worry about me. I had a few family matters that I had to deal with and that took priority over hockey. I would like to thank GM Doomsday and the rest of the Wild organization for keeping the reason for my absence a secret to the general public and gave me all the support that I could ever ask for."

Right after he started speaking the questions started flying from reporters, asking if Hunter was retiring, why he disappeared for the entire offseason, why he decided ot keep everything a secret, what happened after the last game of the playoffs. The rampage of questions was quelled quickly as Hunter continued with his statement;

"Before game seven of the playoffs last year I received a text message that there was a family emergency and that I was needed at home. With this information weighing heavily on my mind I struggled in game seven and I apologize to the organization and my teammates that I did not have a good game and give us the best chance to win. I had talked with management and coaches before the game and they agreed that I needed to get back home as soon as possible, even if we won in game seven there was a good chance that I was going to be unable to play in the next round of the playoffs." 

Hunter struggled a little bit after continuing;

" During my stay back in London I had found out that one of my family members had passed away in Calgary. I knew I needed to be out there and I knew that my family needed me, after the funeral I continued to train and keep in constant contact with management and coaches to make sure I was doing my best to follow the offseason program. My family is still shaken from our loss so we will not be disclosing what happened at this time."

The room was so silent you could hear a pin drop, it seemed as if all the questions that the reporters had and all the mystery behind this offseason now has been revealed. Hunter continued on;

"Overall I am proud to be part of the Saskatoon Wild organization and I hope that we can continue where we left off after last year's playoff run. I know that we lost a few great players to the VHL, but what I know is that our management and coaching has made a commitment to excellence and will give us every opportunity to succeed. So expect loud music, even louder hits and an amazing atmosphere coming from our locker-room this season."

Hunter then walked off and reporters started to ask questions but GM Doomsday approached the podium and addressed the crowd;

"We will not be taking questions about the specifics of Braxton's offseason, we appreciate everyone's commitment to helping Braxton through this offseason and we are looking forward to seeing how our roster is going to look for the upcoming season."

A few days pass and training camp begins, Hunter looks like a man on a mission as he has shown that even with a difficult offseason that he has still not lost his form. Coming into training camp and having added around 10 pounds of muscle and is imposing his will, even in the post practice interviews he has been incredibly focused. Only answering questions that are related to the team and his outlook for the team this season. Any questions being asked about his offseason are met with;

"No comment, next question."

As training camp went on it was clear that Saskatoon was not going to be the same team that they were last year, losing Captain Steve Eso among many other players to the VHL it was evident during practices that Hunter was trying to take control and lead some of the newer Wild players through drills. Day after day there looked to be more and more optimism in the team's performance and you could see the team improving. 

 

After training camp there was the scheduled press conference to reveal who the captains are for the Saskatoon Wild, GM Doomsday stepped to the podium and the entire room was on edge to hear who the captains would be;

"The captains for the upcoming season for the Saskatoon Wild are... Assistant Captain Tanky, Assistant Captain Griff Mackenzie and our Captain is Braxton Hunter."

Hunter, Mackenzie and Tanky walked up to the podium with Jerseys worn with the captaincy letters on. With the captains announced and the "Wild" offseason coming to a close, it will be a matter of time to show whether or not this year's Saskatoon Wild team will be a contender or a pretender. 

 

From the Star Phoenix, this is Marek Joseph. 

 

[JigglyGumballs 1,056]

Rreview:

 

I really like the narrative you put into your offseason. I think it's pretty creative and I really like the "holy smokes it's bigfoot" sort of situation with the media and Hunter. I also like the formatting, the parsgraphing isn't too blocky and it's actually pretty easy to read even on mobile. I would like to see a bit more colour or stuff like italizing your text to make things stand out but otherwise, really good read!

 

8/10

[diacope 2 764]

I like that you incorporated your absence from the league into your article, very creative idea. The pun in the title of your article is S tier, made me chuckle. The formatting of the article is nice, it's not one single entity, making it easy to read. Strangely enough, not a ton of articles in the VHL are written like actual reporter articles, so points for the creativity there as well. 10/10 article

[dshervill 45]

Claiming for second week.