By all indications, Michigan Tech was looking for a third-string goaltender for next season to work behind Pheonix Copley and Jamie Phillips while being ready to step in if one of those guys leaves early. Instead, the Huskies found a potential future star in Angus Redmond. The 17-year-old joined the Salmon Arm Silverbacks around Christmas time and put up top-ten BCHL numbers in limited action and performed well in the playoffs, supplanting BCHL veteran Adam Clark, a New Hampshire recruit. The Langley, British Columbia, native spent the 2011–12 season with the Valley West Hawks in the BCMML, a common place for players from greater Vancouver. He and future Northern Michigan Wildcat Jordan Klimek helped lead the Hawks to a sixth-place finish in the eleven-team league, just missing the playoffs with a 20-17-3 record.
For the start of the 2012–13 season, the 6’1″ netminder moved on to the Pacific Junior Hockey League for the Port Moody Panthers. Despite playing for the last-place Panthers, Redmond managed to have a top-ten save percentage in his 19 games, stopping 90.7% of shots faced. His GAA was inflated by the fact that he saw the 6th most shots of any goalie while playing in at least 9 fewer games than the league leaders, for an average of over 40 shots per game. His save numbers were over 4% better than his teammates’ despite being the youngest goalie on the team, and he earned half the team’s wins last season even though he left halfway through after catching the eye of the Salmon Arm.
In nine regular season games with Salmon Arm, Redmond managed a 0.562 win percentage and 2.59 GAA while saving 91.1% of the shots he saw. All were better than the incumbent goalie, Adam Clark, except Clark managed to stop 91.4% of his shots in the regular season. In the playoffs, Redmond really showed he was ready for the BCHL, where he outdid Clark in his two starts after replacing the starter in game one of their playoff series with Penticton. Despite saving 90.5% of his shots, the top-seeded Vees swept Salmon Arm out of the playoffs.
More than likely, Redmond will be relied upon as the Silverbacks’ top goaltender the next two seasons before heading to Michigan Tech in 2015. Unless someone leaves early, the Huskies will have four goalies on the roster that season – seniors Jamie Phillips and Phoenix Copley and junior Matt Wintjes. Michigan Tech should be set at goalie until fall 2016 with these four committed goalies in the fold. One interesting adjustment for the goalies will be the loss of Steve Shields. It has yet to be determined who will replace him as volunteer coach and whether that person will have a background in goaltending. Regardless, Redmond has done well in his limited work in the BCHL as a 17-year-old rookie. He should only continue to improve going forward and he continues a nice string of high end talent to commit to Michigan Tech from Salmon Arm. Shane Hanna will get the first chance to prove that Salmon Arm is a good place for Michigan Tech to pull recruits and will be followed by Alex Gillies, a potential NHL draft pick and likely BCHL star in 2013–14. Evan Anderson is also on the Silverbacks but his timeline is less well-defined.
Tim is a 2004 graduate of Michigan Tech. He is a co-founder of both Mitch’s Misfits and Tech Hockey Guide. With recent additions to the staff, Tim is again able to focus on his passion, recruiting. He currently works as an environmental engineer and resides in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Area.
