Canucks Prospect Josh Bloom Celebrates Memorial Cup In Hometown – Hockey Writers – Canucks Prospects

A nice touch of winning the Stanley Cup is the ability to have a personal day with the trophy after receiving your victory. That tradition applies at the junior level in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) as every player on a team that wins the Memorial Cup has their own day with the trophy to bring back to their hometown and celebrate. The trophy was on tour with all members of the Saginaw Spirit and on Friday (Aug 9), Vancouver Canucks prospect Josh Bloom finally had his day with the Cup and celebrated with his community.

Celebration of Bloom

From Oakville, Ontario just west of Toronto, Bloom brought the Memorial trophy to the Sixteen-Mile Sports Complex, home of Oakville's Junior “A” hockey team, the Oakville Blades of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL), for which Bloom plays . as well as a place to call and is the biggest ice-based place in the whole city. He entered the center in the afternoon and placed the trophy carefully on the table to avoid any scratches on the over 100-year-old trophy. He allowed all citizens who wanted to see this prestigious award to pass by to take pictures with the Memorial Cup and take pictures with him. He would also sign hockey cards for those who wanted them.

But with this event, came a good story. A die-hard London Knights fan came to the event to meet Josh and check out the trophy. Saginaw played London in the Memorial Cup final and Bloom scored the game-winning goal with less than 30 seconds left to win the trophy for Saginaw and ended up breaking the heart of a fan who attended the final game at the Dow Event Center. . A fan had four pieces of memorabilia that he asked Bloom to sign; two game pucks from the last game between Saginaw and London and his two game ticket stubs. Bloom graciously signed all the fan's hopes that watching his Knights lose in the finals was a little painful. It was also a great example of how sports can bring people from different backgrounds together to share a heartfelt moment.

Bloom's future in Vancouver

At the start of last season, Bloom would take his game to Abbotsford for his first full season of professional hockey. Unfortunately, things didn't get off to a good start for him in the American Hockey League (AHL) and he eventually decided to return to the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and sign with his former team and the Memorial hosted the Saginaw Spirit. After a productive last year of minor hockey and capped it off with a Memorial Cup victory, Bloom now aims to earn a spot on the Abbotsford roster again. This time, he won't have OHL protection to fall back on as he is now too old to play in junior hockey. So Bloom will either be playing in the AHL or playing for the Kalamazoo Wings in the ECHL.

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Bloom will have some talent to play with in Abbotsford if he makes the team. He will get to play with the likes of Jonathan Lekkerimäki, Arshdeep Bains, and Ty Muller while also getting to learn from new Abbotsford coach Manny Malhotra. Vancouver's AHL team will be exciting this year as they have a good mix of young players entering their first full seasons as well as senior players who have played several years in the league and a rookie head coach leading the way. If Bloom can find a permanent place in the team, he will be part of the base of young players the Cancuks are looking to develop in Abbotsford.

Bloom's cup day was a great experience for all and a great opportunity to reflect on his great achievements. But hockey season will soon be upon him and this year he hopes to make a good impression on the coaches and land a spot in Abbotsford or maybe even Vancouver.