Local man has worked in minor hockey, brings strong work ethic
By Pat Payton
A St. Marys hockey man is the new assistant General Manager of the St. Marys Lincolns.
Mike Glover, who coached in the St. Marys minor system, was recently hired to replace Steve McIver, who stepped down from the position this past summer. McIver, a Guelph resident, spent one season as assistant GM.
“I’ve worked with Mike a little bit in minor hockey,” Director of Hockey Operations/GM Greg Smale told the Independent. “When I go out and scout Midget games and tournaments, I would often see Mike at those games. He was there because he loves watching hockey, and we often talked about players and different things.
“I think we’re very like-minded in how we see the game and how we view players. When he and I talked, I thought it was a really good connection. Obviously, Mike is another local guy that builds upon what we’re doing here with the Lincolns. I asked him (about the position) and we talked about it a couple of times, and he said he was interested in helping out.”
Smale says Glover, who has helped out with several minor teams over the years, brings a strong work ethic.
“Like myself, Mike doesn’t have a huge Junior background, but we’re finding that there’s good hard-working people who are really helping turn this organization around, and he fits that mould,” Smale said.
“Mike’s going to look after a lot of our prospects, and identify new prospects. He will look after our rookie camp in the spring, and get in touch with all the Midget contact people so we can talk to players and their families and keep building our scouting program.”
Glover is “excited” about his new role and is looking forward to seeing Jr. ‘B’ hockey return to the ice.
“I know I have a lot of stuff to learn,” Glover said. “I’ll be working closely with Greg and the rest of the (team management) and helping them out. I’m most excited about scouting and seeing hockey return.”
Pre-season games up in the air
Smale recently talked about scheduling six exhibition games in the month of November — home-and-home against Stratford, Cambridge and Komoka.
“No dates have been set,” the GM said. “It’s just kind of an agreement between me and those three teams. It will all depend on restrictions and health units and different things like that.
“Will they let us play teams outside of Perth County, I’m not sure. A lot of that still hangs in the balance.”
In other Lincs news, Greg Smale reports that defenceman Brayden Hislop has been dealt to the Elmira Sugar Kings of the Midwestern Conference in a straight cash deal.
The 17-year-old St. Clements native requested the trade to the Sugar Kings so he could attend high school in Elmira.
As a 16-year-old rookie with the Lincolns a year ago, he had four goals and 16 points in 46 games. A strong puck-handling blueliner, Hislop is a 2019 draft pick of the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack.
