If you know me at all, you know that I'm a big fan of Twitter.
One of the unique things about the micro-blogging site is that more and more pro athletes are getting on there to interact with fans.
Some of them tweet mundane day-to-day details of their lives away from the rink. But sometimes you'll find nuggets of information about the player, whether it be a trade, a new contract or a return to the lineup from injury.
This phenomenon is extending to SJHL players. I keep a list of SJHL players on Twitter, and as of Tuesday it was at 94, with probably a few guys missing.
That's almost one-third of the entire league. Impressive. On Sunday, the Bruins made a five-player trade with the Nipawin Hawks, including three active players.
When I learned a trade was in the works, I scanned the list of players and found a tweet from Hawks defenceman Tyler Poskus saying he was heading to Estevan and would miss his teammates.
Before long, Tyler Paslawski and Jesse Bernard also had similar tweets on their accounts.
I hadn't reported the deal yet because I was fairly sure something else was going to Nipawin in the deal and didn't know yet what it was. It turned out to be two list players.
But any fans who followed these players knew roughly what the deal looked like, long before it was reported on the SJHL website or anywhere else.
Needless to say, Bruins head coach Keith Cassidy was not thrilled when I told him about my Twitter findings.
As a reporter, I'm certainly not complaining, but it seems likely that the league will soon discuss some kind of social media policy, if they haven't already.
Inevitably some day a player will tweet that he's been traded before another player in the deal knows, and then the whole thing will blow up.
Josh Lewis can be reached by phone at 634-2654, by e-mail at sports@estevanmercury.ca, on Twitter at twitter.com/joshlewis306 or on his Bruins blog at bruinbanter.blogspot.com. Don't be surprised if he's muttering something about Sidney Crosby with his jaw still on the floor.
