Former Yorkton Terrier netminder Joel Danyluk who has bounced around the SJHL as well as the WHL was recently awarded the inaugural SJHL Community Player of the Year which will send him on a 21 day whirlwind tour of Europe this summer.
Danyluk started in hockey with Yorkton Minor Hockey at four years of age. He played his way through the system with a Pewwee AA team, Bantan AA team, and two years with the Yorkton Harvest AAA Midget team. He played as a Yorkton Terrier for two and a half years, before moving to the La Ronge Ice Wolves, ending with the Estevan Bruins this season. In all he calculates that he played in 299 SJHL games during his junior hockey career.
Called up to the Prince George Cougars as a 15 year old, Danyluk was invited to return to the Cougars for brief stints over the next three years. He also spent some time with the Swift Current Broncos, Tri-City Americans and Regina Pats of the WHL.
Danyluk says he's been very fortunate to meet many people and make many friends over the past four years.
He says it was tough to play against his former home team in the SJHL finals last year and equally tough to sit and watch the Terriers in the current Credit Union Cup Final without being able to take to the ice. "That was the toughest thing about being trade from Yorkton," he suggests.
He was awarded the community service award in Yorkton as a Terrier. He followed up by claiming the same award in La Ronge and he was also presented with the community involvement award in Estevan.
During this year's SJHL Presdent's Tour, each team was asked to nominate a player to receive the first ever SJHL Community Service Award.
Kontiki Tours, which sponsored the award, announced April 1 that Danyluk won the award.
Once he was nominated by his team, Danyluk had to submit an application and write an essay outlining his community involvement and suitability for the award.
While with the Terriers Danyluk helped with the Tim Bits program and worked with some 20 young goalies.
In La Ronge, he became involved with projects on northern reserves at Stanley Mission and Wollaston Lake. Danyluk claims he helped create a tradition with the fish in La Ronge. He became the keeper of the fish. In La Ronge fans throw a lucky fish, a burbot, onto the ice. "It's the native god for good luck," Danyluk explains. Last year in the playoffs he decided to keep all the fish and wave them at centre ice at the end of the game. "We kept all the fish at the local Co-op in La Ronge. We weren't expecting to go to the RBC Cup and when we did, all these lucky fish came with us. It really got that community behind that team," Danyluk recalls.
The fish became the talk of the town which helped the community grow together, he suggests. The tradition carried over to this year.
In Estevan, Danyluk was involved in hockey day at Carlyle and worked with young goalies and schools.
While in Estevan, Danyluk worked at Home Hardware. His coworkers all attended a Bruins home game wearing their Home Hardware shirts. When he made his first save of the game, his coworkers ripped open their shirts to have Danyluk spelled in great white letters.
"I think I've affected lots of people everywhere I've played. I've played in three great SJHL communities and I've been involved in all three," he states.
The SJHL Community Player of the Year Award will see Danyluk going on a 21 day European Inspirations Tour in July. He will wear jerseys of all three SJHL teams he played for as ambassador for the SJHL and Kontiki Holidays. He will travel to London, England, and 10 European countries, ending up in Paris, France. "I'll get to see the coliseum, Vatican City, Venice, Berlin, the and the leaning tower of Pisa," he lists.
He plans to take a lot of photos while ambassador for the SJHL Kontiki Holidays, a new company specializing in vacations for young people ages 18 to 35 years. "They sponsored the SJHL in a big way this year," Danyluk reports.
His hockey days behind him, Danyluk plans to enrol in the University of Regina to become a teacher this fall. He has received some offers from schools but with the scholarship money for books and tuition from the WHL he hopes to become a school teacher who would like to work in a northern community. "La Ronge had a great impact on me," he suggests.
His focus for the next four years will be his studies. "Hockey was great and I was really lucky and blessed to be able to play for four long years (of junior hockey) with no real injuries. It's a good reflection on my life and this award and this trip just caps it off," Danyluk closes.
