While Dominion Hotel owner Shawn Chamberlin expects his front-of-house to be a little quieter on Saturday afternoons this winter, he’s grateful for what the Haliburton County Huskies did for businesses in Minden these past five years.
Franchise owners Paul Wilson and Ryan Ramsay announced in May that the team would be relocating to Cobourg ahead of the 2026-27 season, calling time on Jr. A hockey in the Highlands.
The team played five seasons out of S.G. Nesbitt Memorial Arena in Minden. Fouro-clock on a Saturday afternoon was hour of the Husky, with hundreds attending the almost-weekly home games. Since September 2021, the Huskies brought more than 150 Jr. A games to Haliburton County.
“Paul and Ryan did their best and worked hard – they put quite the show together for us these past five years. We’ve got to be grateful for that,” Chamberlin said. “I was very disappointed, but by the same token, it was a bit of a reality check for the whole thing. If it’s not working financially, then it’s not going to last.”
Wilson cut a cheque for $30,000-50,000 each season to balance the books, with Ramsay saying the organization faced a much-larger deficit this season had they remained in the County. He cited increased league fees and transportation costs, with the latter taking a big chunk of the team’s $500,000 budget in 2025-26.
Chamberlin said his restaurant enjoyed good crowds before and after games, so there will be a hit to business. He doesn’t anticipate making any changes, though.
“There’s lots of other stuff going on in the County. There are still different programs and events, live entertainment, bringing people into the downtown during winter. We have the snowmobilers who bring a lot of business,” Chamberlin said.
For Michael Wright and Paula Sylvester, owners of Mulligan’s Pub and Patio that ran the concessions stand at the arena on gamedays, they said they’ll miss the people more than the money.
They were involved with the team since its inaugural season, after Wilson and Ramsay tried one of Wright’s burgers in the summer of 2021. That first year, Mulligan’s supplied the food for the snack bar, but every year since, Wright and Sylvester manned it. Beyond that, they hosted monthly team dinners, annual Christmas parties and endof-season celebrations.
“It was like a gut punch, for sure. Huskies hockey was a big thing for everybody here during the winter. For us, it was something really cool to do. It was so nice being out in the community, connecting with people,” Wright said. “The Huskies became an institution in Haliburton County. We’re going to miss it this season but really hope it can return in future.”
Hope for the future
Ramsay confirmed he is working with two people with ties to the Huskies operation to bring a Jr. C franchise to the County for the 2027-28 season. Minden Hills mayor Bob Carter said he would be in favour of that.
The township had a contract with the Huskies for ice time until Spring 2028. Carter acknowledged the team’s pending departure is disappointing, but he respects it “as a business decision.”
The mayor noted the township would look to plug the gap left behind by the Huskies with other programming for the community, with rentals for other hockey leagues, pickup games, public skating and figure skating all mentioned. The mayor said the arena was built with public programming in mind and not to house a junior hockey franchise.
“The Huskies weren’t even on the horizon when the decision was made to build a new arena. We have this space now that is available to the public and we’ll market the ice hours the Huskies had booked elsewhere,” Carter said, when asked about any anticipated financial shortfall.
Asked if he felt the township could have provided funding to the Huskies, whether by grant or sponsorship, to try to keep the team here, Carter felt that would have been inappropriate.
“They’re just like any other business in the area. We don’t provide them with assistance… I wouldn’t see it as the role of the township to be providing public funding to the team,” Carter said.
Coun. Tammy McKelvey has been a season ticket holder for the past three seasons and said she’ll miss her weekend ritual of heading to the rink. She believes swapping a Jr. A franchise for one in Jr. C could be a blessing in disguise for local hockey fans.
“There are a lot of local players right now travelling out of town to play Jr. C hockey. If we can bring them back home to play, keep their families here to watch, that would be a pretty good foundation for a new program,” she said.
One big complaint from Huskies fans in recent years has been the temperature inside the rink, especially last season during the Arctic blasts. The township didn’t pay to install heaters when the arena was built in 2020, but McKelvey said it is on council’s radar.
“There should be some money left over from when we debentured the arena costs. There is a long list of items the money could be used for, but we really haven’t had that brought to council yet,” McKelvey said.
