A pair of recent off-season moves made by Powell River Kings have revamped its broadcasting presence and bolstered the junior hockey club’s lineup.
After a one-year absence, Alex Rawnsley returns as play-by-play announcer for the 2017/2018 BC Hockey League season and Trent Bell, a 20-year-old forward, has committed to playing his final year of junior eligibility with the team.
Rawnsley, who said talks with the Kings began during last season’s playoff run, replaces Craig Beauchemin in the broadcast booth for home and away games.
“There was an opportunity with the club,” said Rawnsley. “I wasn’t making an effort to come back, but the team approached me through late April and into early May. We had some chats and were able to come to an agreement.”
A native Australian, Rawnsley brings a distinctive voice to the team and, to his knowledge, is the only Australian-born hockey announcer in North America.
“I’m a broadcaster who just happens to have been born in Australia and, at the end of the day, I’m as Canadian as anybody else in Powell River; I just sound a little bit different,” he said.
In his first stint with the club, Rawnsley, who is is now a Canadian citizen, replaced former Kings broadcaster Fraser Rodgers and spent five years with the organization before taking a break from hockey. He was selected by his BCHL peers as broadcaster of the year in 2016, a recognition he shared with Nanaimo Clippers’ announcer Dan Marshall.
Rawnsley was also included in Hockey Talk, a book by M. Gordon Hunter about junior hockey broadcasters.
Rawnsley brings an important familiarity back to the Kings, according to general manager and head coach Kent Lewis.
“It’s great to bring a guy back who is multi-skilled, not just at calling games but also with keeping fans informed on social media,” said Lewis.
The life of a junior hockey broadcaster is not an easy one, according to Rawnsley. It means broadcasting about 70 games a year, being on the road with the team and working into the early morning hours to complete game reports and prepare for the next game, all while balancing the duties with a separate full-time job.
Rawnsley said Powell River was a fun team to watch last year and he is excited about its prospects for the new season, despite the departure of some key members from the lineup who played out their junior eligibility.
“You lose guys every year,” he said. “Are you going to replace the offensive output of Tristan Mullin, Kyle Betts, Liam Lawson and Jake Kohlhauser, or Brian Wilson in goal?”
Answering that question is up to Lewis, who has started the process of acquiring new talent, beginning with the commitment from Bell, who played most of the past three seasons with Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League’s Nanaimo Buccaneers.
Lewis said Bell brings physicality and aggressiveness to his forward group, something the team did not have enough of last season.
“You get a mature kid,” said Lewis. “I watched Trent as a major midget. He has good character, some touch with the puck and he hits like a Mack truck. He’s my kind of player.”
Rawnsley said it was never his plan to permanently leave broadcasting and he was not actively looking to return until he had the opportunity to broadcast bronze and gold medal games at the bantam provincial championship tournament held in Powell River two months ago.
“I didn’t miss broadcasting quite as much as I thought I would,” he said, “but around February, I began to get a bit of an itch and miss it more.”
