Todd Ewen - Junior Career

Junior Career

Ewen started his junior career with the Kamloops Oilers at age 16. He started the season in Kamloops but was traded to the Nanaimo Lakers at the end of the season. That was the last year that the team was in Nanaimo and they moved back to New Westminster. Ewen played three years for the New Westminster Bruins of the WHL, where he was awarded the most improved player by the WHL and served as the assistant captain. In his last year with the Bruins he had 6 points and over 200 minutes in penalties at Christmas. Oilers head scout Barry Fraser flew in to see his performance. He instructed Ewen to start playing hockey as well as the aggressive style. He ended up with 52 points and 289 minutes in penalties. When the season ended with New Westminster, Ewen was loaned to the Maine Mariners for the playoffs. He centered a line which had Archie Henderson and Mitch Wilson as line mates. He was selected by the Edmonton Oilers in round 8, #168 overall of the 1984 Draft. Some of the other notable players in the organization at that time were Cliff Ronning, Craig Berube, Bill Ranford, Link Gaetz, Alan May, Brent Hughes, Pokey Reddick and Brian Noonan.

The team was coached by junior hockey coach Ernie "Punch" Mclean, most noted by the teams that he assembled and inducted in the British Columbia Hockey Hall of Fame, but also for the fact that he survived a plane crash, a car wreck and having a bulldozer roll over him.