Warriner Sharing His NHL Experience With Chatham-Kent Youth

Cyclones Players (R-L) Troy Babcock, Owen Batemen, and Ben Bartlett with Ivan Warriner at Hockey Station - Photo by Ian Kennedy

Chatham, ON – Young hockey players across Chatham-Kent dream of one day playing Junior, College, and professional hockey, but reaching that dream often seems almost impossible, and typically, these young players are lacking experienced guidance.

That’s why each week more than a dozen aspiring hockey players meet at Todd Warriner’s Hockey Station in Chatham to learn from Warriner himself; an Olympic medalist and NHL veteran.

AAA Player Bryan Boersma Skates the Incline Ramp as Chatham Maroons player Brennan Feasey Waits - Photo by Ian Kennedy

Recently, this group of hockey players who come to Warriner’s Hockey Station to train has included several Bantam and Midget Chatham-Kent Cyclones, as well as Chatham Jr.B Maroons players. When their season ends, bigger names will return to training at Warriner’s Hockey Station including Ohio State Buckeye’s scoring ace Hokey Langan, and London Knights star Seth Griffith. 

Not many young hockey players have the opportunity to readily train alongside someone with Warriner’s experience, or in a unique setting like the Hockey Station on a weekly basis.

“Training with an ex-NHLer was a really interesting experience for me,” said local ‘AAA’ player Troy Babcock, who recently started training at the Hockey Station. “I have never trained that close to someone with such experience and wisdom of the game. Whenever Todd or his father gave me advice, I was sure to listen and pay attention because they know the game and they know what they are talking about.”

Babcock’s teammate this past season with the Minor Midget ‘AAA’ Cyclones Ben Bartlett, who has been training with Warriner for more than a year now, echoed his appreciation for the knowledge and experience Todd Warriner imparts during workouts, “He knows what it takes to make it. It makes me want to train hard and it shows me that hard work gets you as far as you want it to.”

Bartlett holds the second fastest time at the Hockey Station on the Incline Skating Ramp, behind only Seth Griffith.

According to Babcock, it’s not just the fact that Warriner is an ex-NHL player, it’s the fact that he was born and raised locally in Chatham-Kent, that shows young althletes that local hockey players can make it to the next level, “Working with Todd motivates me because I see someone from a small-town in our area who worked hard and had success in hockey. It motivates you to work to follow in his footsteps.”

Many of the player’s working out at Todd Warriner’s Hockey Station will soon be participating in the Under 16 and Under 17 Evaluation camps, as well as tryouts for the upcoming ‘AAA’ and junior hockey seasons.

If you speak to any player who trains at the Hockey Station, they’ll be quick to point out their favourite parts of the facility, including the ramp, target shooting, the sweet hand stickhandling station, dryland training, or the hardest shot meter.

In the end however, it all comes back to being able to work beside other aspiring hockey players, under the guidance of Warriner himself, and his father Ivan who is often found helping out at the Hockey Station, “My favourite thing about the Hockey Station is working alongside so many other skilled players and gaining experience from other players, from Todd, and from his dad. You can learn a lot from watching others, and from watching it be done by a professional.”

Todd Warriner at the Hockey Station - Photo by Ian Kennedy