Honoring Jordan Mistelbacher (updated)

Published 4:46 pm Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The WHL released its list of alumni attending college using their WHL scholarships today. As usual, there’s a fair number former Silvertips taking advantage of their scholarships, as well as a handful of former Tips who are on scholarship from other WHL teams they played for.

But there was one name on the list that stood out to me:

Utah State University – Logan UT, (1)

Tyler Mistelbacher – Winnipeg, MB – Everett Silvertips

Tyler Mistelbacher never played for Everett. Indeed, he never played in the WHL. However, the Tips have granted the scholarship of former player Jordan Mistelbacher, who passed away last January, to his older brother.

I was happy to see this.

—- UPDATE, 4:50 p.m.

Tips general manager Doug Soetaert passed along some information regarding this. The ability to confer the scholarship of a deceased player to a sibling was agreed upon by the league’s board of governors during the summer. In the wake of Jordan Mistelbacher’s death, the Tips brought the issue to the board’s attention, and the board voted unanimously to implement the idea.

Kudos to the board of governors for making this possible.