(Written by Jamie Neugebauer)
The small-world nature of hockey in Saskatchewan means that intense rivalries are often born out of the familiarity of contempt.
That said, it is difficult to imagine a player in the SJHL who wants to beat a particular team compared to how Nipawin Hawks’ forward Finley Radloff wants to beat the La Ronge Ice Wolves.
Radloff, a 2005 birth year recently named captain of the club, was born in La Ronge, and his family billeted Ice Wolves players for many years, including during their back-to-back Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League championship years at the outset of the 2010s.
The Radloffs moved to Nipawin when dad Kevin took a new job with SaskTel in 2012, and during Finley’s formative years, he was all-in on the Hawks, who are in the same division as the Wolves.
“For sure, the main thing is that I don’t want to lose to La Ronge,” Finley says.
“It is a big thing for me; I have a lot of buddies there, a couple of buddies I grew up with on that team too, so it’s cool playing them, but I never, never want to lose in (La Ronge’s Mel Hegland Uniplex). It’s a huge rivalry with me, and of course, we want to beat everyone, but it’s always a horrible feeling when I lose to La Ronge.”
For his part, Radloff has done well against his childhood club and everyone in the league as his development arc continues on an impressive trajectory.
A smaller forward who plays much bigger and with far more grit than his frame dictates, he also has a lethal finisher’s mentality paired with great speed and hands. Last season, in 2023-24, he scored 23 goals, third most among 18-year-olds and younger.
Now, with a flock of Hawk veterans graduated, the onus on the local boy and captain to lead and produce is high.
“There is pressure,” he says, “but every game, I just try to go out, do my thing, play my game, and stay away from worrying too much about the pressure of being a local guy.
“It’s so important that I don’t put too much pressure on myself or worry about it,” he adds.
“We have mental coaches, so I have been (intentional) in working with them to focus on dialling in, getting into my ‘flow state’ where I am not worried about anything other than the game going on.”
Finley does not have to go far to find a talented local with the honour of being relied on offensively for the Hawks.
His head coach, Tad Kozun, is from the area and was a high-flying winger for the club between 2011 and 2014. That mentorship relationship has clearly paid off in the life and game of young Finley.
“Yeah (having Tad) is awesome…he knows everybody in town, so we as players really can’t get away with a whole lot,” Radloff says with a laugh.
“He didn’t stop playing that long ago, and he was in my shoes not that long ago, so he can teach us as players lots of big and little things, and it’s nice (that he understands what I am going through).”
Radloff mentioned that he learned a lot from outgoing captain Maguire Ratzlaff about the importance of constantly working to keep everybody on the club connected and included and understanding the gratitude the community deserves from the players as one of the best, most passionate fanbases in the SJHL.
He added that gratitude must be shown by the league’s youngest roster’s intense competitiveness every night. He notes that everyone on the team must be pulling their weight, willing to step into different roles, and buying into what a rebuild at the Centennial Arena is.
Joined by a young, talented, mostly Saskatchewan-based club, the Hawks are, in many ways, a model of the direction the league hopes to go. With the likes of assistant captain Eric Hoiness, who is coming off a terrific 32-point rookie campaign, and highly touted Saskatchewan-bred rookies like Jack Janzen, Will Whitter, and Spencer Chestolowski, Radloff expects that the Hawks will not be an easy out for anyone in the league.
“I think (the main things I want to pass on to the younger guys) are around how to be a pro,” he says.
“To succeed in this game, you need to come to the rink every single day ready to practice, get into your routines, and be ready on time every game day. You need to be a good person and do anything you can with the community because they are such a big help to us here in Nipawin. I have not been a captain for a long time, but I have a lot of help, and Coach Tad is teaching me everything I need to know.”
Radloff has friends and family all over the province, including in Melville and still in La Ronge and Nipawin, so in most buildings where he leads the Hawks, he has a friendly face somewhere in the crowd.
At the end of the day, Finley is equal parts player and fan for the Nipawin Hawks. As a terrific citizen, a proud son of Kevin and Jennifer Radloff, brother, and friend, he is exactly the type of young man the SJHL is thrilled to showcase.
