Kamloops Blazers – Kamloops Blazers
The Western Hockey League strives to promote and foster a welcoming community across our 22 clubs scattered throughout Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest. Every team is given the creative freedom to allow their players and staff to work with the organizations and groups that they are most passionate towards. The end goal is to create and maintain long-lasting relationships and ongoing partnerships within their community.
Through the WHL Community Collective we aim to highlight these outstanding initiatives done by each club over the course of the year.
This is what the Kamloops Blazers’ #WHLCommunity looked like this season:
Logan Stankoven’s junior hockey career is bursting with personal achievements.
From a two-time gold medalist at the IIHF World Junior Championships, to being named the 2022 WHL and CHL Player of the Year, Stankoven has been on the receiving end of junior hockey’s most prestigious awards.
Yet Stankoven continues to reserve a special place in his trophy cabinet for successes that have stretched beyond the arena.
The Blazers captain and Dallas Stars prospect believes that career accomplishments shouldn’t be filled with achievements collected solely on the ice surface. Instead, it’s more of a benefit to have a player’s listed success filter past the boards of an arena to include good deeds, such as volunteering initiatives, community outreach, and humanitarian ventures.
While his on-ice accolades are momentous achievements in his life, there remains a heavy fondness for the work he’s been able to accomplish outside of the Sandman Centre.
Most notably, his active and on-going relationship with the Hockey Gives Blood community.
Stankoven, who has been working closely with the Hockey Gives Blood campaign since he was named a Player Ambassador in June 2020, went the extra distance during the 2022-23 season as he chased his most ambitious project with the organization.
Over the course of the season, Stankoven aimed to raise $35,000 with Hockey Gives Blood and in support of Canadian Blood Services.
With the help of the Blazers, who helped host a ‘Logan Stankoven Charity Night’ in March, the 20-year-old shattered his goal. The total value raised by Stankoven and Hockey Gives Blood climaxed at $41,000, with all proceeds being directed to Canadian Blood Services.
The whopping achievement also set a new a record for the most money raised by a Player Ambassador in Hockey Gives Blood’s history.
This fundraiser, along with another $10,000 campaign directed to the Royal Inland Hospital Foundation, led to Stankoven receiving one of his most cherished awards to date — the Doug Wickenheiser Memorial Trophy as the 2022-23 WHL Humanitarian of the Year.
But, according to Stankoven, none of these accomplishments could have been done without the help of his hometown supporters and loved ones.
“Thank you to the City of Kamloops, Blazers fans, and all those who have donated and supported me through these great initiatives,” Stankoven said as a response to being named WHL Humanitarian of the year.
“Over the years, I have had many people go out of their way to help me pursue my dreams in life, so giving back to the community has always been important.”