Fraser, Davidson named finalists for WHL award

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This article was published 08/04/2025 (355 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A pair of Westman products are finalists for the Lloyd Saunders award as the Western Hockey League’s executive of the year.

Everett Silvertips general manager Mike Fraser and Calgary Hitmen GM Garry Davidson are among the six executives up for the award.

Fraser, a 46-year-old Brandon product, is concluding his first year as general manager of the Silvertips after spending the six previous seasons in the team’s front office.

Everett went 48-12-4-4 this season and clinched the team’s 10th U.S. Division title as well as the league’s Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy as the regular season champions.

Fraser played minor hockey in Brandon before a junior career in B.C. and graduated from Iona College where he played as a goaltender.

Fraser’s front-office hockey career followed a journalism career including a stint with the Brandon Sun sports department.

The Silvertips scored in double overtime late Monday night for a 1-0 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds that vaulted them to the conference semifinals.

Davidson, a 73-year-old Virden product, played at Brandon University and started a long career as a hockey executive when he coached the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Brandon Travellers in 1978-79.

After a stint as owner and general manager of the BCHL’s Salmon Arm Silverbacks, Davidson jumped to the WHL in 2008-09 to serve as director of player personnel with the Portland Winterhawks for four seasons.

After nine seasons as Everett’s GM, he jumped to the Calgary Hitmen in 2021-22 as director of player personnel, and was named GM for the 2023-24 season.

The Hitmen finished two points back of conference-leading Medicine Hat after Davidson made a series of acquisitions.

Other nominees include the Eastern Conference’s Willie Desjardins of the Medicine Hat Tigers and Colin Priestner of the Saskatoon Blades, and the Western Conference’s Matt Bardsley of the Spokane Chiefs and Jake Heisinger of the Victoria Royals.

The league also named its nominees for the Dunc McCallum Memorial Trophy as coach of the year.

The Eastern Conference nominees include Medicine Hat’s Desjardins, Saskatoon’s Dan DaSilva and Bill Peters of the Lethbridge Hurricanes, while the Western Conference nominees are James Patrick of Victoria, Brad Lauer of Spokane and Matt O’Dette of the Seattle Thunderbirds.

The trophy is named after the legendary Brandonite who coached his hometown Wheat Kings.

In other league news, the Prince Albert Raiders and Edmonton Oil Kings were facing off in Game 7 of their quarterfinal series Tuesday night. The game ended after deadline. The winner will face Medicine Hat.

The other three semifinals will see Lethbridge meeting Calgary, Portland facing Everett and Victoria skating against Spokane.

Earlier this week, Spokane forward Berkley Catton was named player of the week after scoring twice and adding eight assists in three games, which included a seven-point night as the Chiefs eliminated the Vancouver Giants.

The goalie of the week is Calgary’s Anders Miller, who replaced the injured Daniel Hauser and won both his starts with a 1.50 goals-against average and a .941 save percentage to complete a sweep of Saskatoon.

The top rookie was Everett forward Shea Busch, who had four goals and an assist in three games.

ICINGS: The latest WHLer to commit to an NCAA school is 21-year-old Swift Current Broncos netminder Reid Dyck of Winkler, who is heading to Colgate University in the fall after spending five seasons with the Broncos.

» The Brandon Sun