The North Van Wolf Pack junior B hockey team can now say that at least one alumni has made it to the big leagues.
Mantar Bhandal, known as Manny, does his work with a microphone, however, not a hockey stick. The former Wolf Pack announcer recently joined the on-air team as a play-by-play commentator and analyst for the Punjabi version of Hockey Night In Canada.
Bandhal got the Wolf Pack gig while he was completing the BCIT Radio Arts program, driving in from Langley to do play-by-play from Harry Jerome Arena every Saturday night.
“He had such a passion to be a hockey announcer,” Wolf Pack social media manager Linda Diane Taylor told the North Shore News.
“I am so excited for him and do remember his first game ... A lot of dead air,” she said with a laugh. “He got better and better.”
Bhandal spent last season calling games for the Merritt Centennials of the BCHL.
In other Wolf Pack alumni news, two former players were recently named captains in the junior A BCHL. This week Alex Ambrosio was named captain of the Coquitlam Express while Troy Ring was named captain of the Trail Smokeaters earlier this season.
