Alaska-Anchorage sophomore forward Brett Arcand-Kootenay, a lightning rod for controversy the last two years, has been dismissed from the team by coach John Hill.
Arcand-Kootenay made news just before the season when he suffered a broken jaw during training camp after being on the receiving end of a punch by teammate Lee Green. Green is still facing assault charges from that confrontation.
But Arcand-Kootenay, according to the Anchorage Daily News, had problems last season and some team leaders requested he be removed from the team then. Hill, however, decided to give him another chance.
He missed four games at the beginning of the season after suffering the broken jaw. Later, though, he was suspended by Hill for violating team rules in November. The first of those two games was on Dec. 11 against Colorado College, after which, the Daily News said, Arcand-Kootenay failed to come to meet the team in the locker room.
That’s when Hill decided to remove him from the team.
“Everyone deserves a second chance,” UAA senior captain Jimmy Dahl told the paper. “But it turned into a third chance and fourth chance, and at some point you have to pull the plug.
“It’s definitely a good thing. Coach is trying to put the team in the right direction, and we want to go in the right direction, and we couldn’t do that with Kootenay on the team.”
Arcand-Kootenay had three goals and five assists in 10 games this season.
“Any time you’re minus one of your skilled players, who plays on one of your top two lines and the power play, you’ll miss him,” Hill said to the Daily News. “But I believe we have players who can step up and fill the void. We have players who are here for each other and accountable to each other.”
The Seawolves have faced a series of injuries to top players, plus the Arcand-Kootenay situation, after coming into the season having lost key players to early departure.
