Image credit: Salmon Arm Silverbacks

By Earl Seitz

Tyler Shattock

Former Blazers team captain turns to coaching

Jul 29, 2020 | 5:15 PM

KAMLOOPS — Many hockey players, when they’re finished playing, aren’t finished with the game.An obvious choice to take it to the next level is as a coach.

It’s a route a former Blazers team captain has taken —- but something he fell into by chance in his hometown.

As a 15-year old Tyler Shattock from Salmon Arm was taken by the Kamloops Blazers as the fifth overall pick in the 2005 Western Hockey League bantam draft.

Following a four season junior career, most of it with the Blazers, the 4th round draft of the St. Louis Blues went on to play eight pro seasons in the American League, ECHL and the British Elite League with Glasgow, before injuries ended his career after the 2017-18 season.

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“I think when I was done I thought I was going to be done.” says Shattock. “I took a bunch of fire fighting courses and I thought I was going to go into that, and ended up getting convinced to help the team out here and ended up lovin’ it.”

Shattock joined his hometown B.C. Hockey League Salmon Arm Silverbacks as an assistant coach in October 2018.

Just over a year later, in December of last year, the Silverbacks made a coaching change.

Shattock became the interim head coach.

Recently the interim tag was removed and assistant general manager was also added to his duties as head coach.

“It’s a lot diffrent league than the Western League.” says Shattock. “We don’t have a draft so you basically have to do all your recruiting of players —- there’s definately a lot of different aspect to the junior A level than the Western Hockey League level. Don’t have a scouting staff that does all your scouting. So there’s a lot of different things to learn, and we’re going through this as a staff together and hopefully make Salmon Arm a hot destination for players to come here in the future.”

The B.C. Hockey League recently announced a tentative start date of December 1st for its 2020-21 season —- nearly three months later that its usual start date.

“Although it’s a later start I think it gives us a pretty good opportunity to grow as a team and grow our players both as people and players and have them as the best version of themselves going into the season December 1.”

Having played the first 218 of his 248 Western League games in Kamloops, and now only an hour or so down the road, Shattock says he still considers it to be his second home.

“I met my fiance there. I have a lot of friends and family there. I have fond memories of Kamloops. I never wanted to leave (trade to Calgary partway through the 2009-10 season) but that was out of my control and ended up going to Calgary where I had a good opportunity and ended up winning the league. Still go back in the summertime and still have very fond memories of the Blazers.”