THUNDER BAY -- Thomas Frazee believes he’s being made a scapegoat.
Released on Thursday by the Lakehead Thunderwolves hockey team, the Vancouver native on Friday said he thinks his ouster is at least partially tied to a dressing room rebellion earlier this year that forced team officials to fire coach Joel Scherban four games into the OUA season.
“I think there is some bad taste there, for sure,” Frazee said at home in an exclusive interview with Dougall Media reporters.
Frazee denied being one of the ringleaders of the movement.
“I think it was a team decision and it was something that the boys, myself included, thought it was the best thing to do for the team, moving forward,” he said.
“We wanted to win the championship and that’s what we wanted to do and we definitely thought that to do so we needed to make some changes. That’s pretty much it.
“I had a pretty good relationship with Joel, as a person. He was a great guy to me and he got me here to Thunder Bay. Off the ice, there were no problems whatsoever.”
Frazee, who led the Wolves with 22 points at the Christmas break, said he didn’t want to go public with his feelings to cause problems, but simply wanted to clear the air about why he’s no longer on the team.
After all, he said, his hockey and education future is now in limbo. He can’t play university hockey again this season unless the Wolves relent and allow him back, and his pro options are limited, especially with the NHL in limbo.
He added that he just wishes management would have come to him to see if the problem could be resolved, especially if it’s his on-ice behaviour like he said they told him.
“At the end of the day this isn’t a junior hockey team where you can get traded and pack up and go somewhere else. This is a five-year commitment to a program. And I made that commitment with my family, especially being so far away from home. It’s a tough pill to swallow when that’s all cut short due to a situation that I don’t even really know about and I would like to know more about,” Frazee said.
Team officials informed the media Thursday night of the move in a shortly worded email that said the team was immediately parting ways with the sophomore forward.
Athletic director Tom Warden, who joined team president Rory Cava, interim coach Mike Busniuk and GM Jason Mallon in a meeting to inform Frazee of the decision to let him go, said it was something that had to be done.
“We feel that this decision is in the best interest of our hockey team,” he said in the release. “We wish Thomas well in his future endeavours.”
Warden has since publicly denied the move had anything to do with the Scherban situation.
Frazee, who played for five teams during a six-year Western Hockey League career, was involved in an ugly incident in the Thunderwolves final first-half contest, and was kicked out of the game for slashing a Windsor player who was on his knees.
Asked after the game, a 6-3 loss, if the team might be considering making any roster changes, Busniuk was emphatic.
“No,” he said, singling out Frazee as a player who until the slash, had mended his ways.
Frazee, who got the news after writing an exam, admitted he wasn’t always a Lady Byng nominee on the ice.
“I’ll be the first to admit I like to play the game on edge and sometimes I cross that line,” he said.
But he thinks he deserves a second chance.
And he wants a better explanation.
"I don't know (why this happened)," he said. "I would love for (Tom Warden) to say it publicly in a press release. I have nothing to hide here. I have loved it in Thunder Bay."
