The Last of the Mohicans

Iqaluit, NU (CP)

All good things must come to an end, and that is what happened earlier this week with the signing of former Rover Sean Hill in Lethbridge. The signing rubber-stamped what had seemed inevitable since the trading deadline when Hill issued his contract demand; that he would hit free agency and receive an offer that the Rovers could not match. Facing a strapped budget, that happened when the Rovers could not equal the $1.2M offer made by the Selects. "We really wanted to bring him back and thought there was a chance we could keep him under a million", GM Stringer said of the negotiations. "But when they [Selects] got involved, we couldn't stay in it".

While on the ice, the signing meant the loss of the Rovers #6 Dman from RHL15, off the ice it meant the departure of the last original Rover from the club's RHL11 expansion draft. The 10th player selected in the expansion draft that year, Hill quickly became the leader of the baby Rovers as they set forth into their rookie season. "He really took the bull by the horns in the lockerroom that season", Stringer recalled. "Obviously we were a group that was just thrown together, but we knew that there were a few guys that had a chance to stick around through the growing pains, and Sean was one of them. He was a great first captain".

Hill leaves the Rovers ranking as the club's all-time PIM leader, and second in career minutes played behind Kim Johnsson and games played behind David Legwand. He also ranks third in defenseman scoring in goals, assists, and points behind Johnsson and Rob Blake. The title of longest-tenured Rover now falls to David Legwand, who was acquired during the RHL11 preseason after the expansion draft and with Hill were the only two players on the roster to have played in the club's first RHL game.