Fransoo heads to UofS; will red shirt for Huskies

But, because the Huskies blue line had no graduates, there wasn’t room for Fransoo to play this fall. The plan is for him to red shirt this year and join the team full time in 2018-19.

“I’ll be practicing with them every day and then I just won’t play games…unless they came into a heavy injury situation. Then they can pull your red jersey and you’d be on the full-time roster,” the 21-year-old said. “That was the thing; I wanted to be on the Huskies. Their depth is just so deep that that was really the only way I could kind of get on the team.

“It was in the works for a little bit. I was kind of leaning towards that the whole time and when I was in Saskatoon skating one day [head coach Dave Adolph and I] met up and talked a little bit more about what’s going to go on.”

Following a fantastic 2016-17 season in which he recorded SJHL career highs across the board and led the North Stars to their first league championship in 17 years, Fransoo had an NCAA Div-I offer on the table.

He turned it down.

The UMass Lowell River Hawks were interested in the 6’1″ defenceman’s services, but ultimately, money was one of the biggest deciding factors in him passing up that opportunity.

“I was figuring out financials and it was just too expensive to go down to the States there,” Fransoo said. “What they had offered me, it was too much money. It wasn’t financially smart.”

The opportunity to study agriculture was also a big selling point for staying in province, as UMass Lowell does not offer that program.

“I didn’t really want to go play hockey at some university and realsitically not get a degree I want.”

While red shirting, it will be important for Fransoo to get some competitive games in as well.

That’s why he’s joining fellow former North Star and North Battleford native Blake Tacthell on the Rosetown Red Wings, who are hosting the Allan Cup this year, which is the senior men’s AAA hockey championship.

“It was kind of a no-brainer to try to get on with them,” Fransoo said. “They’re hosting Allan and the quality of players is pretty unbelievable. If you look at their roster, all the ex-WHL guys, the ex-university guys, all the players that they have on there are high calibre players.”

Plus, last year’s Red Wings squad had two current Huskies who, at the time, were also red shirting.

Goaltender Taran Kozun and defenceman MacKenzie Johnston were both announced as part of this year’s Huskies recruiting class on Tuesday, and both played for the Red Wings last season. Kozun had to red shirt because he had previously played minor pro in the ECHL and Johnston had to red shirt because he transferred from Mount Royal University.

Fransoo will go from being a two-year captain and elder statesman, to being the youngest player on the team.

“That will be different but it won’t be too crazy,” Fransoo said of playing with all older players. “I think it’ll be a nice step up and a good stepping stone.

“When you red shirt, most guys usually try to get on a senior team to still be able to play in a game atmosphere, so I kind of got that all set up before I had gone and talked to Dave, just so I had all my things covered in case it didn’t work out and I still had something I could do during the year.”

Also joining Fransoo at the UofS is North Stars teammate and best buddy Connor Sych, who will live three blocks away from the Fransoo brothers.

With classes beginning in less than two weeks, Fransoo added it’s also a big help having his brother with him to help with academics.

“He’s been a huge help right now for me,” Fransoo said. “He’s figuring eveyrthing out and shown me how to do all my classes. He’s basically been the guy that’s got it all set up for me.”

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11

by Nathan Kanter

Fransoo heads to UofS; will red shirt for Huskies

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