Rebels equipment manager honored with Lifetime Achievement Award

Red Deer Rebels former equipment manager Dave “Radar” Horning added another major achievement to his storied career.

On Wednesday, the organization announced that Horning had been named a 2024 recipient of the Professional Hockey Athletic Trainers (PHATS) and Society of Professional Hockey Equipment Managers (SPHEM) Alumni Association Lifetime Achievement Award.

The award, which has been presented annually since 2014, has never been presented to anyone from the Western Hockey League until now.

Rebels owner and general manager Brent Sutter said it is a well-deserved honor.

“He has had opportunities to move up over time and has always chosen to stay. He has always been very loyal and enjoys working for the Rebels and the Western Hockey League,” he said.

“He’s been around for a long time… Anytime you can win something like that, you know what his peers think of him.”

The award is presented each year to someone outside the National Hockey League in recognition of their years of dedication to the sport of hockey.

In previous years, it has been awarded to an OHL, AHL, QMJHL and NCAA member who has demonstrated dedication and professionalism in their league.

The Innisfail product began his career in Sherwood Park, where he worked for the local AAA hockey team while earning his Bachelor of Physical Education degree from the University of Alberta.

His long WHL career then began after four seasons with the Prince Albert Raiders before moving to Red Deer in 1995 to take on the same role with the Rebels.

Since then, he has played 2,328 regular season and playoff games in the WHL. He has also been hired for multiple international events with Hockey Canada.

Throughout his career, he won several gold medals and won the Memorial Cup championship title with the Rebels in 2000-2001.

“Being an equipment manager is an important job,” Sutter added. “For the players, the equipment is huge… Everything has to be just right for the players. That’s up to the equipment manager to handle and handle it. Radar has done a great job.”

In other big junior hockey news, the Canadian Hockey League in partnership with the USA Hockey National Team Development Program announced a new event called the CHL USA Prospects Challenge.

The Prospects Challenge will feature the top eligible prospects from that year’s WHL, OHL and QMJHL drafts against the U.S. National Team Development Program in a two-game series.

The players will perform in front of NHL scouts and fans ahead of the NHL Entry Draft, hoping to leave a lasting impression. The series will also reignite a long-standing rivalry between Canada and the US

The players will be selected by the NHL’s 32 clubs and hosting duties will be rotated annually between the WHL, OHL and the QMJHL. The first event will take place in November 2024, with the location and date to follow at a different time.

“Well, it’s a change, right?” Sutter added. “It used to be the Subway series with the Russians and then they had the prospects camp where they played against each other. It was supposed to be some kind of all-star game. Now that it’s changing, it’s going to be the US and Canada.”