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WHL Kamloops Blazers

Blazers Honor Needham for 300 Games

March 3, 2016 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Kamloops Blazers News Release


Prior to Wednesday night's 5-0 home win over the Spokane Chiefs, the Blazers organization took a moment before the game to honor captain Matt Needham on playing in his 300th WHL game.

The Blazer captain was given a picture and a watch at ice level from General Manager Stu MacGregor prior to the national anthem.

A notion that Needham wasn't expecting.

"It caught me off guard - it was really nice, but yeah, it kind of caught me off guard a bit", Needham said.

The 20-year-old Needham accomplished the feat on February 6th against the Edmonton Oil Kings, and the longest-tenured current Blazer player is only the seventh player in team history to reach 300 games. Now at 310 career WHL games played, Needham is tied with Greg Hawgood for fifth in team history.

"Starting at 15, getting drafted here at 14, I mean it's a long ride. It's been a great time, I've had some ups and downs and learned a lot as a person - adversity in my later years and then being good as a younger team.

It's been awesome to be here and I've had a lot of fun."

Needham has 242 points in 310 career WHL games, as well as a plus-42 rating. He's dawned the "C" on his Blazers sweater for the past three seasons.

Needham was a first round pick by the Blazers in the WHL Bantam Draft in 2010, and debuted with Kamloops the following season. He earned a full time roster spot as a 16-year-old in 2011-12, experiencing back-to-back 47-win, 99-point seasons with the team.

After heart-breaking playoff losses to the Portland Winterhawks in back-to-back years, Needham was named the Blazers captain ahead of the 2013-14 season. Kamloops would only amass 14 wins that season, after losing all four of their top scorers from 2012-13 - Colin Smith, Tim Bozon, J.C. Lipon and Brendan Ranford, as well as top defenceman Joel Edmundson and starting goalie Cole Cheveldave.

Needham helped lead a developing Blazers team to a strong turnaround last season, narrowly missing the playoffs with 28 wins.

Now in his last season of major junior, Needham and the Blazers look poised to return to the playoffs with 30 wins and eight regular season games remaining in 2015-16, and a six point cushion on the ninth-place Tri-City Americans in the Western Conference.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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