A local business owner is ready to see a new era of Wellington Dukes hockey into the near future.
Earlier in the summer, the sale of the Prince Edward County junior hockey team to Andy Gunning was approved by the Ontario Junior Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey Association after it was sold by former owner Ken Clement.
Gunning is the owner of Oak Hills Golf Club in Stirling and Farnsworth Construction.
Hearing rumours of the team potentially being for sale, Gunning jumped at the opportunity to take hold of the team and steer it in a different direction to avoid the team from relocating.
“I was keeping tabs on the team through minor hockey, being at the rinks, you hear stuff. I’d heard a while ago that the team was in trouble, and about a year had gone by, and then I’d heard the situation had gotten worse, so I started the process just with a phone call,” he explained.
“I spoke to the previous owner and said, ‘how can I help’ and the conversation went from there. I wasn’t looking to purchase the team at that time. I just wanted to offer help and try to figure it out. Then the way things evolved, I thought the best plan of attack was to do the purchase to just take it in a different direction.”
One of the can we do to make the player experience better,” he explained.
“Whether it’s minor hockey or junior hockey, if you’re trying to do the right things and you’re trying to make the experience better for the players, to make the development better for the players, that’s the goal. When you do those things right, I think there’ll be a big spinoff of other positive things that happen, right?
Though he wouldn’t speak to specific changes at this point, Gunning stated he, head coach/GM Jacob Panetta and assistant coach/head scout Darcy Murphy are looking to get back to basics and create a financially sustainable model for the future.
“You’ve got revenue, you’ve got expenses, and the math has to make sense for the Dukes to be there,” he explained.
“I don’t mean that from a perspective of, ‘Andy Gunning is looking to make a big profit off the Dukes.’ That’s not it at all. It’s let’s make it sustainable so that the community can continue to get behind it and have confidence that the team’s going to be here.”
The changes will continue to be a work in progress as the season goes on around tickets, pay, sponsorship and volunteering among other areas.
Gunning also said he wants the fans to know that Panetta and Murphy are putting in the lion’s share of the work at the rink with the day-to-day team business and he is there to only offer support.
The Dukes are off to a 3-1-1 start with seven points in the early goings of the 2026-27 OJHL season going into Tuesday’s game in Milton.
The next home game is Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Heidelberg Materials Arena versus the North York Rangers.
