Well, how’s that for timing?

Since Saturday, I’ve been working on a column about Sudbury Wolves winger Connor Burgess and the controversy surrounding his place on the roster.

On Wednesday, about an hour after I put the finishing touches on the piece and handed it over to my editor, this appeared on the Wolves’ website:

“The Sudbury Wolves have announced that forward Connor Burgess has notified the hockey club that he has made the decision to pursue his university studies on a full-time basis. No further comment will be made at this time.”

Considering this news, I couldn’t run my column as it was, though most of the original content is still here. None of the points I’ve made were meant as parting shots, but rather an honest analysis of Connor as a player and how his presence has affected the team’s relationship with its fans.

Saying those fans are displeased is like saying we’ve had a little bit of rain this fall.

Some of the best, most supportive and longest suffering game-goers you’ll find in junior hockey, they’re disappointed not just by their team’s 1-7 record, but by the lacklustre, uninspired fashion in which the Pack dropped some of those contests.

They haven’t been afraid to voice that displeasure, either ― on the phone, on the Internet, or from their seats at the Elgin Street Barn, where boos have rained down more than once this young season.

A popular target for those boos has been Connor Burgess, the son of Wolves owner Mark Burgess.

And I hate to say this, really, but Connor has become an easy target for those Bronx cheers.

An 18-year-old and a third-year OHLer, he has been receiving more ice time than ever, and as a result, the deficiencies in his game have been magnified.

Though his skating has certainly improved, it’s still not at an OHL level, and effectively nullifies the decent hands and hockey sense he possesses.

Some of that could be overlooked if he played a boisterous physical game, but for whatever reason, he has been reluctant to make contact and has passed up several chances to finish checks ― again earning him no points with those in the stands.

While no one in the lineup should be proud of their performance in last Friday’s 8-2 loss to Owen Sound, Burgess was on the ice for four opposition goals, including two power-play markers.

In 95 games, he has three assists ― one per season ― and a minus-25 rating.

I’m all for giving a young player a chance to prove himself, but it has become clear that if his last name was Jones, he wouldn’t have been playing in the OHL.

And therein lies the problem ― not with Burgess himself, who is by all accounts a bright, thoughtful, hard-working individual who is well-liked by his teammates, but with the relationship between the Wolves and their fans.

It’s not just those who rudely ragged on the youngster from their seats, either. It’s not just bitter bloggers on our website. It’s also longtime season ticket holders, some of whom have stuck with this team through some of its darkest days, who simply can’t believe believe Sudbury is serious about winning.

Not even last year’s load-up, which saw the Sudbury squad pay dearly for quality veterans such as Connor Crisp, Radek Faksa, Trevor Carrick and Craig Duininck, has changed their minds.

I have heard from many of those fans these past two-and-a-half years. Again and again, the conversation has come back to a certain left-winger.

They weren’t happy in 2012, when the Wolves traded second- and fourth-round draft choices to acquire the third-round pick that was used on Burgess, nor when he made the team ahead of players they saw as more deserving.

They weren’t happy in 2013, when Trent Cull vacated his position as Wolves head coach for his old job as an assistant in the American Hockey League. Though both Cull and Sudbury GM Blaine Smith downplayed Burgess’s ice time as a factor in the move, multiple sources have told The Star it was a point of disagreement between coaches and management.

And they haven’t been happy in 2014, judging by the calls, emails and tweets directed our way, many from Wolves watchers who believe we haven’t been hard enough on this team, its management or its ownership for keeping a sub-par player because he’s the owner’s son.

Perhaps they’re right.

But while I’ve written about this controversy before, I believe there’s a fine line between honest analysis and outright ripping a kid, and let’s face it ― before this season, Burgess was a fourth-line forward and no great factor in whether his team won or lost.

He certainly was no great factor in Sudbury’s late-season collapse last year.

But with many key players lost to graduation and others set to move on when the season is finished, it’s players born in 1996, ’97 and ’98 who will be expected to take up the torch.

Smith and his scouting staff did some solid drafting the last the last couple of years and they’ve created the foundation for what could be a very good team by 2016-17.

Most fans understand that in the meantime, there will be struggles. They bought in when the Wolves claimed to have “hit the reset button” prior to this season, that the team had listened to their concerns. They invested their hard-earned money and their faith.

But if the Wolves can’t find a way to make good on that investment, to assure fans they’re doing everything possible to win hockey games, with or without Connor Burgess, that faith will erode.

I cringe when I hear fans boo a teenage hockey player. But the fact they’re making noise at all, whether a Go Wolves Go chant or shouting what I can’t write in this space, shows they still care whether their team wins or loses.

Worst of all, I think, would be silence.

Ben Leeson can be reached at 705-674-5271, ext. 505249, or ben.leeson@sunmedia.ca. Follow on Twitter: @ben_leeson.