The future might be looking quite bright for the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins.
The team held its annual spring camp last weekend at Affinity Place as midget and a few bantam players got to try out their talents against other list players in the hopes of making an impression on the team and getting invited to fall camp.
Many of the players, though, aren’t likely to star in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League in either this season or the next.
“An important element is to manage our list,” said Bruins head coach and general manager Chris Lewgood. “We’ve got a 50-man protected list that goes as young as 15-year-old players, and we also have some … players that are going to be eligible for the draft that we want to have a good look at. It’s a young camp but also an opportunity for guys that are pushing for some spots on our team next year to solidify their place in fall camp. Out of this, we’ll be making a few commitments to young players that we think are going to be able to step in next year as well.“
Some of the players at the camp have had a few games as affiliated players this year already, as Alex Von Sprecken, Jack Michell, Kade McMillen, Eric Houk and Ryder Pierson have each had a taste of SJHL regular season and/or playoff hockey before.
“It’s really fun to watch their improvement,” said Lewgood. “Von Sprecken and Houk, McMillen and Michell, those guys especially played with confidence and that helps a ton here. Also, they‘ve grown a lot as players, just playing with the older players does a lot for their development and you can see it on those players.”
Lewgood was also pleased to see the development of some of the players that have been drafted high by the team over the previous three bantam drafts.
“Dylan Hull is a guy that we picked in the first round two years ago and he had a nice camp here,” Lewgood said. “Cal Caragata, we were aggressive to make a move for last year at the draft and I thought he was one of the best players at the camp. He’s a guy who probably, if we had a younger team next year could challenge for a spot here at 16 years old. He’s likely going to play a year with the (Regina) Pat Canadians. There’s hits and misses with the draft, but that’s the nature of having a Tier II league with a draft. As far as we’re concerned things have gone fairly well.”
The Bruins’ immediate need before the puck drops on the 2018-19 regular season will be to fill the shoes of eight overage players, including five forwards, two defencemen and a goaltender. Lewgood did mention that Oxbow’s Ethan Veroba, a 19-year-old who played in the Big Six Hockey League last year with the Oxbow Huskies, might be in the mix, and also American Grant Boldt will be return for fall camp to challenge for a spot.
‘It’s an area where we’ll need to do some recruiting and have a little bit more depth in camp than what we did here,” Lewgood said. “But we are really excited about some of the young guys we had here in camp in goal and we’ll watch closely their development and see where they’ll fit in.
