The Battlefords North Stars management group had their last opportunity to watch players on Civic Centre ice until September over the weekend for their spring camp.
The weekend included intrasquad games, fitness testing
About 40 players came to the Battlefords vying for an invite to main camp in the fall.
While most players were newcomers, there were a few recognizable names including current North Stars Connor Sych, Kendall Fransoo, Otto Mitchell, Bryce Hall, Cody Spagrud, Levi Kleiboer, Kevin Bendall and Ryan Rewerts.
There were also a few AAA Stars players present, including Troy Gerein, Layne Young, Owen Lamb and Chad Grambo.
There were a number of players from out of province and even out of country, as a few Americans came from states such as Ohio, New York and California.
North Stars Head Coach and General Manager Kevin Hasselberg knows this was his last opportunity to watch some prospects play, and liked what he saw.
“I thought it was a great weekend,” he said after Sunday’s final intrasquad game. “This is the weekend for your scouting staff to shine and I think the people who are responsible for bringing players into our organization did a tremendous job. It’s going to be a challenging summer but a very exciting one based on the players we have coming into the system.”
It was announced in January the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League will host an annual draft beginning this summer, and Hasselberg says while it added to his work load, he’s excited at the thought of bringing in more talent.
“It’ll be a new experience for all of us. What can I say, we’ve done a lot of work,” he laughed. “As far as collecting notes and information on players, and the just the fact that it’s a new experience adds to the excitement.”
The first SJHL draft is set to take place during the first week of June.
The players at camp were split into three teams, white, gold and black, but it was a common sight to see Sych and Fransoo paired together on the blueline.
The two North Battleford natives were an integral part of the North Stars defence this season, and Hasselberg says they will continue to fill that role next year.
“Certainly those are two players who have earned that,” he said. “They’re still young players, Kendall is already beginning his third year with us and Connor looks like he’s been playing junior hockey for three years. They’re going to be relied on, not only on the ice, but also off it to be leaders as two young men that have been raised in this community and know what it means to be a part of this hockey team. Leadership is going to be critical for those two.”
The North Stars haven’t decided who will be the successor to Michael Statchuk as team captain, but all signs point to one of those two players being the one.
“We’re excited to make that announcement when the time comes,” Hasselberg said after a laugh. “The efforts of these young men have made that decision for us very, very simple. But when it does come time to name a captain we know we’re going to have a great guy in that position.”
While running a hockey club is a year-round job, Hasselberg says he’s looking forward to focusing on a select few things during the off-season.
“I think everything is winding down now. Our preparation shifts towards the draft, and then towards the long-term seasonal planning of our program” he said. “How we went to structure our season and the culture of our hockey team, this (weekend) was step one. I think we leaned on the veteran players this weekend to establish what it means to be a North Star and they did that. We’ve identified these players, they’ve skated with us for a weekend and now it’s time to get on the highway and visit their families and get to know them better and allow them to get to know us better. All these relationships for this family start now and it takes time, so this summer is going to be busy.”
Another focus of the summer will be to strengthen the North Stars starting lineup for the upcoming season.
“I think we have a strong nucleus of forwards returning to our program and based on what we’ve seen out here with the emergence of players from our AAA team and players from out of country, we’ve got some tough decisions to make,” Hasselberg said. “Obviously the back-end is a position we have to pay attention to and our goaltending. [Rewerts] is working extremely hard and had a great year last season. Now it’s going to be his opportunity to step up and shine and earn that recognition as an upcoming goaltender. We’ve got to bring in someone to back him up, so moving forward the back-end and goaltending are the two areas we have to pay close attention to. At the end of the day we want to ice the most competitive roster for this program to be successful and I’m very confident we’re on the right path.”
The ice was taken out of the Civic Centre shortly after the camp wrapped up Sunday afternoon, and players will be back on the ice when main training camp begins in August.
