It's a new look all-around for the Battlefords North Stars heading into the 2014-15 season.
The North Stars announced their 27-man roster at the kickoff breakfast Wednesday morning with only 10 players returning from last year's Kramer Division champions.
"It was a facelift," says North Stars head coach and general manager Kevin Hasselberg.
"You have to roll with the punches in junior hockey. You adapt and you make adjustments on the fly and here we are today with 27 players still on our roster. It's going to be exciting. It's going to be heart-breaking moving forward with the amount of good people we have involved. We look forward to that process."
Hasselberg says the team they put together will represent this community and play with the passion and enthusiasm that the fans will appreciate. The North Stars are represented locally by seven players from the Northwest and one from Saskatoon. Hasselberg says that while it's valuable to have local players in the program, "by no means" did that mean the local players had a "free ride" during camp.
"We picked the hockey team based on the best players available."
Also on the roster are eight Americans, half of them from the self-proclaimed state of hockey Minnesota. Hasselberg says what you put in is what you get out when it comes to scouting American players.
"Sometimes you roll the dice and you get lucky and a lot of the times you just have to do your homework," he says. "You have to dig. You have to watch hockey on the Internet. You have to talk to people and network."
One of the strengths of last season's team was the goaltending tandem of Michael Gudmandson and Darren Martin. Both goalies moved on and were replaced by Spencer Tremblay and Ryan Rewerts.
In his four-year junior career, Tremblay has played for seven teams, including 20 games with the Moose Jaw Warriors during the 2011-12 season - the most games he's played in a single season with any one team.
"He's looking for an opportunity to be the starting goaltender," says Hasselberg. "We watched him. We learned about him off the ice as far as his character is concerned and we found a young player here that loves the game and wants to be successful. Michael Gudmandson was very much the same way last year."
Rewerts came up through the Battlefords Midget AAA Stars. He played in 29 games for the Stars last season, picking up 18 wins while sporting a 2.69 goals-against average.
During the pre-season, the North Stars suffered injuries to a few of their players. Defenceman Jake McMillen is day-to-day and forward Baxter Kanter has returned to practice after being cleared to play. Returning forward Igor Leonenko underwent surgery on his wrist and has begun the healing process. There is no timetable for his return as it's too early to tell.
Hasselberg says if he can tell the fans, supporters and sponsors one thing when describing this year's team it's that they will be proud of them because they play with heart.
"They're a very determined group of young men. They put their heart on their sleeve every practice."
He adds, "They all love the game. I think because of that the adversity we do face this year, we should be able to overcome it."
The North Stars also unveiled their new sweaters at the breakfast. The team has kept their black and white colours and returned their primary logo to the front of the sweater. Marketing and office manager Trent Cey says it took a little bit of work in the off-season, but they wanted to go back to the traditional logo on the chest. He adds that last season it was like the team had three alternate sweaters as none of them featured the North Stars' logo.
"We feel we have one of the better logos and jerseys in the league," says Cey. "Bringing this back brings a lot of excitement with the Stars this season as well."
He says the players are really excited about the new look. Cey hopes the new sweaters will follow the "look good, play good" adage.
"If we look good, sharp and new and play that way, it's all good from there."
The "BNS" sweaters will still be worn as an alternate for four or five home games this season and will be worn for community events.
The North Stars open the season Friday night at the Civic Centre against Kindersley. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m. Prior to the start of the game, the North Stars will unveil the 2014 Kramer Division Champions banner.
