August has been a month in which Yorkton Terriers head coach Trent Cassan's life has gotten significantly busier for the 2014/15 Junior A hockey season. Already becoming the Terriers general manager last week after signing a two year deal with the team, Cassan has been named the head coach of Canada West at the 2014 World Junior A Challenge taking place in Saskatchewan as Kindersley will be hosting the annual tournament.
In 2013 Cassan was an assistant on the team, but now he will be the head coach of a staff that features some of the brightest coaches in Junior A hockey out in Western Canada.
Cassan along with Assistant Coaches Tim Fragle (Sherwood Park Crusaders, AJHL), Luke Pierce (Merrit Centennials, BCHL) & Jason Williamson (Vernon Vipers, BCHL) were announced by the Canadian Junior Hockey league & Hockey Canada earlier this week as the Canada West coaching staff. Getting an opportunity to work with Hockey Canada's Junior A coaching staff for the second straight year, Cassan appeared on GX94's weekly Terriers Coach's Show and mentioned he was thankful for the chance to continue to work with the national program.
"It's a very exciting opportunity and I'm very thankful for the CJHL and Hockey Canada for giving me the chance and also the Terriers for allowing me to take time away from our hockey club to take in this very good experience and the chance to work some of the best coaches and players in Western Canada," Cassan told GX94's Benny Walchuk.
Cassan will have some familiarity with his coaching staff as Jason Williamson coached against the Terriers at the RBC Cup with the host Vernon Vipers, mentioning that while the two were both competing for the National Championship this spring they did talk and will know each other going into coaching Canada West as a coaching staff.
"I know Jason (Williamson) from the RBC Cup with the Vipers and I know that it is different when you are competing against each other but when you are at a tournament for nearly two weeks you get to talking to each other at some point so I know and respect him a lot as a coach," said Cassan to GX94.
As a whole Cassan is looking forward to working with a talented coaching staff that has combined the best and brightest in the CJHL coaching ranks to represent the national program at a Junior A level for Hockey Canada.
"The coaching staff around me is going to be knowledgeable, so I think there is going to be a lot of input and ideas and I'm looking forward to working with everyone."
With Terriers training camp set to go underway this weekend, Cassan also discussed what he will be looking for at a camp that will be filled with new faces.
Particularly from the returning players, who he is hoping can assume the leadership role that the 20 year olds had during their back to back SJHL Championships thanks to the experiences they had as younger players on the team.
"There is a big turnover regarding the leadership roles that we had in recent years," touched Cassan on the subject of the likes of Devon McMullen, Tayler Thompson, Brady Norrish and Chase Norrish leaving the team as overaged players.
"I guess the last couple of years you knew who your captains were, you knew who your first pairings on defence were going to be (which will change this season)."
Despite that Cassan is hoping that the 20 year olds on the Terriers, some who have won back to back SJHL titles in their careers already including Yorkton forward Dylan Johnson, can step up and fill those leadership roles as part of the turnover that is needed at any Junior A hockey team that wants to stay competitive year after year.
"I think we still have a great group of 20 year olds that have had great success in this league already." "I think that they are quality people who bring a lot of intangibles to the table and that our expectations are to be competitive while continuing to improve."
Cassan added that while he expects big things going into training camp, there may need to be patience preached early with the roster turnover leading to few returning blueliners.
"I think that there will need to be some patience early, especially on the backend where we aren't returning a bunch of guys and that has usually been the strength of our team."
Training camp will be a busy time for Terriers looking to make the team, something that Cassan mentioned often hinges on showing that you can compete at the Junior A level. Especially for young players who looked good at spring camp when the Terriers roster was in the midst of their RBC Cup run. If players can show growth from then to playing against older competition Cassan will be giving them a watchful eye.
"It is important to show growth from the spring to the summer for those looking to make the team," Cassan told Walchuk. "A lot of players look good during spring camp or against their own age of competition so we will be looking to see who stands out when we have the large group of numbers that we will hopefully be seeing this weekend."
Another thing Cassan will be hoping to see is a focused attitude from his veteran players, something that he felt was a key to their recent success.
"In recent years we have always been able to count on having a focused group of players who know the type of work it was going to take to be one of the best teams in the league and also in Canada at the Junior A level." "Hopefully our returning players can continue that attention to detail and desire to work hard from the first day of training camp to the end of the season."
Terriers training camp takes place all weekend at the Farrell Agencies Arena and will close with the 2014 Terriers Intrasquad Game at 6:00 p,m. on Sunday.
