Like many Wolves fans, I am looking forward to the start of another season.
It’s been a great summer — one of the best in recent memory weather wise — but frankly, it’s been a little too quiet for my liking. Is it just me, or has this off-season been missing something — news about OHL hockey?
League-wide it’s like all the teams shut down for the months of June, July and most of August. In the past, you could always depend on some type of news to get your hockey fix during the dog days of summer, but not this year. There were a couple of coaching changes and some very minor player movement, but that was about it.
I guess the only thing that kept me from not going crazy was the transformation of the Sudbury Wolves. I’m sure anyone involved with the hockey team would dispute my claim that it was a quiet off-season. After all, when the team hits the ice for the start of training camp on Thursday, it truly will be a team with a new look. Many players will be different, there is a new head coach, the general manager is a familiar face in a new job, and even the scouting department has gone through some big changes. With all this upheaval, you would think it would be mass confusion, but I’m pleased to report, it’s the complete opposite.
It’s not unusual for a junior hockey team to go through player turnover, but the Wolves will see a significant change in on-ice personnel.
The last couple of weeks, I have seen everyone from the front office staff to the hockey people going about the day-to-day activities of getting ready for another season. New head coach Trent Cull has been settling in nicely. I dropped in at the rink a couple of weeks ago to reacquaint myself with the new man behind the bench, to find Cull in his office with assistant coach Jeff Beukeboom working on their game plan for the tasks that lay ahead. One of those tasks was the Wolves’ first ever free-agent try-out camp.
Thirty-five players, aged 17, 18 and 19, were given a chance to show why they deserve a shot at making the big club. I was impressed with the skill level at the camp and obviously, the Wolves were too. Originally they planned to take one prospect to the main training camp, but five players got the nod. Forwards Jason Lacroix and Anthony Ranieri, defencemen Brad Payne and Chris Reid, and goalie Jesse Raymond will get a chance to be that diamond in the rough.
It’s not unusual for a junior hockey team to go through player turnover, but the Wolves will see a significant change in on-ice personnel. But, with that in mind, general manager Blaine Smith has done a great job in bringing in players who hopefully will fill the void.
The team’s top three draft picks — Mathew Campagna, Brody Silk and Sam Schutt — are signed and committed to the team for the upcoming season. Nineteen-year old Robert Viska, acquired in a trade with the Saginaw Spirit, is leaving the United States college system in favour of the OHL experience in Sudbury. On the international front Austrian Marcus Poeck will definitely be at training camp. The team’s first choice in the CHL Import Draft, Russian Andrei Kuchin, has most of his approvals in place and is a possibility for the first day of on-ice workouts.
So, I guess when I look back, the off-season wasn’t as quiet as I thought. Let’s hope training camp, the exhibition games and the start of the regular season goes as smoothly.
Stew Kernan is the radio and television voice of the Sudbury Wolves, and the assistant news director at EZ Rock and Q92. This column appears every other week in Northern Life.
