Familiar faces are in short supply this season at the Prince George Spruce Kings' training camp.
Two of the three coaches are new to Prince George and with only eight returning players the Kings will be sporting a much different look on the ice when they begin their 20th season in the B.C. Hockey League.
"No doubt, it's been a summer of turnover, without question," said Kings general manager Mike Hawes.
To a large degree, the Spruce Kings are victims of their own success. Unlike the previous two seasons when they had the luxury of a wealth of returning players, they face the 2015-16 season having lost half their players to higher-calibre leagues. Gone are eight NCAA college-bound regulars -- F Jeremiah Leudtke, F Chad Staley, F Michael Buonincontri, F Jarryd Leung, F Justin Rai, D Victor Dombrovskiy, D Cole McCaskill, and G Jesse Jenks. That doesn't include Dartmouth recruit D Karan Toor (who missed all of last season with a lower-body injury), F Brogan O'Brien (now in the WHL with the Prince George Cougars) and D Matt Stief (Waterloo, USHL).
That leaves goalie Alex Brooks-Potts; defencemen Stephen Penner, Alex Stoley and Ryan Fritz; and forwards Jake LeBrun, Braiden Epp, Rider Stoglin, Nick Guerra and Cole Todd as the only holdovers from last season. Epp is nursing an ankle injury which is not deemed serious, while Fritz, the ninth returnee, is recovering from knee surgery and won't ready until October.
"I anticipated having 10 to 12 returning players when the summer started but as things go in junior hockey, some of those things changed," said Hawes. "Cole McCaskill, who we were relying on to come back on defence, ended up getting a scholarship at Colorado College that he couldn't turn down and at the end of the day, that's what we're here for, to move those players on to college.
"We have a real solid group of core guys to build around and when we add in the recruits we've managed to get this summer and well as the young guys, it's a good group."
One of the most likely candidates to assume McCaskill's role as the offensive catalyst on defence is 19-year-old Adam Burnett, a six-foot-three, 205-pounder picked up last week in a trade for futures from Ancaster of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. Burnett collected three goals and 17 points in 35 regular season games an turned it on in the playoffs with two goals and 13 points in 13 games.
"He's very good offensively and sees the ice well and he's going to play some big minutes for us," said Hawes.
Hawes is also high on 20-year-old defenceman Adam Brubacher, who came to the Kings in an off-season trade from the Elmira Sugar Kings (GOJHL). Brubacher, listed at six-foot-three, 200 pounds, picked up 12 goals and 45 points last season for Elmira. The addition of Burnett and Brubacher addresses the need for some size on the Kings' defence.
The Kings recently found out D Rylan Bechtel, a 20-year-old who played three seasons in the BCHL for Cowichan Valley, has decided to enter the workforce and won't be reporting to the Spruce Kings. They acquired him Aug. 12 in a deal that sent 19-year-old D Mitch Meek to Cowichan.
The new faces at forward include 19-year-old Corey Hoffman, a Cornell recruit from Syosset, N.Y., who should be a top-six forward, and Luc Soares, a Delta native who scored 25 goals for Kirkland Lake of the Northern Ontario Junior A League.
Other forwards to watch are Parker Colley and Kyle Johnson, who won the B.C. Major Midget title last season with the Vancouver Northeast Chiefs; former Cariboo Cougar Chase Dubois; Nik Ponak (Fraser Valley Thunderbirds major midget) and 19-year-old Connor Logan, who won the Western Canadian junior B championship with the Campbell River Storm. Calvin Tilsley put up 40 points as a 16-year-old last season with the junior B Fernie Ghostriders.
Liam McCloskey, the top-ranked goalie in the B.C. Major Midget League with the champion Chiefs, will push Brooks-Potts for playing time in net.
There's also a new look behind the Kings' bench with head coach Chad Van Diemen and assistant coach Adam Maglio joining incumbent assistant Jason Garneau. Van Diemen replaces Dave Dupas, who left after 3 1/2 seasons to join the Fort McMurray Oil Barons of the AJHL.
Van Diemen, 33, was an associate head coach and general manager of the Powell River Kings before he joined the Spruce Kings this summer and Hawes is already seeing the benefits of Van Diemen's hockey world connections.
"I pride myself in having strong network but when we can add a guy like Chad into the fold it just doubles our ability to recruit players," said Hawes. "Jason Garneau is a carryover from the last few years and we're fortunate to have him, and adding Chad and Adam to the mix has been a real positive thing for us and the players are very excited with the new staff."
Hawes has been a rock of stability, having joined the team in 2005 as an assistant coach. After two seasons he became an assistant general manager and took over from Ed Dempsey as interim GM in November 2010. Hawes has been in charge of the front office ever since.
The Kings have done well in the regular season, finishing no worse than third the past four seasons, and that's made the job of recruiting easier for Hawes. However, playoff success has been elusive. Their six-game series win over Langley last season marked the first time in 10 seasons the Kings have reached the second round.
"We've done well as an organization, we've been in the top five in attendance the last two seasons --we've put good teams on the ice which are hard to play against and we've earned a lot of respect in the league because of it," said Hawes. "The fans have enjoyed that because they've been an entertaining hardworking group, win or lose. Word of mouth is the best recruiting tool and when it gets out we're doing all those good things it definitely helps our job."
After a team-building hike Wednesday morning the Kings played an intrasquad game at night and will be in action at the Coliseum again tonight for another training camp scrimmage. The team will be down from the current 40 players to about 28 after tonight's scrimmage.
The preseason gets underway Friday at 7 p.m., when the Merritt Centennials visit Prince George. A rematch is set for Merritt Saturday night.
