Brett Peebles admits it.
The pandemic has helped him blossom into an elite hockey player and he’s not alone.
Peebles already had above-average skills on the ice last summer when he cracked the roster of the Prince George 15U triple-A Cougars as a first-year bantam. But once the season came to a standstill in November after just six games, that triggered the start of his rapid progression up the ranks of his age peers.
Instead of fourth-line duty playing the best teams in the province, all of sudden, with his team forbidden by the provincial health office from travelling to other zones to play games, Peebles was drawing double the icetime competing against his Cougar teammates.
“I wasn’t very good at the start of the season last year and if we had games I wouldn’t get too much icetime because there was a lot of people who were a lot more improved and better than I was,” said Peebles. “But with all the practices we had I was always on the ice and because of it I always had the puck on me, so I was able to improve throughout the year with all those practices. We did a lot more practices than the scrimmages and all of those just helped my game a lot. The practices helped improve many people.”
Peebles certainly noticed the improvements over the weekend at the U15 Cougars summer development camp at Kin 2. After hours of hitting the weights in the gym, he’s added two inches and 18 pounds to his now five-foot-eight, 140-pound frame. The results are obvious. He’s bigger, faster, stronger and more skilled and he’s become one of the dominant players on the Cougars as they prepare for the new season.
Minor hockey teams all over Canada had their 2020-21 season cut short due to the pandemic and teams were limited to mostly practice sessions for a good chunk of the season. With league play and tournaments shut down, Prince George coaches were afforded the rare luxury of abundant practice time without the distractions of having to prepare their teams for opponents or lengthy bus trips to travel to the Okanagan or Lower Mainland for games against their double-A or triple-A peers in other cities. It was the silver lining in a hockey season unlike any other.
“COVID kind of threw a big jolt into the whole system but it also gave the players a chance to focus on their skills and that focus is clearly evident out here,” said U15 triple-A Cougars head coach Mirsad Mujcin, now in his seventh season at the helm. “I see lot of good skillsets, all the way from Prince Rupert to Williams Lake and the Fort St. John players were impressive. It’s just exciting to get back to work.”
Hockey is no longer a sport that starts in August and ends in April. Most kids on rep teams train year-round for the sport and that cycle was interrupted by the pandemic. That makes the return to play for the start of a new season that much more of a thrill and Mujcin could see that enthusiasm as he watched the players invited to the camp compete for spots on his team.
“They’ve haven’t played in a full year almost and the excitement level to play a game again with your team is going to bring a lot out of those kids as players,” Mujcin said. “Mentally, what COVID did was hard on everyone, coaches and everybody, but reflecting back, it was actually a good thing too because it made us appreciate more what we’re doing and the players appreciate more about what the game’s about.”
Just three players are holdovers from last year’s triple-A team – Peebles, forward Jack Tidsbury and defender Josh Gendron. Peebles will move back to centre, a position he’s used to playing, after being slotted as a winger last year. Gendron, whose brother Jacob plays in the WHL for the Vancouver Giants, is not as offensive-minded as his brother but has a wicked shot, makes great first passes and is tough on opponents. Tidsbury, whose father Shane was a productive junior forward for the Spruce Kings, is well-schooled on hockey tactics and is usually among the first to pick up on what the coaches are trying to teach. All three are strong skaters.
Lucas Woodbeck was one of the standouts during in the three-day camp and should make a smooth transition to the triple-A level, moving up from the double-A Bobcats last season. No players from the Prince George U-15 triple-A team were taken in the 2021 WHL draft but Mujcin expects Peebles, Gendron and Woodbeck will generate plenty of interest for 2022 if they continue their progressing on their current trajectory.
Other former Bobcats on the team are forwards Brody Wood and Hunter Henry, defenders Jacob McBurnie and Shea Baker, and goalie Ryder Green, who made the switch to goaltending just three years ago. Goalies Kaleb Miller and Dexter Malo also made the triple-A team.
New players from Williams Lake, Prince Rupert, Smithers, Fort St. John and Yellowknife, NWT will represent their hometowns this season playing for the Cougars.
“The smaller communities have produced a lot of good players this year and compliments to their organizations for doing that, said Mujcin. “We have a Yellowknife kid (Wesley Lizotte), a first-year who just came out of peewee and he’s six-foot-two. To have that size and skillset, he’s only going to get better.”
Stephen Penner, Jake LeBrun and Nathan Warren are the U15 Cougars assistant coaches.
The team will play a 30-game schedule with four tournaments leading into the playoffs in March.
Mujcin says he’s looking forward to seeing his players do things on the ice that get their family and friends in the stands out of their seats.
“It’s great to see grandparents in the crowd, it’s good for the heart,” he said. “They missed it and it’s been hard.”
