Mike Hawes has quite the to-do list in front of him this summer.
Hire a head coach. Fill the remaining roster spots for the 2015-16 season.
It's all in a day's work for the general manager of the Prince George Spruce Kings.
Hawes hasn't had to worry about filling the head coach role in four-and-a-half seasons, but with Dave Dupas resigning Friday so he could be closer to his family that live full-time in Kelowna, there's now a vacancy behind the bench.
During his time in Prince George, Dupas' teams never missed the B.C. Hockey League playoffs. This season, for the first time in 10 years, the Kings reached the second round of the playoffs before they were eliminated last week in four games by the Chilliwack Chiefs.
"The search (for the coach) has started. As soon as word got out, my phone's been ringing off the hook and guys have been emailing their resumes," said Hawes on Sunday. "There's a handful of individuals I want to have discussions with. I've got at least 12 resumes."
With spring camp right around the corner from April 10 to 12 at the Coliseum, Hawes said since he oversees the camp and makes the decision on who to offer player cards to, it's not necessary to have someone in place before then. He would rather go through proper process and take his time hiring a new bench boss.
As for the lineup, seven players won't be returning next season because they've earned NCAA hockey scholarships to U.S. universities for the 2015-16 season. They include forwards Chad Staley (Alaska-Anchorage), Jermiah Luedtke (Alaska-Fairbanks), Michael Buonincontri (St. Cloud State), defenceman Viktor Dombrovskiy (Harvard), and goaltender Jesse Jenks (Alaska-Fairbanks). Defenceman Karan Toor, who was sidelined for the entire year due to a groin injury, is off to Dartmouth, while forward Justin Rai, who only appeared in 25 games in the season after suffering a season-ending concussion, will go to school at the University of Maine.
Forward Marco Ballarin and defencemen Adam Clements were eligible to return but were dealt on the weekend to the Lloydminster Bobcats of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. They were the future considerations in the deal Hawes made in December for defencemen Tyler Kunz who was later traded.
The Kings will have a goaltender, four defencemen and six forwards eligible to return next season.
They include goalie Alex Brooks-Potts, defencemen Cole McCaskill, Ryan Fritz, Alex Stoley and Matt Stief and forwards Jake LeBrun, Brogan O'Brien, Braiden Epp, Cole Todd, Nick Guerra, Daniel Nachbaur and Riley Hawes.
"That's normal, usually having between 10 to 14 players return is an average year," said GM Hawes. "We have a good group of 12 back and Brooks-Potts is going to be a solid number one goaltender in the league. The building blocks we have are really good."
Exit interviews with the players were conducted on Friday before they all returned home.
"The feedback we received was really good," said Hawes. "They were happy with the season and we have 12 guys who are eligible excited to come back. There's a guy like Stief from (Weston) Florida who loves Prince George. It's a good organization. He was at our spring camp last season and he loved the community then."
So far, 60 players have registered for the spring camp and it rolls around, Hawes expects there will be 100 guys taking to the ice competing for five spots.
The King were riddled with injuries this season, forcing Hawes to make roster moves on an almost weekly basis.
"It absolutely was one of the most difficult years in my role with the team," said Hawes. "Being able to ice a competitive team every night with a lot of turn-over losing a lot of man games to injuries. We don't have easy access to affiliate players like the Lower Mainland teams. Our closest junior B team is three-and-a-half hours away (in 100 Mile House). It was a lot of phone calls and definitely a lot of work, but it's part of my role."
