Trevor Sprague was liking what he was seeing out of his players on the ice Saturday evening at the Cariboo Cougars summer evaluation camp at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena.
Forty players were competing for a chance to be on the list of 30 who will be invited to start the pre-season with the major midget hockey team after the Labour Day weekend. If they make the team this season they'll get to play in the 2017 Telus Cup as hosts of the national midget hockey championship.
"We're excited and happy with the talent we have," said Sprague, the Cougars head coach and general manager. "These guys that are here want to be here to play in a national championship and that's awesome."
The three-day camp featured three scrimmages involving two teams of 20 players each: Team (Jake) Lebrun and Team (Liam) Blackburn, named after the two Cariboo Cougar graduates who went on to win the Royal Bank Cup championship this past season with the West Kelowna Warriors.
Several midget Cougars are aspiring juniors listed by Western Hockey League teams or they've been invited to attend WHL or B.C. Hockey League junior camps. Sprague wants to keep several players in reserve, knowing there's a chance some of his players won't be back from their junior team tryouts in time for the start of the major midget season.
"I'm hoping all the junior head coaches and GMs on teams where our players are going to play will understand that we have a national championship and that they would like their players to have that experience," said Sprague. "It's not too often you get a guy you can inject in your lineup who has a national experience or even a title."
The Cougars coach raved about the play of 17-year-old returning defenceman Jesse Pomeroy, a Regina Pats' list player, who Sprague says has a good chance of making the Pats roster this season. He also liked what he saw from returning 17-year-old forwards Trey Thomas and Reid Perepeluk, a Prince George Cougars draft pick and one of several Cougar prospects who attended the weekend camp.
Sprague could also see the improvement in forward Mason Richey, 16, who showed great promise with the team last season and he's anxious to see what winger Riley Krane, a two-way specialist from Dawson Creek, is capable of in the major midget league. Cory Cunningham, a list player of the Vancouver Giants; Grady Thomas (the younger brother of Trey); Lane Goodwin of Fort St. James; Devin Sutton and returnee Daine DuBois are also in the forward mix.
"We've got the Cougars' guys, (Jonas) Harkins, Perepeluk and (Ethan) O'Rourke and they played for us last year so they understand what we need and what we want, but they're not underestimating the position that they're in, in wanting to play for this team," said Sprague. "For us, it doesn't matter if they're a prospect for the Cougars or not, they have to come out and win their job like everybody else."
The midget Cats could potentially return five defencemen - Harkins, Pomeroy, Joel Patsey, Logan Archer and Jeremy Gervais. Also in the hunt for jobs on the Cariboo blueline are Jarin Sutton, Brennan Malgunas and Colton Kitchen, who all played Tier 1 midget with the provincial champion Coast Inn of the North Cougars last season.
With Dorrin Luding gone to the WHL in Regina, the Cougars' goaltending situation will likely come down to a battle between incumbent Aaron Jakubowski,17; Marcus Allen, 16 (a native of Fort St. James who played for the Coast Inn of the North midget Tier 1 Cougars last season); Zach Wickson, 17, and 17-year-old Matthew Ens.
"The goalies have come in and done a good job - I wasn't overly happy with goaltending in spring camp, it wasn't very good and I think they would tell you the same thing," said Sprague. "But this weekend the effort's been there and it looks like we have some guys who want to play in national championships and be our Carey Price or Griffen Outhouse."
The Cougars lost just four players to graduation (Colton Thomas, Chase DuBois, Chris Jandric and Riley Coish) from last year's team which made it to the league playoff final.
"We had a young team last year and we did quite well and it just shows the character of what we brought in," said Sprague. "Some guys are going to go away because they don't quite have the character that we're looking at to build a championship (team) and they'll go somewhere else to play.
"But the guys that we have, we believe have the character to work hard every day and want to win a championship and go to the Mac's tournament and go as far as we did the past couple years."
Josh and Tyler Maser, the twin 17-year-old brothers who were dominant players for the Cariboo Cougars last season, were training in the Okanagan and were unable to attend the camp. Both are trying out in the WHL for the Prince Albert Raiders, and they aren't likely to return to Prince George. But Sprague is hopeful at least one of them will, knowing they have a chance for a national title.
A Hockey Canada rule change has pushed back to January the time by which junior teams have to decide whether they will keep their midget-aged (16- and 17-year-old) players. The deadline used to be Oct. 15 and after that those players could only be sent to other junior teams. Now the deadline is Jan. 5.
The midget league has adopted the no-change icing rule used in pro leagues and the WHL which forbids teams guilty of icing the puck from bringing in replacement players from the bench once the icing infraction has been called. Also, a team which takes a minor penalty will be forced to face off for puck possession in the penalized team's defensive end.
The Cougars open the pre-season Sept. 8 in Chase against the Thompson Blazers, followed by games Sept. 9-11 in Kelowna against the Okanagan Hockey Academy, Vancouver Northeast Chiefs, South Delta and the Burnaby Winter Club.
The 40-game B.C. Hockey Major Midget League regular season starts in late September.
The 2017 Telus Cup is scheduled for April 24-30 at CN Centre. The Cougars will either be the host team or, if they win their league and defeat the Alberta champions, they will claim the spot reserved for the Pacific regional champions. In 2001, the last time the tournament was played in B.C., it was known as the Air Canada Cup and Prince George hosted it.
