Their hockey seasons are over but the auditions for next season began Friday night for 105 players trying to impress the Prince George Spruce Kings brass.
They have two more days in the Spruce Kings' Spring Prospects Camp at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena to try to earn themselves an invitation to attend the Kings training camp in August.
"The camp has been very successful for us for the last several seasons," said Spruce Kings general manager Mike Hawes. "I'd say in the last five years we've probably signed 25 guys to our roster lout of the spring camp.
"It takes a lot of hard work. The coaches, the scouts and myself work hard during the season to make sure we get good players at the camp. All the teams in the league do it, but I don't know if all the teams have as much success with it as we do."
The camp scrimmages resume today at 10 a.m. and continue until 9 p.m. Sunday's games start at 8:30 a.m. and that will give each of the six teams one more 75-minute session to display their talents. The top 40 make the cut to play in the Top Prospect Game, Sunday from 2-4 p.m. Admission is free.
Local content is plentiful At least 30 players in the camp played for Prince George-based teams this past season, either the Cariboo Cougars major midget team, the Coast Inn of the North Tier 1 Cougars or the LJ Contracting Tier 2 midget Cougars.
"There are actually about 10 players from the bantam Tier 1 team (Farr Fabricating Cougars) registered this year, which is great to see," said Hawes. "These are young, up-and-coming kids who are probably a year or two from playing in our league but they're interested in our program and are very interested in the NCCA route."
Now that Spruce Kings assistant coach Jason Garneau has moved to Vancouver Island, that creates a vacancy behind the bench. Former WHL sniper Ryan Howse, who coached the Coast Inn of the North Cougars Tier 1 midget to the provincial championship and seven tournament wins, is rumoured to be in line for the position, although Hawes said the team has not hired him.
"We currently don't have a second assistant and there is a plan to replace (Garneau)," said Hawes. "Ryan Howse hasn't been interviewed or talked to about the position. He is a scout for us and I think he'll be at our camp this weekend."
