Three hours after he was unveiled as the new bench boss of the Prince George Spruce Kings, Chad van Diemen got right to work at the Coliseum - evaluating talent at the team's annual spring prospects camp.
More than 100 players, divided into six teams, practiced and played against each other Friday, with more on-ice sessions slated for today and Sunday.
The players will then be whittled down to the top 40 prospects and will compete in a prospects game Sunday at 2 p.m.
As the former associate head coach and assistant general manager with the Powell River Kings, van Diemen has been involved in spring prospects camps before, only on a smaller scale.
"In Powell River, we had four teams at our camps - there's a few more bodies here," he said. "There's definitely going to be five or six guys (at the Spruce Kings camp) that we're hoping to fill some key holes with."
Those positions include a goaltender, a pair of defencemen and several forwards.
The Kings will have a goaltender, four defencemen and five forwards eligible to return for 2015-16. They include goalie Alex Brooks-Potts, defencemen Cole McCaskill, Ryan Fritz, Alex Stoley and Matt Stief and forwards Jake LeBrun, Braiden Epp, Cole Todd, Nick Guerra, Daniel Nachbaur and Riley Hawes.
"I'm very excited," said van Diemen. "We have some very solid d-men and we are also strong offensively. There's a good mix of talent and character and I'm hungry to build on last season's success.
"I'll want them to play an up-tempo game... the pieces are there to be creative."
As for this weekend's camp at the Coliseum, three games will be played in session three today that begins at 8:30 a.m. and goes until 1:30 p.m.
The fourth session includes goalies only from 1:45 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.
Session five is comprised of three more games that begin today at 4 p.m. and wrap up at 9 p.m.
Session six begins Sunday morning with games at 8:30 a.m., 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.
The entire camp is open to the public.
