Heading into the new season Prince George Spruce Kings are still the defending Fred Page Cup champions.
Defending and perennial champion.
Nobody has won the B.C. Hockey League title since the Spruce Kings did it for the first time in team history in April 2019, after an unprecedented 16-1 playoff run. Last year the pandemic cancelled the playoffs in March before a Fred Page Cup champion could be determined and the trophy will not be awarded this year either, allowing the Kings to retain their status as Cup champions for yet another season.
The slate will be wiped clean late this evenng In Chilliwack, where the Kings face the Chiefs at Chilliwack Coliseum (6 p.m. start, streamed on Hockey TV) to begin their abbreviated 20-game season. With the exception of the U.S.-based Wenatchee Wild, 17 of the 18 BCHL teams are involved in the six-week regular season, with each team grouped in one of five pods.
Prince George will play Chilliwack and the Merritt Centennials 10 times each. The Chiefs drew first blood Friday with a 5-2 win over the Cents.
Spruce Kings fans won’t get to see their team live and haven’t had the luxury of cheering on the boys from the stands at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena since early March 2020, when they suffered a first-round playoff loss to the Trail Smoke Eaters.
Blessed with exceptional skating velocity and an abundance of junior experience, this year’s Kings’ squad promises to be considerably stronger than the team that limped into the 2020 playoffs after losing 40 of 58 games.
The Kings ran into key injuries to veteran players last season and struggled to score, averaging a league-worst 2.58 goals per game but there should be no such deficiencies this year with a blend of tried-and-tested wisdom and youthful exuberance among the forwards and a group of defencemen adept at moving the puck.
“I think it’s going to be one of the quicker Spruce Kings teams we’ve seen in years for sure,” said general manager Mike Hawes, who signed a three-year contract extension in February and is in his 13th season with the team. “I think we’re going to be really hard pressuring the puck in all the zones and creating turnovers when we don’t have it and I think we’ll be able to keep the puck when we get it. We’ve got a lot of skill and speed, we’ve got a good mix of veteran guys and I’m really excited about some of the rookies and the young guys we have on the squad.”
Local hotshot Corey Cunningham has had six months to work on his skills with his teammates who have had an abundance of practice time waiting for the season to begin and the 19-year-old Cunningham is the top returning pointgetter. He led the Kings with 26 goals in 2019-20 and finished second in team scoring with 44 points in 53 games, good enough to lock up an NCAA Division 1 U.S. college scholarship at Merrimack. Cunningham will play the left side returning Kings Carter Cochrane and Andrew Seaman to form a dirt-disturbing line that’s not afraid to go in the corners to dig out the puck.
Overage juniors Christian Buono and Hunor Torzsok joined the Kings from the Merritt Centennials and they will provide some scoring punch and leadership, as will fourth-year BCHL left winger Kolton Cousins and Arizona native Rowan Miller, a centre who played the past two seasons for the other Kings of the BCHL in Powell River. Among the key forward recruits is 18-year-old winger Simon Labelle, an Ottawa native who produced 51 points in 53 games for Rockland in the Central Canada Hockey League who will figure prominently in the Kings’ power play before be moves on to Colgate University.
Two-way centre John Herrington could also make an impact after lighting up Cariboo Cougars midget ranks. Sixteen-year-old rookie Linden Makow of Vanderhoof is also a product of the Cariboo Cats’ program. Quebec native Nick Rheaume is making the jump to junior A after scoring at a point-per-game pace in high school hockey at Cushing Academy in Massachusetts. One of the most impressive newcomers is just-turned 18-year-old winger Kilian McGregor-Bennett, a slightly-built workhorse who had a four-game audition with the Kings last season out of Delta Hockey Academy. Another young King to watch is centre Max Borovinskiy, 16, who has the right body type, skill set and character traits to become a dominant pivot.
“I think our forward group’s pretty fast and we have good energy throughout the lineup from our young players to our older players and I’m excited to see what we’re made of,” said head coach Alex Evin. “I think our forward group will be our strength and our depth up front. I don’t know if we have natural goal scorers but we have four lines that can play and that will hopefully kind of drive our team.”
On the back end, St. Lawrence University recruit Mason Waite of Winnipeg has game-breaking skill leading the rush and after just one season in the BCHL the Kings captain has gained a reputation as one of the league’s top all-around defencemen. Tanner Main, who turns 21 today, one day ahead of Waite, is fully healed from a broken ankle he suffered in preseason game in Trail in November when he fell into the boards. The late start to the season allowed that long recovery time for Main, who developed his BCHL savvy the previous two years with the Wenatchee Wild.
Colton Cameron of Cloverdale and Amran Bhabra of Nelson both saw plenty of icetime as rookies in Prince George last year, while Zach Gabruch, a six-foot-five Saskatoon native, played 56 games in 2019-20 for Salmon Arm. They hope to reap the benefits of a full season trying to shut down the big guns in what is considered the top junior A league in the country. The new faces on the blueline are 2001-born Josh Wright (traded from the Brampton 99ers), Connor Elliott (Okanagan Rockets U18) and Ben LeFranc (Okanagan Hockey Academy Prep).
The big question mark is in goal with three BCHL rookies to work with. Nineteen-year-old Aaron Trotter (Shawnigan Lake School) has the inside track on the starting position after a strong preseason, with 18-year-olds Jordan Fairlie (Cariboo Cougars) and Kobe Grant (Thompson Blazers U-18) also in the hunt for playing time in the crease.
“We are a little inexperienced with our back end, obviously we’ve got three goalies that haven’t played a regular BCHL game before,” said Evin, who took over the head coaching role last season and just signed a two-year contract renewal. “I don’t think it’s a strength of our team but it is a good challenge and good opportunity for them to show that they can play at this level.”
Evin and assistant coach Lukas Lomicky (Revelstoke Grizzlies, KIJHL) have had help preparing the troops in practice from Kings assistants Jason Garneau, Nick Drazenovic and goalie coach Chris Hurry. The Kings coaching staff has had to dig deep into its psychology bag of tricks to keep the players focused since September while they deal with the continually-moving goalposts that come with every new public health order.
“We’ve been in isolation probably 30 of our last 40 days, so our conditioning isn’t where it needs to be obviously, but it’s just good to get the opportunity to play and we’ll work through it,” said Evin. “Hopefully we’ll take advantage of the pod season and enjoy it. I’m sure it will be fun once we start playing. We’ll be rusty for a little bit but I’m sure everybody will.”
Assuming there are no COVID delays the season will end on May 9. While no formal plan has been announced, the league is considering a tournament-style end-of-the-season wrap involving the teams with the best records in each of the five pods to settle bragging rights.
Let the fun begin.
