As the chase for a spot in the 2016 Telus Cup heats up, the head coach of the 2017 host team is happy with his club's outlook for next year.
Trevor Sprague, bench boss and general manager of the Cariboo Cougars, considers his core of potential returning players to be strong. Some of those individuals may end up in junior hockey programs next season, but Sprague still likes what he sees when he examines his roster. As well, he's equally pleased with the quality of players who could become new members of the club in 2016-17.
"For the potential guys that we do have coming back, it looks really good," he said. "And the new guys that we're able to bring in are going to be guys that are going to be able to contribute right away."
The Telus Cup is midget hockey's national championship tournament. The Cougars applied to host the event and were named by Hockey Canada as the successful applicant last June.
The Cats were on the young end of the scale in the B.C. Hockey Major Midget League this season but, with a record of 29-8-3, still finished second out of 11 teams. In the playoffs, they skated to series victories against the South Island Royals and Vancouver Northwest Giants before a loss in the final to the top-seeded Valley West Hawks.
"For a young team, to do what we did for representing northern British Columbia, I thought it was outstanding," Sprague said. "My expectations were probably fourth (in the) regular season, get through the first round (of playoffs), maybe get knocked out in the second."
Once the Cougars got to the playoff final, Sprague would have been over the moon if they could have beaten the Hawks. But, with 4-1 and 9-4 losses, a B.C. banner eluded them.
As a Cariboo coach, Sprague has now been to the final six times and has yet to win.
"I don't think it's a monkey on my back for being in the finals and losing, I think it's more like a gorilla now," he said with a chuckle. "I'm hoping one of these years - sooner than later - that will go away too.
"But, overall, I thought our team overachieved in a huge way."
Tonight in Victoria, the Hawks will play the Alberta champion Lloydminster Bobcats in the first game of a best-of-three Pacific region championship series. The winner will move on to the Telus Cup, April 19-24 in Quispamsis, N.B.
Earlier this season, the Cougars got a first-hand look at the Bobcats. The teams met twice at the prestigious Mac's midget tournament in Calgary, and the Bobcats won both games, including a 5-2 decision in the playoff semifinal round.
Having played both the Hawks and Bobcats, Sprague expects the Pacific final to be evenly-matched.
"They're both older teams," he said. "Lloyd I think maybe has a bit of an advantage based on the fact those players have all played together for a long time. And then the Hawks, they've got eight or nine 17-year-olds and they can score at will, as we've seen. You give time and space to the Hawks and they can be a dangerous team."
Players in the midget age group range from 15 to 17. Based on that alone, the Cougars could bring back 11 forwards, five defencemen and both their goaltenders next season. Then there are this year's 16-year-olds from the Coast Inn of the North Cougars, a team that was dominant all season and was crowned as the midget Tier 1 provincial champion last month. Those players could also boost the power of next year's Cariboo squad.
As for unknown quantities, the Cougars will hold an identification camp May 6-8 and will do more player evaluations in August. From those sessions, they could unearth multiple gems from the northern region of the province.
In the big picture, Sprague said the Cats will have "a good group of guys" when they take a run at the 2017 Telus Cup.
"I'm looking forward to it," Sprague said of the tournament. "It's going to be awesome for the north and for Prince George."
