Following one of their worst seasons ever in the B.C. Hockey League, the Prince George Spruce Kings are a much different team to start the 2016-17 season.
They've totally revamped their blueline, added a veteran goaltender and have injected speed and championship experience into their forward lines.
Six months have passed since the Spruce Kings wrapped up a 14-38-4-2 season in which they finished 16th out of 17 teams and general manager Mike Hawes has uncovered some gems in his cross-continent search for player talent.
The Spruce Kings hope to reap the benefits of futures trades Hawes made in January with Cowichan Valley and West Kelowna. Brett Mennear, the product of the Jake LeBrun/Bryan Basilico deal with West Kelowna, was an assistant captain with the Warriors last season in their run to the RBC Cup championship. Mennear, a 20-year-old centre, had 18 goals and 42 points in 52 regular season games and also picked up 21 points in the Warriors' marathon 35-game playoff run.
Mennear deferred his NCAA scholarship at Bentley for one season so he could finish off his junior career with the Spruce Kings.
Defenceman Connor Russell, 20, joined the Kings in the off-season after the deadline deal which sent forward Corey Hoffman to the Cowichan Valley Capitals. The six-foot-two, 200-pound Guelph, Ont., native is in his third BCHL season, having started out with the Penticton Vees.
Twenty-year-old defenceman, Mike Winn, a native of Ann Arbor, Mich., had two goals and 13 points in 39 games with the Soo Eagles of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League. Prior to that, Winn played two seasons for the Little Caesars under-18 team.
Another key addition is defenceman Sam De Melo, 18, who played 26 games last year for the Salmon Arm Silverbacks. The Kelowna native is a former teammate of Kings forwards Cavin Tilsley and Jarod Hovde at the Pursuit of Excellence Academy.
The incumbents on the Kings blueline are six-foot-three, 210-pound Adam Burnett, a 20-year-old, and 19-year-old Cooper Prechel. Liam Watson Brawn is also back but played just eight games for the Kings last season.
The other newcomer on defence is Illinois native Drew Lennon, who played last year in the Eastern Hockey League for the Connecticut Oilers.
"Last year we gave up way too many goals against and I think our record is a reflection of that, so there's only two guys from last year's team coming back," said Spruce Kings head coach Chad Van Diemen, now in his second season behind the bench in Prince George.
"We want to be very aggressive, especially in our defensive zone and we had to shape our group to play that way and I feel we've done that."
In goal, Liam McCloskey, 18, will have company with 19-year-old Stefan Wornig to share the load. In 34 games, McCloskey didn't get a lot of help from his team clearing the zone and earned a 4.07 goals-against average with an .880 save percentage with one shutout. Wornig, a six-foot-six, 220-pound native of Surrey, was a BCHL backup the past two seasons with Powell River. He posted a 3.05 GAA with .914 save percentage and two shutouts in 21 games.
"We have a lot of experience in terms of games played in our league, which is nice," said Van Diemen. "The guys we're going to lean on in our leadership group are all hard-working guys and they lead by example and that makes it easier and sets a great example for the young guys to follow.
"It's going to be a fast group from top to bottom and with two veteran guys in net, hopefully we can get the goaltending we need to get off to a good start."
Up front, speedy Prince George native Braiden Epp, 20, will be trying to make his last junior season a memorable one after being hobbled by a knee injury last season which limited him to nine goals and 20 points.
"It's a big year for him, he took a step back last year but he worked really hard over the summer and came back in great shape and he looks like a whole new player out there this year," said Van Diemen.
Kyle Johnson put up impressive rookie numbers last year with 12 goals and 41 points, playing for a team which scored just 143 goals in 58 games, second-fewest in the BCHL. The 18-year-old Johnson has committed to an NCAA Division 1 scholarship at Yale for the 2018-19 season.
The Kings are counting on Jamie Huber, a 19-year-old recruit from Ontario who scored 33 goals and 80 points in 49 games last season for the Listowel Cyclones of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Hovde, Tilsley, Parker Colley, Tanner Campbell, Chong Hyun Lee and Ethan de Jong are back for more with the Spruce Kings. Colley, 19, put up four goals and 21 points with a strong finish last season, while Campbell also showed great promise after joining the Kings in January from West Kelowna. Lee, 19, has brought along his 17-year-old brother Chong Min Lee and they both possess hard accurate shots.
Travis Schneider, an 18-year-old from West Palm Beach, Fla., who played two years of high school hockey at Canterbury in Connecticut, and Ben Poisson, 17, a Burnaby Winter Club product of Vancouver, add to the Kings' forward depth.
There will be some local content at forward for the Spruce Kings to start the season with Devin Sutton up from the Cariboo Cougars major midget ranks and Rob Raju and James Gordon trying to make the jump from the Tier 1 midget Coast Inn Cougars. Brett Witala, 19, the cousin of former Prince George Cougar sniper Chase Witala, joins the Kings from his home in Kelowna. Witala split last season playing junior B in Campbell River and Creston Valley. He was hurt during the Kings' spring camp but is showing he belongs in the BCHL.
Also on the local front, this marks the first junior season as a coach for Kings 25-year-old assistant Ryan Howse. Drafted by the Calgary Flames as forward, the former Chilliwack Bruin, who started his junior career with the Spruce Kings, coached the Coast Inn Cougars to the provincial Tier 1 championship last season.
"Ryan has fit in really well, the guys respect what he's done in the game and he has a lot to offer in terms of advice and skill development and we're excited to have him on board and feel he can be a strong asset," said Van Diemen.
The Kings opened their preseason schedule Wednesday night in Grande Prairie, Alta., against the Storm of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. The same teams will meet on Spruce Kings' ice Friday and Saturday at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, both 7 p.m. starts.
The regular season starts Friday, Sept. 9 when the Kings are at home to the Merritt Centennials, followed by a game against the Penticton Vees at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena, Sept. 10. Seven of the Spruce Kings' nine games in September will be played at home.
Prince George Spruce Kings 2016 pre-season roster
(with year of birth, hometown)
Goalies - '98 Liam McCloskey, Pitt Meadows; '97 Stefan Wornig, Surrey;
Defencemen - '96 Adam Burnett, Waterdown, Ont.; '96 Connor Russell, Guelph, Ont.; '96 Mike Winn, Ann Arbor, Mich.; '97 Cooper Prechel, Penticton; '98 Sam De Melo, Kelowna; '98 Drew Lennon, Bloomington, Ill.;
Forwards - '96 Brett Mennear, West Kelowna; '96 Braiden Epp, Prince George; '96 Chong Hyun Lee, Coquitlam; '97 Parker Colley, Pitt Meadows; '97 Tanner Campbell, Kelowna; '97 Jamie Huber, Goderich, Ont.; '97 Jarod Hovde, Camrose, Alta.; '97 Brett Witala, Kelowna; '98 Kyle Johnson, Port Moody; '98 Cavin Tilsley, Delta; '98 Travis Schneider, West Palm Beach, Fla.; '98 Rob Raju, Prince George; '98 James Gordon, Prince George; '99 Ethan de Jong, North Vancouver; '99 Ben Poisson,Vancouver; '99 Devin Sutton, Prince George; '99 F Chong Min Lee, Coquitlam.
