In less than 10 days the Fort Frances Lakers will drop the puck on the 2025-26 season when they face off against the Red Lake Miners and the Dryden Ice Dogs in a back-to-back home series to launch the SIJHL’s 25th season.
Formerly the team’s General Manager and Assistant Coach, Luke Judson takes over the reins full-time behind the bench following the resignation of former head coach Tyler Miller, who plans to spend more time with his family and coaching his kids.
Judson says he’s happy with the roster and looking forward to the upcoming season.
“In general I think we’re pretty happy with our group and that’s the reason we did a tighter camp,” he said.
“There’s a lot of times where you need to have 40 or 60 guys come to a camp just to make sure you have numbers and you have a lot of competition. This year we had a solid group coming back. We knew what we wanted and we had a few less holes to fill, so we’ve been kind of working on that as training camp progresses. But the young guys have been solid. The last two years typically we haven’t taken any 16 year olds for sure and very few 17 year olds as well.”
The team recently broke those trends after announcing 16-year-old Emo native Dax Laplante, who spent last season with the Rink Hockey Academy in Winnipeg, would be joining the team.
When the team announced Laplante’s commitment Judson said he’d proven he belonged with the group.
“It isn’t easy to play Junior A hockey at 16, but Dax gave us no other option this summer than to make him a Laker,” said GM, Luke Judson.
“His work ethic, attention to detail, and passion for the game will make him a player we can use up and down the lineup now and in the future. I’m proud to have my hometown represented by two outstanding young players in Dax Laplante and Brady Cates.”
Goaltender Cates joins the Lakers after time spent with the Kenora Thistles U18 AAA team.
When Cates’ signing was announced Judson said the team was excited to add a familiar face with great puck stopping ability.
“Brady is a goaltender our staff is familiar with from his time in Fort Frances and Emo,” he said.
“He has proved time and time again to be an elite netminder, capped by a series of showstopping performances against some of Canada’s best young players at the Western Regional Championships in Kenora this past spring.”
The two locals will add back some Rainy River District Flavour with several local players departing to seek educational opportunities.
Noah McPherson, Landon Lowes, and Emerson Evans have all moved on to post-secondary schooling in southern Ontario.
“Noah, Emerson and Landon were all key players in helping us rebuild the Lakers program,” Judson said at the time the departures were announced.
“We will miss having them in Fort Frances, and wish them the best in their next chapter.”
The Lakers will also have to face a challenge in filling the hole left by the league’s top defenseman following the departure of Evan Kabel, who was traded to the Steinbach Pistons in exchange for ‘future considerations’ during the offseason.
“The defenseman of the year last year, Evan Kabel, we moved him on to Steinbach to give him a new challenge there and we found out recently that Pierce Gouin made a team in the NAHL, so that’s another one we’ll miss,” Judson said.
“But ultimately if you’re moving players on, you’re doing something right. You’re developing them, you’re getting them ready for the next level, whether that be higher level junior leagues or college opportunities. I think the last few years speaks for itself in how we’re preparing players and this year we’re going to have to do the same. There’s lots of guys who look ready to step up and we’ll give them an opportunity to do that. Ultimately we’re going to continue looking for guys that will move the needle.”
In addition to Cates, Nolan Koethler is back between the pipes. The second year goalie stepped in last year and played well as a rookie in tandem with senior goaltender Gunner Paradis, who has gone on to join the Lakehead Thunderwolves in his hometown of Thunder Bay to play and study towards an education degree.
Judson is confident the second year netminder can continue to step up his game.
“Last year we came into the year with a couple kind of unknowns, really, with Nolan being a rookie and Gunner being a bit unproven, but we were lucky to be one of the few teams that rolled through the season with two guys that performed well all year, Koethler being one of the best young netminders in the league, and Gunner, obviously getting recognized as the league’s most improved players,” Judson said.
“So it definitely gives you some peace of mind to have two solid guys back there. Moving into this year, obviously, we’re expecting Nolan to continue to grow, and Brady’s been a guy that we’ve been watching for for more than a few years. I’ve coached him since he was a kid, and we’re more than comfortable with the guys we have.”
The Lakers battled in two tight pre-season matchups against the Thunder Bay Northstars in a home and home series last weekend with Thunder Bay winning the first 3-2 in a shootout Friday in Thunder Bay and the second 6-5 at Ice For Kids on Saturday night.
Despite the losses, Judson says he’s pleased with the team’s performance, noting that there’s a big difference between pre-season and in-season games.
“It’s been a fun preseason. Thunder Bay has always been a good test for us to see where we’re at,” Judson said.
“Going back to last season, we played them a lot in that tight competition, and you know, to play them again this pre-season is only going to help us be prepared. They were two close games. I mean, it’s pre-season hockey. It’s a little bit sloppy. As far as, you know, teams haven’t gotten too much into their systems. Haven’t gotten too much into playing any kind of structure. Guys haven’t played together to build chemistry. But all in all, what I told the players is I want to see them work and compete. And, you know, they did that, we had some fun with it, and ended up with two good hockey games.”
The Lakers will step into the unknown on Friday night when they invite the Winnipeg Monarchs of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in for their final pre-season tilt at 7:15 p.m. at Ice For Kids Arena.
“It’s a little bit nerve wracking when you don’t know what to expect,” Judson said.
“Zach Franko’s the head coach there now, he’s a guy that I met recently at a coaching course. He’s in his first year as head coach as well. I think he’s doing the right things there with that program, and we’re excited to kind of see where they’re at. It’s a good challenge for us. The Manitoba league has some good hockey and some good players, and it’s kind of a good bar for us, not only for us, but to see where our league’s at.”
