The Fort Frances Jr. Sabres held their first-ever camp over the weekend, allowing fans to caught a glimpse at some of the players who will make up the expansion SIJHL team’s roster come September.
“Overall, it’s probably what I kind of expected,” said Sabres’ head coach Wayne Strachan.
“I was a little disappointed after Friday’s scrimmages—I thought a lot of players were out of shape,” he admitted. “But as Saturday and Sunday came along, I thought the two games we played were pretty intense.”
Friday evening consisted mostly of drills, followed by dryland conditioning Saturday morning and games in the afternoon and Sunday morning.
Both games drew sizable crowds who were entertained by the tryouts, particularly with the Sunday match when the younger White team had to stage a comeback down 3-1 in the third period.
A flurry of late goals tied the score at 4-4 with only 11 seconds left on the clock.
Prospect Mike McCaig was one of the players who lasted until Sunday. Having attended a camp with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, he said the weekend was much of the same.
“A lot of guys out there I know so pretty much what I expected—fast, good hockey,” McCaig said. “I wouldn’t say it’s excruciatingly hard out there.”
The first camp yielded only two signings—Fort Frances native Shaun Egan and Nick Knutson of Red Lake Falls, Mn.
With the signing, the 20-year-old Egan earns the distinction of being the first—and potentially only—player to suit up for both the now defunct Borderland Thunder and new Fort Frances Jr. Sabres.
“He’s a strong skater,” Strachan said of Egan. “He reads the ice well and holds the puck pretty good.
“I know he can be an asset, probably to our power play right off the start, and we’ll look to him being a hometown boy for leadership to welcome the new guys in and show them the ropes around town,” Strachan added.
“For me, it’s one last hurrah in my home town. It should be exciting,” Egan said. “I actually didn’t think anything was going to come of it, being 20 years old and everything and not skating for a year or so. . . .
“It was kind of surprising but exciting, too.”
He said while he found out about the signing on Sunday, Strachan had talked to him after the Saturday game in which Egan squared off with fellow prospect Andrew Easton in a long, spirited scrap.
Egan said the coach was aware he’d likely find his way into a fight during the camp and asked him how his hand was.
“He didn’t say too much. He kind of laughed, gave a little smirk,” Egan recalled. “He doesn’t show too much emotion for it, but he kind of gave a smile.”
As for Knutson, Strachan referred to the young American as a power forward who, in time, “can play on one of the top lines and contribute offensively” for the Sabres.
Fans didn’t see much of Knutson on Sunday as he took a bad hit to the hip on Saturday and couldn’t skate on it too much the next morning.
Strachan insisted he hasn’t seen the last of some of the other standouts from the weekend, saying about a dozen players will be called back for the next camp later this month.
“Out of the 12, we’re still looking at them being a part of the team,” said Strachan, though adding that things are still fluid.
“There’s going to be a number of out-of-town players at the next camp, so I don’t know every player from out-of-town coming in,” he noted.
“I’ve heard good things about them, but whether or not they’ll be on the team out of that camp” remains to be seen, he remarked.
The next camp will run Aug. 24-26, and the Sabres’ roster will fill out after that weekend with the SIJHL pre-season fast approaching.
Between now and then, Strachan said he has “three or four trades I’d still like to make with local players playing elsewhere in junior hockey. Whether or not they happen, we’ll still have to see.
“I sure hope that they do.”
Strachan made a trade with the Fort William North Stars for Dryden native Colin Spencer—a veteran 6’0” forward—in exchange for future considerations.
“With Colin, you obviously bring in veteran leadership, you bring in a big stature,” noted Strachan.
“He’s a solid up-and-down forward who I think, with a little incentive and a little more playing time, should be on one of the top lines or on the power play.”
With the trade, the Sabres’ roster has been brought up to seven players, including two locals—Mitch Cain and Kyle Turgeon.
However, one local who won’t be suiting up for the Jr. Sabres this season is Luke Judson of Emo.
Judson, a fifth-round draft pick by the Belleville Bulls of the Ontario Hockey League, recently signed a contract with the Thunder Bay Bearcats.
Strachan said he had been in contact with Judson, saying the Sabres “sure would’ve liked to have him in our lineup.”
He said Judson told him that Bearcats’ head coach Vern Ray’s close relationship with the Bulls was a major factor in his signing with the Bearcats over his hometown team.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
