Lucas Punkari
The Fort Frances Lakers’ memorable run to the SIJHL final last season officially will become scrapbook material tomorrow morning when the team opens its annual training camp to solidify its roster for the 2012/13 campaign.
“It’s now the time of year where it really starts to set in that hockey season is here,” enthused Lakers’ head coach and general manager Wayne Strachan.
“It’s been getting busier and busier for us here as we’ve been leading up to this week and now it’s time to get started.”
About 40 players are expected to register at the Memorial Sports Centre tomorrow at 11 a.m., with the off-ice testing getting underway a half-hour later.
“The players will be split up into two groups, with one starting off by doing some running tests and the other group working in the weight room,” Strachan noted.
“Those tests will give us an idea of who has worked hard over the summer and, obviously, which guys are coming into the camp in great shape,” he added.
The first on-ice scrimmage is slated to get underway at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the ’52 Canadians Arena, with a pair of games also slated for Friday at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m.
Training camp then will conclude on Saturday with two more scrimmages, which will get underway at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
“We should have a pretty good idea from those five games of what we will take into our first practice session on Tuesday morning [Sept. 4] and our first exhibition game against Dryden later in the week,” said Strachan.
One of the key battles will be for the back-up goaltending role this season as the Lakers look to find a netminder who will team up with Tanner Hamilton, who returns to the squad after backing up Tyler Ampe last season.
“Most of the goalies that we have at the camp are experience and older, and our thought process there is to have a solid number-two to push Tanner,” Strachan explained.
“We are still working on confirming one younger guy who was just at a QMJHL camp, but we are waiting to see if he will be coming our way or not.”
On the blueline, the Lakers already have signed three players from the Minnesota high school ranks (Hunter Bowlin, Owen Stauber, and Ethan Brekke), which means the battle for the remaining spots will be a tight one.
“We’re still hoping for Jon Carlson to be in camp, as well, which would give us four solid guys to start off with on defence,” Strachan noted.
“There’s one guy, in particular, that’s coming up from Iowa named Will Becker that we are interested in seeing.
“And we’re waiting for confirmation on another defenceman, Tommy Rice, who is a smaller player that is skilled offensively and is someone that we have heard good things about.
“We’re also hoping that Tarran Romyn will come to camp ready to prove that he belongs on the team,” added Strachan.
Up front, the Lakers already have nine players on the roster, along with returning forward Colton Spicer, who will be taking part in tomorrow’s activities before flying off to take part in training camp for the OHL’s Sudbury Wolves.
With Merritt Rysavy, Jordan Christianson, Davis Smith, and Alex Bruess all set to return, in addition to newcomers Mathew Chasse, Brennan Nesrallah, Mason Meyer, Kevin Kurm, and Hunter Leishman, Strachan expects the competition for the remaining forwards spots to be a tightly-contested affair.
“We have a couple of guys coming from Arizona in Shane Fitzpatrick and Steven Swanson, who we are interested in seeing in person after we saw some video on them,” he remarked.
“There’s a young guy from British Columbia named Michael Mansfield, who played in the Kootenay Junior League last year, and we also have Alex Mason from Detroit Lakers coming who we are very high on.
“And we are also hoping that Tyler Elson will be here from Warroad,” said Strachan. “He was a younger guy that came to camp last year and showed some promise that he can play at the Junior ‘A’ level.”
While Strachan doesn’t have an exact number in mind, he expects 22-25 players to still be on the roster following this weekend’s camp, although he admits that number could depend on the amount of local players capable of playing at the SIJHL level.
“Obviously after Saturday’s final game and heading into the Tuesday practice, we will lock up any guys that we know will be a part of the team,” he stressed.
“There will probably be some decisions that we will have to make on our final two forwards and defencemen, and that might take us into the exhibition season, so we will progress from there to getting our starting lineup heading into the regular season.
“One of the nice things is that we don’t play in that first week [of the season], so we will have some extra time as a team to really come together.
“And once that first game in Hoyt Lakes comes around on [Sept. 26], we should come out flying,” Strachan reasoned.
