When they take to the ice on Friday night, the Fort Frances Lakers will hope to improve on a season that saw them finish second from last with a 12 win, 31 loss record with four overtime losses and a pair shootout losses.
The staff, consisting of General Manager and Assistant coach Luke Judson, Head Coach and Assistant GM Tyler Miller, with assistant coaches Cody Mosbeck and Brandon Bodnar, have all returned which is hopefully a turn towards consistency after the team started three consecutive seasons with three different head coaches.
Judson says the team showed promise as the season went on last year and hopes to improve on the 12-win mark.
“We were expecting to win a little bit more last year and we expect the same this year,” Judson said. “Comparing (right now) to a year ago I think the players came in more prepared, both our returning players and our new guys.”
The Lakers went 1-1 in the preseason Sunset Series in Dryden last week. They beat the Red Lake Miners 4-2 and fell 6-3 to the Dryden Ice Dogs, the Times spoke to Judson between the two games.
“Last night was a good start,” he said the morning after the Red Lake game. “We have a lot of work to do. Ultimately we haven’t had a lot of time to talk about systems to talk about our structure. We told (the players) we wanted them to focus on work and focus on effort and that’s what we wanted to see, and I think we had a pretty good response with that, everyone was pushing, everyone was playing physical.”
Judson hopes to be able to use players like Clark Scaddan and Brady Krentz who led the team in scoring with 20 and 19 goals each respectively, along with a few new players who they hope can add a spring to the team’s step.
Fort Frances based players had the advantage of summer ice in town for the first time, and Judson says many of the local players took part in skates when they were able to.
“I’ve got to give credit to the Town of Fort Frances,” Judson said. “Having summer ice for the first time in my lifetime is a real perk for our junior guys and hockey players of all ages. To have our local players be able to skate regularly all throughout the summer, I think we can tell that it’s benefited us that the guys were more prepared. Last year the training camp was the first time some of them skated all summer. To have guys that had 14 or 16 ice sessions throughout the summer and we had some off ice workouts as well, that will benefit them. I think we’re a step ahead from last year in that regard.”
In net the Lakers have decided to stick with a tandem after they carried three goalies last year and Gunner Paradis only played six games. This year Paradis will share the crease with newcomer Nolan Koethler who joins the Lakers having spent last season with the Leduc Oil Kings U18 AAA.
“Nolan Koethler is a guy that came highly recommended from some of our contacts and he’s been impressive so far,” Judson said. “I think it’s nice to have a veteran rookie combination. To have a guy that’s played some junior and another guy that’s new to it to kind of feed off each other and learn from each other. Obviously, Gunner last year didn’t get the opportunity he probably deserved. But, he’s a guy that [stuck with us] last year, through thick and thin, the struggles that the team had, and his own personal situation wasn’t ideal. He probably didn’t get the games that he wanted, but he’s a kid that had the right attitude all year. He showed up to the rink every day to work and he deserves the opportunity to play for us. So far, he’s come prepared as well.”
With new additions Judson says the starting lineup from game to game may be different pretty often.
“I don’t know if we’ll have a completely regular lineup, I think it’s good to have competition,” the GM said. “I think we’ve seen that already with guys competing throughout training camp for ice time, for roster spots and for opportunity. I think that’s a good problem to have when guys know that if you take a game off or you’re not at your best then maybe there’s someone else not far behind you that’s going to be taking your spot the next night.”
The team has continued to make changes right up to this week with forward Carter Deschamps joining the team from Red Lake, while the Lakers have sent forward Brandon Gustafson to the Dryden and Dryden has traded forward Jason Grey to Red Lake. Gustafson is a Dryden Native and Judson says he looks forward to seeing him play a bigger role on his hometown team.
Gustafson had four goals and three assists for the Lakers last season.
Judson says the team does not have a captain chosen for opening night but the coaching staff will be watching to see which players stand out as leaders as they start the season.
The puck drops on the Fort Frances Lakers’ 2024-25 season on Friday Sept. 13 at 7:15 p.m. with game two going Saturday night at the same time. The next week the Lakers have a home and home series with the Red Lake Miners. For the full season schedule and for more information on the Fort Frances Lakers, check out fortfranceslakers.com or the Fort Frances Lakers Facebook page or @lakersjuniora on Instagram.
