Eric J. Welsh,

The Progress

Chilliwack Bruin veterans and hopefuls gather at Prospera Centre this week for the start of training camp, and their first taste of life under new head coach and general manager Marc Habscheid.

Chilliwack’s biggest off-season acquisition has spent the last few weeks poring over video and talking to his scouting staff.

But there’s no better method of evaluating players than watching them live, and Habscheid is looking forward to seeing exactly what he’ll have to work with for the upcoming season.

“I’ve got a good group around me, and they’ve given me lots of information,” Habscheid said. “So I’ve read and seen a lot about our returning players, and even some who haven’t been here before. But it’s still important for me to see as many of them as possible, and I’m going to be doing a lot of watching and listening.”

When he was hired, Habscheid talked about incumbent players getting a fresh start, and that still holds true, to a point. But after spending so much time researching his player personel, Habscheid has a good handle on who can do what among the returnees.

“Everyone has a clean slate, but at the same time, what you’ve done in the past carries forward as well,” Habscheid noted. “If a player got two goals last year, the odds of him getting 150 aren’t good. If he’s a defensive defenceman or a checking forward, is he going to score 50 goals? You have to take that into consideration, both good and bad.”

Habscheid said much of the decision making will come down to projection — it’s not what a player has done, but what he will do.

“What they do at this camp is important, but it’s another thing entirely for us to project what they’re going to do in the future,” Habscheid noted. “Sometimes, you can get tricked if a player performs or underperforms over three days. There are a number of factors that come into play, and age is really important.”

One of Habscheid’s most difficult tasks will be picking through a large number of 19 year old players — it’s a group that includes goaltenders Mark Friesen and Lucas Gore, defencemen Jeff Einhorn and Brandon Manning and forwards David Robinson, Shayne Neigum, Mike Krgovic, Randy McNaught, Matt Ius and Alexander Wiklund.

For a team with so many kids on the horizon, there may be too many 19 year olds sucking up valuable ice-time.

“We’ve got more players in that age group than just about every other WHL team,” Habscheid said. “So we have to decide what to do about that, and what direction that’s going to take us.”

Habscheid’s a big believer in letting players make the decisions through what they do and don’t do.

At the same time, the never-ending roster juggling of a Western Hockey League team means an older player must offer more than a younger player or risk losing his spot.

Barring a meltdown, guys like Manning and Wiklund are probably roster locks.

But guys like Krgovic, Einhorn and Ius will be squarely on the bubble, fighting to hang on to a roster spot.

“Generally, you don’t find the answers. The answers find you,” Habscheid said. “Whatever we do now, the goal is to win, and win consistently year after year after year. That’s why this is exciting. We won’t be shooting to win one year. We’ll be shooting to win every year. It’ll be tough and require some tough decisions, and the courage to do what you have to do.”

The Bruins will play their first pre-season game Aug. 28 at home versus Kelowna.

There is undoubtedly temptation to get the roster down to a manageable level quickly and start working on Habscheid hockey before facing live bullets.

“There’s a little of that, but at the same time you want to be sure of your personel,” he said. “You don’t want to sacrifice that in order to install your power play a week earlier. We want to keep an eye on the big picture and not do anything knee-jerk.”