Cougars take ice for real on weekend
For the Prince George Cougars, training camp is an opportunity for staff to see how players interested in making their team battle against each other.
This weekend, players remaining on the list get their first test against other Western Hockey League opposition.
The Cougars’ pre-season schedule opens with the Edmonton Oil Kings Tournament in St. Albert, Alta. They’ll play a pair of games in the competition, Saturday against the Medicine Hat Tigers and Sunday against the Swift Current Broncos.
“Things are different. We’re playing against a different team now and exhibition is fine. You get to see different skill sets,” Cougars general manager Dallas Thompson said. “But now you get into a game-like situation and against another team that’s playing to win, so obviously it’s the next step and we move forward from here.”
As of Wednesday, the Cougars had 36 players on their roster. Twenty players on the list were forwards, 12 were defencemen and four were goalies. The list included seven 15-year-old skaters.
The Cougars will take 33 players to the Oil Kings tournament. Fifteen-year-old players Chase Witala, Eli Jarvis and Raymond Grewal won’t make the trip to Edmonton, instead staying in town to try out for the Cariboo Cougars of the BC Hockey Major Midget League.
The group of four other 15-year-old players includes the Cougars’ first overall selection in the 2010 WHL bantam draft, forward Alex Forsberg. Forwards Jarrett Fontaine and Jordan Tkatch, and defenceman Joseph Carvalho were also born in 1995.
“They can only play five regular season games so we want to take them to Edmonton so they can see how the team operates on the road, day to day at a practice,” Thompson said.
Two of the players released by the Cougars are 1990-born overagers, goalie Alex Wright and forward Taylor Orser. The cuts leave the Cougars with four 20-year-old players battling for the maximum three overage positions – forwards Parker Stanfield and James Dobrowolski, defenceman Kurt Torbohm and goalie Morgan Clark.
The Cougars are required to carry a roster size of no more than 25 players by Oct. 10. The 20-year-old deadline is Oct. 12.
“I’ve been real happy with our older guys so far. I think everything we sent them home to do in the summer they did,” Thompson said. “We brought them back a little bit early and I thought that really showed in training camp.
“There was a good feeling in training camp, and certainly a business-like attitude so we were happy that that happened. The younger kids blended in well. I think obviously we’ve had a lot of warm up, the latter part of last year, and those guys knew what to expect so I thought it was successful.”
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