Eleven players from the Aldergrove Kodiaks have moved on from last year’s edition of the junior B hockey team.

“We lost a lot of guys last year, moved them up, which we are proud of,” said Rick Harkins, the Kodiaks’ coach and general manager.

“It was a great first season and now we have a bunch of new faces and hopefully we can do the same for them.”

The Kodiaks begin the Pacific International Junior Hockey League season tonight (Wednesday) when they welcome the Port Moody Black Panthers to the Aldergrove Arena (7:15 p.m.) in a rematch of last season’s first round playoff series. The Kodiaks fell in seven games.

Harkins was on his way to the team’s first practice on Tuesday, as they finally had some ice time.

The Kodiaks went 0-3 in the pre-season, but Harkins said the team’s make-up won’t be fully known until mid-September.

“We won’t know our true roster probably until the middle of the month,” Harkins said.

“A lot of our boys are still at (junior) A camps and (WHL) camps so the majority of the kids will be new kids.”

A look at the team’s roster shows a dozen players entering their first season of junior B.

“This year, there is no in between,” Harkins said.

“It looks like it is either rookies or 20-year-olds, if they come back.”

Some of the players expected to lead are Travis Gorman, Brandon Long, Chase Shymkiw and Eric McEwan.

Another player expected to play a large role is goaltender Evan Thomas.

Thomas went 9-11 with a 2.82 goals against average and a .919 save percentage.

He was fourth overall in the league for goals against and tops in save percentage.

After contending for the division lead for much of the season, the Kodiaks were eventually overtaken by the perennial powerhouse Abbotsford Pilots, and finished second with 49 points.

That is still not a bad feat for an expansion team, especially considering Aldergrove’s expansion counterparts, the Squamish Wolf Pack had 32 points.

Heading into their second season, Harkins said it is hard to predict what will happen.

“It is a lot like last year. We started with a lot of run and gun and by the end, we had lost a lot of players and were playing a trap, a defensive style to survive,” he said.

The goal remains the same: developing the players so they can get a shot at the next level, whether that is junior A with the BCHL or major junior with the WHL.

“Don’t get us wrong, we are trying to win when they drop the puck,” he said.

“But for us, it is more about ... how many kids we move to the next level.

“We are going to do our best to develop them and move them along.”