Yorkton Junior Terriers heading to fall camp

But, for the Yorkton Terriers of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League its time to decide who will wear the team colours for the upcoming season.

“We’re all staring a week earlier,” explained Terrier head coach and general manager Mat Hehr, adding that means the fall camp runs Aug. 26-28, with the annual rookie game slated for Monday, Aug, 29.

The Terriers are going to have a somewhat compact camp, with Hehr and his staff expecting about 53 in camp.

“We’re not doing a massive camp . . . It’ll work out nicely,” said the Terrier coach, noting they’ll go with four ‘teams’ through camp, affording a good opportunity to evaluate talent.

“There’ll be some battles for a few guys for the last few spots on the team.”

The key battle will be in net where the Terriers need a completely new tandem after last year’s duo of Tresor Wotton and Kael DePape are no longer with the team. Wotton was returned to the Manitoba Junior Hockey League per a previous arrangement and DePape announced recently he’s heading to the United States to play junior.

DePape’s announcement leaves a massive hole after settling in last season as the top man in net winning 22 games and posting 2.42 goals against average.

“It was tough news to hear for sure,” said Hehr, adding it came late enough in the summer the team has been left scrambling a bit for options. “. . . He kind of made that decision pretty late in the summer.”

At camp “six goalies will be looking at two jobs,” said Hehr, adding they’ll be looking for the right fit because netminding can stabilize a team early.

Up front the Terriers return seven forwards, and on the blueline four are back.

While eyes have to be on the goalie hopefuls, staff can’t get too focused on the crease either.

“We have enough staff not to get too focused on one thing,” said Hehr adding a smaller overall number helps in that regard too.

And, having to plug holes is not new.

“It feels like we’re in this position every year,” said Hehr. “There’s always some surprises.”

Overall though, Hehr said he feels confident in the overall group he has coming to camp.

“The guys we’ve committed to who had a good spring camp should compliment the guys we’ve got returning,” he said.

Among the new faces expected to contribute this season are defenceman Cade Van Brabant, and forwards Pavel McKenzie, Dylan Ruptash and Brett Butz.

Of course there are always spots where they could use a surprise.

One spot they may look to trade for is a 20-year-old rearguard.

“We don’t have a single 20-year-old on the back end. That’s not a horrible thing, but some experience is good. We may bring in a veteran guy who can eat up some minutes,” sad Hehr.

Looking at the league for the upcoming season Hehr said he has the feeling it is open to a team making a run at top spot.

“It’s completely wide open . . . We want to do everything we can to make a run and take a shot at this,” he said.