With the calendar soon flipping to September, the beginning of another Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League season is right around the corner.
In preparation, the Humboldt Broncos will be welcoming approximately 70-80 players for their fall training camp, which runs Aug. 24-26 at the Elgar Petersen Arena.
The camp will be broken up into four teams, with each team hitting the ice for an Aug. 24 practice, two Aug. 25 scrimmages and another on Aug. 26.
In keeping with tradition, the Broncos will conclude camp with the Elgar Petersen Cup, which is set for 5:00 p.m. on Aug. 26.
With camp set to open, and the Broncos looking to finish filling out their 2018-2019 roster, Broncos head coach Nathan Oystrick says he is looking for one thing from every player; compete.
“I can teach skill but I can’t teach compete. I want the players to come in hungry. This is obviously a great opportunity for everyone because I’ve never seen any of them play. It’s a blank slate for them, it’s a blank slate for me,” he said.
“I’ll probably go talk to each team before each of their practices and my message will be compete, work, don’t lose a one-on-one battle. Do the little things to make you stand out. Everyone can toe drag, everyone can shoot the puck, it’s the little things that are going to help you make this team.”
Despite the Broncos looking to fill a number of roster spots and this year’s camp carrying a slightly different feel from previous years, Oystrick says his approach to the camp will not change, and given that he has not had a lot of experience with many of the players, he will be relying on his scouts to serve as extra sets of eyeballs.
While most players and coaches will not be familiar with each other, Oystrick says he hopes to use a little of the weekend to get to know one another but adds that the majority of the getting to know one another stage will happen once the roster has been cut down.
Oystrick says the goal is to have the roster sitting at 30 players by the end of the Elgar Petersen Cup game and says he plans on using the days following as important bonding time for the team.
“The following week after camp will be a good opportunity for me to sit down and talk with each player for ten minutes. We’ll kind of set a timer, put a list on the wall and we’ll go right through it. Just a little bit about them, a little about me,” he said.
Oystrick does come into camp having spoken to many if not all of the players who have joined the Broncos organization via signing or trade over the summer, and says they come in excited.
“As exhibition season wears down and we’ve had a good look at everyone then we can start talking about roles. For right now it’s just keep focusing on doing what you’re doing. You got to this point because we like you or we saw something about you that we like so just keep doing it.”
With camp set to kick off this weekend, Oystrick says he is excited to hit the ice.
“The past couple weeks have been a lot of logistical stuff and figuring things out on my end… so I’m definitely excited for hockey. I think we’ll have a good group of kids and I’ve talked to most of them or all of them and they’re all excited to be here,” he said.
“They know the opportunity that’s in front of them so for me it goes down to relationships and culture. The quicker we can get a good idea of who our team’s going to be the quicker we can start building those bonds and building that culture. Obviously in any hockey league the start of the year’s important. It’s a lot harder to dig yourself out of a hole if you dig one at the start of the year so I think if we can get off to a good start then we can just keep building.”
