MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Moose Jaw Warriors were hoping for an intense and competitive training camp over the Sept. 1 weekend, and that’s exactly how things turned out.
Now the focus turns toward building and preparation for the regular season, with general manager Jason Ripplinger aiming to take the pieces of the puzzle from camp and creating another team that can potentially contend for a league title.
You read that right. Not just a good regular season, not just a playoff spot, but taking a serious shot at repeating as Western Hockey League champions.
It won’t be easy given the amount of talent the team has lost from last season, but the goal remains the same.
“We have a lot of returning players from last year and they know what it takes to win, and they’ve come in in the right frame of mind,” Ripplinger said during the Red Grey intrasquad game. “They don’t want to just be a playoff team, they want to take another shot at it and we’re going to do what we can to make that happen.”
A total of 16 players are returning from last season, and the team had 29 players in town after cutting down at the end of training camp. With four players -- Brayden Yager (Winnipeg), Voytech Port (Anaheim), Rilen Kovacevic (Colorado) and Kalem Parker (Minnesota) -- off to NHL camps soon, a host of youngsters are expected to get a long look in the coming weeks leading up to the season-opener on Sept. 20 in Brandon.
“We’ll just see how it goes on here,” Ripplinger said. “With the guys at camp, we don’t know who will all be coming back, so we’ll see what happens and make some decisions once things settle out that way.”
One bit of good news is the team’s overage situation. Based on what the Warriors have in place at the end of training camp, defenceman Parker will join forwards Kovacevic and Brayden Schuurman as the Warriors’ 20-year-olds this season. That could all change depending on the NHL, which could assign Parker and Kovacevic to their AHL or ECHL affiliates given the fact they’re overagers.
“We’re anticipating them being back, but you just don’t know what’s going to happen at that level,” Ripplinger said. “They could have great camps and the NHL teams could see something, and if they move on, that’s great. If that happens, there will be 20-year-olds who become available in the league and we’ll make some decisions there, but otherwise I’m really comfortable with those three.
“You don’t want to get rid of guys who have won, that’s for sure, and being around the young guys they can help lead the way.”
One player who had an exceptional camp and especially stood out in the intrasquad game was Lynden Lakovic. The 17-year-old is heading into his NHL Draft year and has already been projected as a first-round pick in some of the earliest predictions, with a continuation of his good start only helping in that direction.
“He’s one of those guys you notice every shift, and he’s someone we’re expecting to fill the net to replace the guys like Firkus, Savoie, Mateychuk and Calvert,” Ripplinger said. “And it’s nice to have seen a bunch of guys step up, too, Semeniuk, Schurrman, Kovacevic, the list goes on and I can’t say I’m disappointed with anyone.”
It all led into the first games of the exhibition season, which saw the Warriors take on the Regina Pats in a pair of neutral site contests in Estevan and Assiniboia.
“t’s going to be exciting for our players, it should be a full house and it’ll be good to get into a game with another team and take some more steps to get ready for the season,” Ripplinger said.
