IJHL coaches assess their teams in league preview story.
Coaches offer thoughts on their teams entering regular season
It’s a big year for the Island Junior Hockey League (IJHL). With Kensington hosting the Don Johnson Memorial Cup from April 23 to 28, two teams from P.E.I. will compete in the Atlantic junior B hockey championship tournament – the host Moase Plumbing and Heating Vipers and a provincial representative.
“To be honest, I think it’s going to be one of the most competitive years for all four teams,” predicted Eastern Maniacs head coach Devan Gunn. “The Don Johnson (Cup) is here this year, and every team is wanting to put a push on it for it.”
The Arsenault’s Fish Mart Western Red Wings, who are going for a third straight playoff championship, and the Sherwood-Parkdale A&S Scrap Metal Metros are also returning to the four-team league. Teams will play a 35-game regular-season schedule, which includes interlocking contests with the New Brunswick Junior Hockey League. Metros co-coach Harrison Wood also expects a very closelycontested league. “Western is going to be strong again, they are not losing much,” said Wood. “Kensington is hosting the Atlantics, and obviously (general manager) Pat (McIver) is going to ice a good squad up there as he always does, and you can never count Souris out. They are going to be strong, and picked up some guys. You are going to have to earn it every night.” After coming out of the gate 1-5-1 (won-lost-overtime loss) last year, Red Wings head coach Nathan DesRoches said the defending champions are looking for a better start this season.
“I felt last year, as a coach, I let the group down with a lacklustre training camp,” said DesRoches. “This year, we started a bit earlier, we were on the ice more and we picked our team earlier as well. “We are going to be a much better prepared group going into the season.”
Longtime Vipers head coach Wade Waddell is encouraged by what he saw at training camp.
“It’s probably been one of the better training camps we’ve had in a long time,” said Waddell. “We’ve added quite a few new faces, and obviously with us hosting the Don Johnson Cup this year, our goal is to be a strong hockey team.
“It’s early on and there’s still going to be changes yet, but we have a good base to start.” Following is a look at each team, in order of last year’s regular-season standings: DesRoches says the Red Wings will ice a similar group to last year, but noted there have been some key losses such as the graduation of league most-valuable-player and leading scorer Jason Gallant, hard-working forward Abel Arsenault and rugged defenceman Dillon Wall.
“I think we have a little bit more grit, and I don’t think many nights we will be outworked,” said DesRoches. “We are a really hardworking group, and we definitely lost a lot from last year.
“We have had some young kids come in, and they are going to fill some big roles for us.”
In goal, the tandem of Bronson Banks and Luke Oliver returns.
“We are in a great position in nets,” said DesRoches. “We won the last two years, and each one of our goaltenders led us through the playoffs – Bronson a couple of years ago, and Oliver did it for us last year.
“We are lucky to have two great goalies who have a lot of playoff experience.” DesRoches will lean on a veteran to anchor the defence.
“It’s no secret we are led by Calvin McRae, who has won the top defenceman award the last two seasons, and he will be entering his overage year,” said DesRoches. “Calvin is the type of kid I’m sure he could play 50, 60 minutes.
“We will rely on him, especially early in the year to not only carry the team, but try to help some of our younger defencemen along. “Spencer Groom has been a tremendous leader for us, and this will be my fourth year coaching Spencer.
“Spencer is going to log a lot of minutes, and Lucas Beaulieu has been a great leader for us, and he will be entering his third year in the league.
“They are not only quality defencemen, they are quality people.”
As for up front, DesRoches offered: “Right now we are going to hold onto 10 forwards. We got Chandler Wood back (from the Summerside Western Capitals), and we are excited to have Woody back. . . “Chandler’s linemate with the (Kensington) Wild last year, Isaac Callaghan, has played a lot of games with us the last two years as well, and he’s going to fit in nicely and will be a fan favourite. “We are obviously led by our captain, Chasse Gallant, who is entering his final year, and Isaac Knox, Silas Handrahan and Alex and Connor Morrissey are going to carry the boatload of responsibilities for putting the puck in the net.”
After gaining valuable playoff experience and pushing Western to six games in last year’s final, the Metros are looking to carry that success into this year.
“We definitely have high expectations as a coaching staff for sure with only losing two skaters,” said Wood. “We are going to be a solid squad again this year. “We didn’t lose much from last year, so we are looking to be competitive again for sure.”
One position the Metros will have a different look at is between the pipes after the graduation of Alex Kelly and Sam Walsh, who both played key roles in the team’s success last season. “We have three rookie goaltenders out right now,” said Wood referring to Ben Parent, Matt Halliwell and Liam Jay. “We definitely have a void to fill losing two overage goalies last year, but we are looking for a couple of young fellas to step in.
“We haven’t made any final decisions yet.”
The goaltenders, however, will be supported by an experienced defence.
“Zach Ladner is an overager, and we have leaned on him a lot over the past few years,” said Wood. “Dylan MacDonald is a returning guy, and we just picked up Thomas Harper, who played for the (Western) Capitals last year. . .
“With five returning and adding Harper from junior A, our back end will be strong.”
Other returning D-men are Calen MacInnis, Alex Hall and Ryan Boswall.
As for the forwards, Wood says he will rely on overagers Tanner Lund, Taylor Runighan and Cody MacPhee.
“We will be strong up front again,” continued Wood, who cocoaches with Brandon Birt. “We have the likes of Jordan Birt, Nick Currie and added Alex Hambly, who was also with the Caps last year. We will have some depth up front.
“Pat McGuigan was the overager we lost from last year up front.”
Wood feels speed will be a key for the Metros.
“I don’t know if we will be the biggest team on the ice every night, but we will be fast and gritty,” added Wood. “I think we will be tough to play against for sure.”
Overall, Wood says the Metros enter the regular season with optimism as the franchise pursues its first league title since 2009.
“Obviously, the goaltending void is going to be tough to fill, but we think with the returning guys, plus the rookies and guys we’ve added from junior A, we are going to be a tough team,” added a confident Wood. Kensington, which won 11 league titles between 2004 and 2016, is looking to get back on top after being eliminated in Game 7s two years in a row – to Western in the 2017 league final, and in last year’s semifinals versus the Metros.
“Last year was a disappointing year for us,” acknowledged Waddell. “We are hoping to rebound from that, and get back to where we think we should be, which is at the top.”
Waddell predicts the Vipers, who recently acquired forward Jonathan Arsenault from Eastern, will be a fun team to watch.
“I expect us to be a real physical team, and a team that outworks the opposition and wears other teams down,” continued Waddell. “We are still on the lookout for a goal-scorer, and I’m sure at some point we will probably find one. “I like the makeup of our team. There is a real good feel around it.”
Rookie Caleb Coyle and Jaxon Lamont form the Vipers’ goaltending duo. Coyle, who backstopped the Kensington Wild to the last two provincial major midget championships, will get the start in Sunday’s opener. “The league has been dominated the last couple of years by younger goaltenders with Banks and Oliver in Western,” said Waddell. “Caleb’s a first-year guy, but we are not worried about his age. He’s won at every level he’s played at, and we are excited to have him.”
The Vipers return an experienced and relatively unchanged blue-line.
“Tyler Gallant and Parker Ronahan are who we expect to lead us, and probably the most underappreciated defenceman in the league is Ryan McKenna,” said Waddell, who noted former goaltender Grant Grady has joined the team’s coaching staff. “We feel we are going to be strong on the back end.”
Jesse Jay and Keegan Buchanan are returning while rookie Morgan Darbyson rounds out the Vipers’ blue-line.
Up front, the Vipers will look to replace the offence lost with the graduation of Campbell Gallant, Easton Smith and team captain Nick Bouchey.
“We are going to be led again by Logan Vandervelden,” said Waddell. “Logan is a perennial top two or three scorer, along with Riley Gallant.
“We have some new faces onboard this year that we are excited about. Carson McManaman, who played out west in a junior B league last year; Dallen Bulger, who played in Rothesay at prep school and he’s a big, strong boy, and a couple of (Mid-Isle) Matrix graduates, Nick Trainor and Zac MacKay, who have both looked really good.” There is a sense of optimism surrounding the Souris-based Maniacs.
“We are pretty excited for our team,” said Gunn. “We have some young guys out who have played a little better than expected, so it is giving us some hard decisions coming down to crunch time.” When asked what type of team he feels the Maniacs will ice, Gunn replied: “We are pretty young. We will be a fast team and will be a hard-working team. We may lack a little bit of skill, but we will definitely make up for it with hard work.”
Gunn admits a youthful enthusiasm and strong work ethic at training camp have provided a breath of fresh air around the team.
“It’s been really nice going to the rink,” said Gunn. “We drafted a lot of guys out of Pownal and Kings County that went deep in the midget AAA playoffs, and they are still hungry to keep going.
“It’s nice to see everyone pushing everybody at practices. . . We have some good young guys coming in, and it will be a battle for ice time.”
The Maniacs welcome back the veteran goaltending duo of Cam Duffy and Noah Laybolt.
“Last year was a little bit of a disappointment for both of those guys,” said Gunn. “They are hungry, looking well and ready to go.” The Maniacs welcome three defenceman back for the 201819 campaign. Mike MacGregor, Jason Poley and Alex Chapman will be counted on to lead the way on the back end.
“We’re pretty happy with where things stand (on the blue-line),” said Gunn. “We have some good young guys coming in, and it will be a battle for ice time for sure. We will have a good solid D core.” As for the forwards, Gunn expects the Maniacs to feature lots of depth.
“We should have a good solid four lines right straight through,” continued Gunn. “We will have some tweaking to do and with so many few returning vets up front, there was quite a bit of room for some new guys to make it.
“We drafted pretty well we thought, and they are all looking pretty well. We made a trade recently (acquiring the rights to Nick Steele), and that will help us out as well.”
The Maniacs, who last won a league championship in 1999 as the Kings County Sharks, have announced one major change. “This year we moved our home games to Saturday nights (at the Eastern Kings Sportsplex),” added Gunn.