BLADES HAVE HIGH HOPES
WHL team looks to make playoffs
Dean Brockman has rolled up his sleeves to get down to work.
The Saskatoon Blades head coach isn’t the type of guy to pull out any tricks from under those sleeves — even if it looked that way with his injury-riddled squad last season, which at times appeared to get by on smoke and mirrors.
After taking a step closer to being a playoff team last season, the Blades continue to work toward a return to the post-season for the first time since the 2012-13 campaign.
Brockman, who is entering his second season as head coach, leads a group that’s determined to get to the post-season. Last season, a short-staffed Saskatoon squad posted a 28-35-7-2 record that left the Blades five points short of an East Conference wild-card berth.
The Blades will open up the new Western Hockey League season Friday at home against the Swift Current Broncos. Game time is 7 p.m. at SaskTel Centre.
“I know there’s a lot of work to do and, at times, it’s really scrambly and you always forget, when you finish the year, how structured you have them. And then you start the year over again and you know how far away you are,” says Brockman, whose team won four of six preseason games.
“There were definitely some positives in the pre-season. Some of our younger guys, I thought, came in and were willing to compete and be ready for the season. In saying that, the season is going to start whether we like it or not.”
The Blades are a little bit older, a little bit wiser, and they hope to be a little bit healthier this time around. A playoff spot shouldn’t be out of the question, but a lot hinges on the team’s health.
Last season, the Blades experienced an unprecedented number of man-games lost due to injury with players like Cam Hebig, Ryan Graham, Mason McCarty, Jesse Shynkaruk, Braylon Shmyr, Libor Hajek, Mark Rubinchik, Michael Farren, Chase Wouters, Markson Bechtold and Lukus MacKenzie all missing significant time.
Gone from last season are forwards Shynkaruk (31 goals and 56 points in 58 games), McCarty (21 goals and 37 points in 45 games) and Bechtold, along with defenceman Bryton Sayers (32 points in 72 games) and goalies Logan Flodell (2.81 GAA, .912 save percentage, 22-20-3 record and three shutouts) and Brock Hamm.
Flodell was part of a surprising three-team deal this week that sent the overage goalie and last year’s MVP to the Swift Current Broncos, while goalie Ryan Kubic comes to Saskatoon from the Vancouver Giants.
Moving Flodell solved the Blades’ overage dilemma. Allowed to keep only three, the Blades will start with team captain and Detroit Red Wings training camp invitee Evan Fiala, Hebig (26-4369 in 59 games during the 2015-16 season) and Shmyr (35 goals and 31 assists for 66 points in 66 games last season).
Earlier this week, the Blades trimmed their roster by deleting midget-age goalie Nolan Maier, D-man Zach Ashton and forward Cole Johnson.
GOALTENDING
In a matter of days, the Blades completely overhauled this position by re-assigning Maier, trading Flodell and adding Kubic.
Kubic will be joined by rookie Joel Grzybowski, who played for the SJHL’s Battlefords North Stars last season.
“We just felt Nolan needed to go back,” said Brockman.
“He’s going to be a prime candidate to play (for Canada) at the U-17s. If you look at our schedule early in the year, we don’t play a lot of games, so we ... feel it’s Nolan’s best interest to go back (to Yorkton).”
DEFENCE
Fiala and Hajek anchor the blue line corps with support from Mark Rubinchik, Jackson Caller, Jake Kustra, Jantzen Leslie, Seth Bafaro and rookie Payton McIsaac. Bafaro was picked up from the Tri-City Americans.
“(Fiala and Hajek) are the two big guys on the back end who we’ll need to play a lot of minutes,” said Brockman.
FORWARDS
Up front, the Blades welcome back leading scorer Shmyr and Hebig, as well as Josh Paterson, Logan Christensen, Gage Ramsay, Arjun Atwal, Caleb Fantillo, MacKenzie, Farren and Wouters.
Christiansen, Paterson and MacKenzie are all entering their third season with the Blades and looking for breakthrough seasons.
Although technically still a rookie, Kirby Dach was granted an extended stay last season (6-4-10, 19 games) as a 15-year-old player. He had two goals and two assists in five pre-season games. Bradly Goethals was acquired from the Everett Silvertips. while Brandon Machado, Logan Doust, Tyler Lees and Matt Mosher are among the rookies looking to stick.
“We’re still trying to create that chemistry,” Brockman said.
“We’re young up front. We’re going to struggle to score goals, just because the guys who are in those positions are younger and they’re going to go through the ups and downs. Definitely I think we have some depth up there in a lot of positions and hopefully guys will take their next step.
“We need that ’98 age group to play their game. We need the ’99s to step up and be more mature. Now they’ve been in the league, some of those guys for a few years, they definitely need to step up and help the team.”