Season opens in Cranbrook vs. the Ice

When Jake Bean played his first Western Hockey League game last year, he was one of three rookie defenceman to suit up for the Calgary Hitmen.

Fast forward a year and Bean is part of a veteran- laden defence with the Hitmen, who open the 2015- 16 season with a home- and- home series against the Kootenay Ice Friday in Cranbrook and Saturday at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

“We have a lot of returning guys … and a lot of experience on the point and a lot of really talented players,” said Bean, who now boasts 51 games of WHL experience ( 58 if you count playoff s). “I think we’re one of the solid pieces of the team. We have great off ence, defence and goaltending this year.”

The six blueliners who played in Calgary’s 4- 1 loss at home to the Red Deer Rebels to start the 2014- 15 season had a combined 320 games of WHL experience.

Calgary’s projected starting six defenceman Friday — Bean, Travis Sanheim, Ben Thomas, Colby Harmsworth, Micheal Zipp and Loch Morrison — have more than double that at 708 games.

“Not only have we got some really good puck- moving off ensive guys that can join in the rush, but then we’ve obviously got some guys who pride themselves on the defensive end,” second- year Hitmen head coach Mark French said. “I think we’ve got a good balance on that back end. Looking at our lineup, that’ll defi nitely be an area of strength.”

Goalie Brendan Burke, who recently returned to the Hitmen from an NHL tryout with the Anaheim Ducks, said he’s looking forward to playing behind such an experienced and talented group.

“There’s not too many times in the WHL where you have almost a full returning D corps,” said Burke, acquired by the Hitmen from Portland just before the WHL trade deadline. “I’m really looking forward to it. These guys are great and we communicate really well back there.”

While Burke was away at training camp, all rookie goalies Kyle Dumba and Lasse Petersen did was compile 4- 0 and 3- 0 records, respectively, in the pre- season.

“Obviously, Burkie’s our No. 1 guy and he’ll be treated as such, but I think both the other guys have fared very well and made us feel a little bit more comfortable about our goaltending situation going forward,” said French, who said Calgary will start the season with all three goalies.

The Hitmen also have nine defenceman and 18 forwards on their roster, although Jake Virtanen and Keegan Kanzig are still with the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames, respectively.

In addition to Burke, the Hitmen also recently welcomed back Sanheim and Thomas along with forwards Radel Fazleev, Pavel Karnaukhov and Chase Lang from their respective NHL training camps.

“When all these guys are coming back, you’re still trying to get your footing in terms of your lineup, so I don’t think there’s any need to make any reactionary move right now,” French said. “We’ll probably see how the first week or two of the season goes and make decisions based off of that.”

Although the Hitmen lost graduating forwards Adam Tambellini, Connor Rankin and Kenton Helgesen — who combined for 100 goals last season — they have 10 returning players up front to lead the off ence.

“I think we’ll be an even better team than last year,” predicted Fazleev, who with Sanheim returned to the Hitmen Thursday from training camp with the Philadelphia Flyers. “Last year, we had eight or nine rookies. They got good experience from last year. I think we’re more experienced overall.”

While French doesn’t expect the Hitmen to average the 4.1 goals a game they did last year when they were third- best in the WHL in that category, he is looking forward to see whether the likes of Karnaukhov, Beck Malenstyn, Layne Bensmiller, Jordy Stallard, Taylor Sanheim and Carsen Twarynski can build on their solid rookie seasons.

“To get those totals again, we’re not setting a goal to get over four goals a game. It’s hard to think that you can eclipse that. If you do, it’s great and if we get development of some guys to answer the bell.

“We want enough goals to win hockey games. I think we’ve got that within our room. I think we’ll see improvement with guys having another year under their belts gaining some confi dence and other guys getting maybe more of an opportunity this year.”