All about next year for Blades
No playoffs, so time to look to ’15-16
Looking at the standings, the Saskatoon Blades don’t have much at stake for the remainder of the 2014-15 season.
Head coach and general manager Bob Woods has more to consider than the standings, however.
“Camp’s started for next year,” he said after Wednesday’s 6-2 win over Red Deer. “We’ve got a lot of question marks for next year. What I see here over the last 11 games is going to (have) a lot of emphasis on what happens to some guys in the future.
“We’ve got a lot of good young players coming up. There’s going to need to be spots for them. Guys are playing to showcase themselves and show if they’re worthy of a spot on our team.”
The Blades (18-39-2-2) took Thursday off in preparation for their Friday game in Moose Jaw as a handful of players dealt with pink eye.
It’s only a matter of time before the Blades are mathematically eliminated from post-season contention in the Eastern Conference for the second year in a row.
The last-place Blades were 20 points behind the eighthseeded Edmonton Oil Kings before Edmonton took on another playoff long-shot team, the Lethbridge Hurricanes, on Thursday. So what’s left to play for? “For pride and for next year,” said centre Cameron Hebig, 18, one of the team’s building blocks. “It’s been a tough two years. They’re looking at us to see who can be part of the future.”
While most are auditioning for jobs with the Blades, others are hoping to catch the eye of pro and university scouts.
Over-age captain Brett Stovin said he’s been talking to CIS representatives and is still hoping to land a pro contract.
However, his biggest concern is providing a few more lessons to his younger teammates before the season ends.
“I’m looking back to the captains I had as a younger guy and seeing how they acted and taking stuff from each one of them,” said Stovin, a veteran of 252 games with the Blades. “It’s important for me to leave a mark with these guys.
“The more I do that and the better I do that, the more I’ll get noticed for my own career.”
Stovin’s career year
It doesn’t hurt that Stovin is putting the finishing touches on his best WHL campaign.
The 20-year-old scored twice on Wednesday and now has 27 goals and 45 points, both seasonal bests.
He’s only one goal shy of the team-leading total of 28 that Nikita Scherbak registered last season.
“I actually didn’t know that,” he said. “(Getting) 30’s a goal for me that I can look at and it’s realistic now.
“At the start of the year, I might not have been asking for that. I had to reset a goal when I hit 20. It’s pretty cool to know I’m getting close to that.”
Adding to the feat, Stovin failed to score in his first 17 games, so his stats could be more impressive. And given where the Blades are in the standings, that leaves him feeling a bit regretful.
“If I could have started stronger, I could have had a few more,” he said, “and maybe it would have contributed to a few more wins for us.”