Brockman remains optimistic about Broncos future
The Swift Current Broncos completed the 24-game Western Hockey League regular season as the franchise rebuild continued under Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations Dean Brockman.
The Broncos finished with a 6-16-2-0 record, but showed promising signs, including earning points in their final three games with two wins and an overtime loss.
The season got out to a tough start when defenseman Cayde Augustine left the team and Alex Moar, Daylan Weigel and Sam Mcginley were all lost to injury. Mcginley eventually returned, but Augustine, Moar, and Weigel combined to play only 11 games.
“It’s too bad we lost a couple defensemen early because I thought that could have maybe got us a few more wins. Not really making any excuses, but I thought our crew did a pretty good job. I don’t think anybody really gave us a chance to win much and we were pretty competitive on any given night,” said Brockman.
The Broncos ended up using six 16-yearold players this season, including Karson King, who made his WHL debut in the final game of the season.
“Yeah I think so. I think a lot of our younger guys took some major steps. It was good to get Kinger in the line-up to see if he’ll be a Western
Leaguer and we’re pretty confident after what we saw today that he will be. All of our young guys I thought improved. Do they have a ways to go? For sure. But they know now that they have to get stronger, that they have to dial themselves more often. It’s not an easy league. I like the improvement.”
The Broncos were one of seven East Division teams that played in the Subway Hub Centre in Regina where a total of 84 games were played over 48 days at the Brandt Centre. A total of 1,930 tests for COVID19 were conducted with zero positive results.
Brockman said the 2020-21 season would be a memorable one.
“I think just the way it was done. You were basically confined to 30 people. Sometimes that can get pretty tiresome over two months, but really our players made the entire experience very enjoyable. I think player-to-player, coach-to-coach, or person-to-person I thought our guys shared some laughs, shared some down times and some serious times, but really they made the experience pretty enjoyable.”
The Broncos had been confined to the rink and their dorms for almost two months.
“We are going to let them get home tomorrow [Thursday]. I think that’s important because guys are missing families and so on and we don’t want to drag it out. We’ve got guys that are 12 hours away and they want to get home and I don’t blame them. We’ll give them the weekend and then as a coaching staff we will just go through guys day by day and then towards the middle or end of next week we will start doing Zoom calls with the players for exit meetings,” explained Brockman.
Brockman said the roster did have some areas that need to be addressed heading into next season.
“Yeah absolutely. Hoping to get the Euros over, which may help in some areas of need, whether it’s on the back end or some depth up front. I do think that is one area. We graduate two 20-year-olds [on the blueline] and I think that is important and definitely an area of need.”
The Broncos will like add more fresh faces next season to an already young group.
“We are going to have another young crop come in. We’ll have our 16-year-olds that are going to want to play as early as next year and their summer will dictate that.
I think, if anything, now we’re starting to find some depth up front and that’s great. Now we’ve got to ensure that there’s depth on the back end.”
The Broncos can return veteran Isaac Poulter as an overage goaltender, as well as highly regarded rookie Reid Dyck.
“I think we’re pretty set in goal. I saw a lot of good things from both guys,” said Brockman.