The Victoria Grizzlies are coming off one of their most successful seasons in the B.C. Hockey League.
And Grizzlies general manager and head coach Craig Didmon says there’s even better things to come.
Four months after making it to the BCHL final four, the Grizzlies hit the ice again on Monday for the start of their 2017 training camp.
Despite losing several key players to graduation and trades, Didmon says his 2017-18 Grizzlies might be a better team than last season.
“On paper, I’m more excited and see more potential at this time of the year, than I did with last year’s team at the same time,” Didmon said as he prepared to welcome 44 players to Juan de Fuca Arena on Monday afternoon.
Gone are the likes of veterans Cody Van Lierop (U Sports), Jake Stevens (NCAA), Tyler Welsh (NCAA), Cole Pickup (NCAA) and Matthew Galajda (NCAA), but in their place is an impressive group of returning Grizzlies who, Didmon said, are ready to take the torch and run with it.
Leading that group is newly appointed captain Lucas Clark and NCAA commits Jamie Rome and Drayson Pears.
Clark, from Port Perry, Ont., scored 17 goals and 43 points last season, while mostly playing on the same line as Rome, who finished with 20 goals and added another nine in the playoffs. Rome is coming off a season that saw the Calgary native take part in the Junior A top prospects game and accept a scholarship to Western Michigan University for the fall of 2018.
Throw in returnees Dane Finnson and Carter Berger on the blue line, and T.J. Friedmann, Cam Thompson and Shawn O’Malley up front, and Didmon is confident the Grizzlies will have little trouble scoring goals.
“I like our group of returning players,” said Didmon, whose club won the Island Division title last season before bowing out to the Chilliwack Chiefs in the league semifinals.
“Clark, Rome, Thompson and Friedmann should all take a step forward this season and, with Drayson, Finnson and Berger ready to do the same, we’re going to have some offence from the back end.”
But training camp is not usually about returning players. It’s a time for the new players to strut their stuff and show they have what it takes to play Junior A.
Through trades and key recruits, Didmon expects to have plenty of talent to choose from.
And he’ll need it between the pipes. In goal is where the focus of camp will be after the departures of last year’s goaltenders, Galajda and Tony Rehm.
Enter a pair of talented newcomers and a local standout. Didmon scoured the country looking for goalies this spring and he’s confident Newfoundland native Zach Rose and Ontario product Jonah Capriotti are ready for standout junior seasons. Rose, 18, spent the last two season playing prep hockey at Lake Forest Academy near Chicago, the same school that produced Van Lierop and Stevens. Capriotti, 19, spent the past two seasons at Salisbury School in New England.
The two newcomers will be pushed by Shawn Parkinson, who spent last year playing junior B for the Peninsula Panthers and Westshore Wolves, but spent the last part of the season with the Grizzlies as an injury call-up.
“We’ve got two very good rookie goalies who should push each other and both benefit from that,” Didmon said. “And Shawn got a taste of the playoffs at the end of last season, so we’ll see if he’s ready to make the jump this year.”
Up front, Didmon traded away veteran Keyvan Mokhtari to Vernon and Nolan Welsh to Prince George to make room for a new, young group of forwards who will be the next generation of Grizzlies. The new group is led by highly touted Alex Newhook of Newfoundland. The 16-year-old comes west having been selected in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League bantam draft and having just taken part in the Canadian U-17 national team summer camp.
At the national U-17 camp with Newhook, was another young Grizzlie, but no stranger to Victoria. Jacson Alexander, a first-round WHL bantam draft pick last year, is making the jump from Shawnigan Lake Academy and should also add some offence from the blue line.
Having lost six 20-year-olds, Didmon also went searching for experience this summer and hopes to have found it in Ethan Nother and Matt Doran, both 20. Nother is a winger from London, Ont., who had 47 points in 38 games for the London Nationals of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. Doran is a defenceman from St. Louis who played last season for the Coulee Chill of the North American Hockey League.
Didmon also expects his group of 17- and 18-year-olds to take the next step. Included in that group are local talents Nico Sommerville, Marty Westhaver and Jordan Guiney, and North Delta’s Tanner Hopps, who got in four games with the Grizzlies as a 16-year-old last season.
“That’s an interesting group because they all showed flashes last season, so it’ll be interesting to see what they bring this season,” Didmon said.
Main camp on-ice sessions begin at 4:30 p.m. on Monday. The players will be broken into two teams — Team Bozak and Team Benn — for nightly scrimmages, the first of which goes Monday at 8 p.m. Camp runs until Wednesday night. On Thursday, the Grizzlies will play their first preseason game at 7 p.m. at Juan de Fuca Arena against the Cowichan Valley Capitals.
Victoria Grizzlies 2017 training camp
• MONDAY
4:30 p.m. — Group 1 practice
5:30 p.m. — Group 2 practice
8 p.m. - Team Bozak vs. Team Benn
• TUESDAY
4:30 p.m. — Group 1 practice
5:30 p.m. — Group 2 practice
8 p.m. — Team Bozak vs. Team Benn
• WEDNESDAY
2:30 p.m. — Group 1 practice
3 p.m. — Group 2 practice
7 p.m. — Team Bozak vs. Team Benn
• THURSDAY
7 p.m. — Preseason game vs. Cowichan Valley
• All sessions/games at Juan de Fuca Arena
