It was like Christmas Eve Wednesday morning at the Peavey Mart Centrium as the Red Deer Rebels got ready to begin training camp.
Veteran players will go through medicals in the morning and off-ice fitness testing in the afternoon. Friday, on-ice fitness testing begins in the morning with practices in the afternoon and evening. The rookies also report on Friday and will make their way on the ice Saturday.
Rebels head coach Steve Konowalchuk said ahead of camp they want to build off of their successful season last year but he’s also looking forward to seeing which players will step up in training camp and in the regular season.
“Junior hockey’s all about opportunity and who steps up, which young guy. King and Bains last year, at the start of the year I don’t know if anybody would have predicted that they would have led the league in scoring… Every year in junior hockey you want to have one or two of those guys not necessarily lead the league but who’s going to step up and which teams get those guys who step up,” Konowalchuk said.
The unknown he added is exciting and the team has more depth and competition than it had at the start of last year. The players coming to camp are competing for jobs and the powerplay groups are also up for grabs.
“Very exciting to be here, I’m sure players are chomping at the bit to get going here,” Konowalchuk said. “A lot of new faces, very excited about the new acquisitions… junior hockey is fun you get your young kids you’re waiting to see which guys are going to step up and who’s going to be your next go-to guys and whether it’s offensively or defensively.
“You got to give Brent and Shaun a lot of credit for bringing some good acquisitions and a lot of different key pieces to our team that you know we want to build off of last year and have a successful year. They certainly have worked hard this summer to put us in the best situation to succeed.”
Last season, Red Deer was swept by the Edmonton Oil Kings in the second round of the Western Hockey League playoffs. The Oil Kings went on to win the WHL Championship defeating the Seattle Thunderbirds 4-2.
“We weren’t satisfied last year with the way it ended in the playoffs. Edmonton was a really good team you know they traded everything to try and win but we expect we have a chance to win every game we go into and I think sometimes in that series we didn’t live up to that,” he added.
The Rebels however had a busy offseason trading for 18-year-old goaltender Kyle Kelsey, 20-year-old defenceman Tanner Brown, 19-year-old forward Craig Armstrong, and most recently 18-year-old defenceman Mats Lindgren. They also signed their 2022 CHL Import Draft selection 16-year-old Vojtech Port, a defenceman out of Czechia, and their 2022 WHL Prospects Draft first-round selection Luke Vlooswyk, a defenceman out of Calgary.
Four players also attended NHL Development Camps including Ben King (Anaheim), Jace Weir (Vegas), Christoffer Sedoff (Calgary), and Jayden Grubbe (New York Rangers) all of which may or may not return to the Rebels this season.
On Tuesday the team announced that goaltender Chase Coward will not be reporting to training camp and will not be with the team to start the 2022/23 regular season because of a congenital defect to his lower body.
“It’s definitely a downer,” Konowalchuk said.
“As an organization, we’ve been in contact with Chase lots and working through it with him and it’s obviously got to be really hard for him to have to find out that news and he’s a big part of our team. But on the same hand no different we had injuries last year we have to move on as a team.”
He believes they have two good goalies coming into camp including Kelsey, who he hasn’t seen play yet but has heard good things. They also have an additional two goalies trying out for positions on the team as well.
The Rebels will be without forwards Arshdeep Bains and potentially Ben King who both led the league last year with over 100 points each. However, the Rebels will have Kalan Lind back, who posted a 20-goal campaign last year. Konowalchuk said he’s expecting Lind to take a big step this season.
“I think he took a big step second half of last year… It’s hard that first half of the year but I thought the second half all of a sudden he’s finding his way on that first line and now he’s going to get a chance in the middle where I think he’ll handle the puck more. Hopefully, he can create more that way but he’s 17 and he should be bigger, stronger, and faster.”
Training camp will run until Wednesday, Sept. 7 after the black and white game at 7 p.m. They will then begin the preseason Friday, Sept. 9 in Calgary before playing the Hitmen on Saturday, Sept. 10 at the Peavey Mart Centrium at 7 p.m.
