The blueline brigade is, for now, brim full.
The Red Deer Rebels employed six rearguards during a successful Western Hockey League opening weekend, leaving four defenders — returnees Lucas Grayson and Brad Deagle and rookies Cody Thiel and Stephen Hak — sitting in the stands.
Rebels GM/head coach Jesse Wallin is in no hurry to alter the personnel on his back end, which during 3-2 and 4-3 wins over the Kootenay Ice and Edmonton Oil Kings Friday and Sunday, consisted of top-four defencemen Alex Petrovic, Mathew Dumba, Justin Weller and Aaron Borejko and fifth and sixth blueliners Matt Pufahl and rookie Kayle Doetzel.
“Our top four guys are our top four,” confirmed Wallin, who then extolled the virtues of Doetzel, 16, and Pufahl.
“Kayle was one of our most consistent guys through the weekend,” Wallin continued.
“He’s a young guy who is still learning, but with the improvement he’s shown since the first day of training camp to now and the obvious potential that he has, he’s a player we want in our lineup as much as possible.”
Pufahl, meanwhile, entered this season as a make-or-break project after appearing in only 31 games during the 2010-11 campaign.
“When he left at the end of last season he knew that expectations were going to rise for him. Last year he was coming off an injury-filled season (at the midget AAA level) and he struggled here,” said Wallin.
“He had to get into better shape and get stronger so he could play at this level without that fear of being injured, which in my mind was an issue with him last season.
“He’s trained harder and as an 18-year-old with a year under his belt we expect him to step up this season and show what he’s capable of. I thought the weekend was a good step for him.”
That being said, barring a trade or two Pufahl and/or Doetzel will have to sit at some point in order for the coaching staff to insert one or more of the four defencemen who were idle on the weekend.
“Obviously we have some decisions to make with the other guys, so there might have to be a guy coming out of the lineup who maybe doesn’t deserve to in order to make that happen, but that’s the kind of competition we need back there,” said Wallin.
“We’re not going to carry 10 defencemen all year, something has to happen in order to see the other guys play and evaluate them. But it’s a competitive environment and we want it to be that way. Guys are going to have to fight to get into the lineup, they’re going to have to push things and compete hard in practice. They’re going to have to be focused and doing the right things off the ice and when they get in there they’re going to have to take advantage of the opportunity by playing well.”
• Third-year forward Turner Elson will return to the Red Deer lineup Friday at Saskatoon.
Elson missed the final 40 minutes of Friday’s season-opener and all of Sunday’s contest with what Wallin termed as an “upper-body” injury. He sat our Tuesday’s practice session but the Rebels bench boss expects him to be back on the ice today and available for duty Friday versus the Blades and Saturday in Prince Albert.
“At a different time of the season he might have been able to play through (the injury), but we don’t want anything lingering at this point so we gave him a couple of days off,” said Wallin.
gmeachem@www.reddeeradvocate.com