Coming off their best season in several years, the Battlefords AAA Stars were looking to the future with excitement and optimism this past weekend.
Close to 90 players were on hand for the Stars' spring evaluation hockey camp Friday to Sunday afternoon at the Don Ross Arena.
Included in the weekend were several scrimmage games with each player involved in four games each. It was a chance for all the players to catch the eye of the organization and possibly latch on with the team for next season.
The goal for the Stars is ultimately to come up with a roster that can improve on their performance. Head coach Martin Smith says the team was happy with the turnout and impressed with the level of talent that he saw over the three days of camp.
"Judging by the talent of the players that we recruited for our evaluation camp, we're very excited with how things went and we're really looking forward to next season," said Smith.
While there will be some holes to fill on the Stars roster next season with the graduation of several veterans, it appears there is a solid pool of talent in the pipeline to pick up where last year's squad left off.
All the talk at the rink was about how much talent was at the camp, said Smith. He said you could "almost make two teams" from the players who were on hand on the weekend.
"Even some of our graduating players who were here to help made the comment they were very jealous that they were too old to play next year," said Smith.
Among those at the camp were the returning players from the winning team that made the playoffs last season.
Returning players at the camp included Rylan Toth, Ryan Rewerts, Spencer Bast, Troy Gerein, Keifer Hintz, Ashton Clark, Braden Lacoursiere, Corbin Schmidt and Josh Bly.
What impressed Smith particularly were the first year players born in 1998. Local players really impressed at the camp as well.
The next step for the team is to go through the evaluations from this past weekend. Smith says he expects about 45 to 50 players will be invited back to the main camp in September.
Overall, Smith expressed optimism about what next season could hold for the AAA Stars. "We're excited about the direction of the hockey club," he said.
