The biggest off-season acquisition for Okotoks' Junior A hockey club is ecstatic to be an Oiler, after all, he wanted to come play for the AJHL franchise.
The Okotoks Oilers acquired centre Derek Bacon in a transaction with the Calgary Canucks for goaltender Michael Matyas and forward Rliey McDougall on June 1.
“ This is where I wanted to be,” said Derek Bacon. “ I knew (the Oilers) had a good team coming in and I knew a lot of the guys coming back. It's a good group of guys and everyone can play.”
Bacon, 19, will have some familiar faces in the locker room as he played Bantam AAA hockey with Okotoks Oilers forward Jonathan Turk and goalie Michael Tadjdeh.
“ I let him know that we'll have a good team this year,” Turk said. “ And that he'll get to play a lot.”
As a Calgary native, Bacon said he's looking forward to playing closer to home after stops with the Victoria Grizzlies and St. Albert Steel of the Canadian Junior Hockey League.
Oilers head coach James Poole said they did their due diligence before acquiring Bacon.
“ Actually before we made the trade he expressed interest that he really wanted to play in Okotoks,” said Poole. “ Overall when you look at his stats, they kind of speak for themselves. The background we did on him from when he played in Victoria two years ago came back very positive.
“ He's just a player that fits with what we do. He's very skilled, he's fast and he's also got that gritty side to him which is kind of what we were looking to acquire, we needed a little more grit on our team.”
Oilers captain Ben Gamache, who has never played against Bacon in a competitive match, said he's impressed with what he's seen from Bacon in training camp.
“ He's a hard working guy on the ice,” Gamache said. “ He's the same kind of player as me, he does a bit of everything out there.”
In Bacon, the Oilers have a playmaking centre who plays above his 175 pounds.
“ He's very skilled, fast and feisty,” added Turk.
“ I like to play with speed and get in people's faces,” said Bacon. “ I like to score when I can, but I'm more of a passer by nature.”
Bacon, who finished eighth in the AJHL with 63 points last season, was humble when asked if he had a chance to lead the league in scoring in 2011-12.
“ I think a lot of guys on this team have a chance to do that, it's just a matter of how we all play together,” Bacon said.
“ But I think with guys like Ben Gamache, Jon Turk and Nolan (Huysmans) there's not much that can stop us.”
Bacon said he's not yet sure where he'll slot into the Oilers' lineup. “ I know they've been testing out some lines, but there's so much talent up front you can't really go wrong.”
Poole said Bacon will add to the scoring depth of the Oilers, who finished tops in the AJHL with 254 goals in 2010-11.
“ He's a top six forward,” Poole said. “ In terms of combinations guys like the Huysmans, Gamache, Turk we've got a lot of options to kind of play around with. I think we'll be a very tough team to try and shut down because we've got not just one line, we'll have a few lines that will be very dangerous.
“ We always like to have more than just one guy who's going to be a threat.”
Bacon missed out on Sunday's black and white inter-squad game at Murray Arena with a shoulder injury that he said would likely keep him out until the end of the exhibition schedule.
The Oilers kicked-off their exhibition schedule last night in Canmore and play the Calgary Canucks 7 p.m. tonight at Max Bell Centre. Okotoks begins the regular season Sept. 10 at home against the Canucks.
Roster Cuts:
Oilers head coach James Poole said he made six cuts to his roster on Sunday night. Daniel Higgs, Spencer Weselosky, Logan Aasman, Daniel Anhorn, Connor Wilson and Wade Weisberger were all let go by the AJHL club.
On the other side of the ledger, 17-year-old goalie Jared D'Amico is poised to make the squad as Tadjdeh's back-up, said Poole.
“ We have full confidence in him,” Poole said of D'Amico. “ We know he's got a lot of talent as a goalie and we expect he's going to be more and more confident as we go along.
Poole said he's going to carry a roster of approximately 30 players in order to allow some players to see some more ice-time before trimming the roster as the pre-season progresses.
Poole said there have been a few young players who've stood out at training camp, namely Brandon Lauder, a 1993 born forward from Winnipeg, as well as defencemen Jordan Swenson and Robbie Fisher. He said all three players are good bets to make the team.
