Alberta’s best hockey players at the AA level are about to descend on Okotoks and they will have plenty of local talent to help them acclimatize to the surroundings.
Okotoks plays host to the South Central Alberta Hockey League (SCAHL) all-star weekend Jan. 19-20 where 10 members of Okotoks Oilers Athletic Association (OOAA) teams will showcase their skills on home ice.
Sniper Sean McMaster, speedster Steele Erickson and steady defenceman Cameron Frammingham will represent the second-place Okotoks Midget AA Oilers at the event.
“It’s about them being team players, being competitive, guys that are working through practice. The whole nine yards,” said Okotoks head coach Cliff Bordt on his selection process for the three all-stars. “We want to send the best players that are going to represent us well.”
McMaster was a virtual shoe-in for the all-star nod as a top-10 scorer in the league and the team leader in goals, 16, and points, 27.
“(Sean) knows how to find the back of the net, he’s a skilled player and staying healthy has been a big bonus for him,” Bordt said.
Erickson, who returned to the Oilers for his final year of Midget despite making the UFA Midget AAA Bisons, has been a tireless worker and stabilizing force up-front for Okotoks.
“He’s probably one of the fastest guys in the league,” Bordt said. “He’s been a great leader for our young guys as a third year guy.”
As for Frammingham he has reined in his ferocious physical play and become a more dependable two-way blueliner, Bordt said.
“He’s been our most consistent defenceman,” Bordt said. “He gets the job done quietly, he stays out of trouble and is doing his job on defence which is the most important thing.”
Team captain Trent Schussler would have represented the Oilers as an all-star, but due to suspensions was not able to reach the minimum games played criteria.
The Bantam AA Oilers, the top team in the South Division with a record of 15-3-2, will feature a league-high four players in the Bantam North versus South all-star showdown.
Bantam AA Oilers head coach Keith Harris selected forwards Tate Laycraft, Wyatt Derksen and rearguard Nicholas VanderHeyden as all-stars. Netminder Liam Aitken was one of six goalies voted to the game by league coaches.
Laycraft sits 11th in league scoring with 14 goals and 24 points in 20 games this season, after making the jump up from Bantam 2 where he played in 2011-12.
“Tate’s fought through a lot of adversity to get to our team this year and I feel like he’s just responded well to everything we’ve asked of him,” Harris said. “He’s been a go-to-guy whenever we’ve needed some offence.”
Derksen is more of a defensive specialist up-front and has excelled as a shutdown, checking line centre for the Oilers. As a bonus, he’s chipped in offensively with 17 points.
“Derken is a guy that I lean on in virtually every situation,” Harris said. “If there’s an important face-off in our end of the rink he’s the guy that takes it. Any real significant portion of the game I lean significantly on Wyatt.”
On defence, VanderHeyden has vastly improved over the season in rounding out his physical game to go along with an offensive touch which has the blueliner at nearly a point-a-game clip.
“At the start of the year I felt he wasn’t physical enough and he completely turned his game around and is now a real miserable defenceman to play against,” Harris said of VanderHeyden, who has 16 points in 20 games. “He’s a tremendous asset for us offensively as well.
“We felt that all of our second-year defencemen were all-star worthy.”
The Oilers coaching staff voted for both Aitken and his netminding partner Tanner Webster to be all-stars as the teammates have split starts and share identical .920 save percentages.
“We’ve leaned on both of them heavily,” Harris said. “By virtue of Liam being in the net for some of our tougher games he maybe got a little more exposure and was tremendous for us in tough games.”
Peewee AA Oilers head coach Kevin Kobelka will be behind the bench for the Peewee South team as the bench boss of an Okotoks team with a sublime 18-0-1 record in the SCAHL.
Oilers’ defenceman Loeden Schaufler and forward Gibb Coady will be representing a stacked Okotoks team at the all-star game.
Coady is 10th in the league with 41 points, 20 goals and 21 assists, while Schaufler has chipped in with nine goals and 24 points from the blueline.
The Peewees kick-off the weekend festivities at 10.a.m. followed by the Bantam all-stars at 12:45 p.m. and the Midget game at 3:45 p.m. All three games will be played at the Murray Arena in the Okotoks Recreation Centre.
The OOAA is looking for volunteers for the two-day event. Those interested in lending a hand should contact OOAA president and Okotoks all-star co-ordinator John Wilson at [email protected].
For more information on all-star weekend go to www.scahl.com.
