A somewhat surprising return should prove golden for the Green and Gold.
After planning to start his collegiate career with the NCAA’s Bowling Green State University Falcons in 2020-21, defenceman Eric Parker opted to defer to the following season and skate one more year with the Okotoks Jr. A Oilers.
“It was all about the pandemic, COVID and everything going on,” Parker said. “I wanted to take a place where I could both play hockey and I didn’t want to lose a year of eligibility at all if I was to go down there and there was no season and I would still be doing school.”
Parker said he started thinking about returning to junior for another season once the AJHL playoffs were cancelled in March and the pandemic began to take hold in North America. He said he didn’t make the official decision until July.
“I’m lucky enough that I’m still of age to come back to the (AJHL) so that’s what I decided to do for one more year,” he said.
And the Oilers are fortunate to have him back.
The 2001-born blueliner was a league finalist for the Outstanding Defenceman honours last season, tallying a career high 10 goals and 39 points as a sophomore.
In his rookie season, Parker led the Okotoks defence in scoring with 30 points.
Parker, along with fellow incumbents on the back-end in Seth Bernard-Docker, Tanner Sawka, Tucker McRae and Coltan Wilkie are joined by second-year junior Brayden Kapty — a Bow Mark Oilers grad who skated with the Calgary Canucks in 2019-20 — and rookie Logan Magowan for what’s a promising group on paper on the back-end.
“It’s going to be nice with all the experience we have and just the one really new guy, Magowan, in his first year in the league,” Parker said. “So far everyone is fitting in well and we should have some good chemistry on the back-end.”
Parker said practice sessions through the development and exhibition season have been of the up-tempo and skill-based variety.
“A lot of the stuff we’ve been working on right now has been getting all the new guys up to speed on our systems,” Parker said. “The positional play in the d-zone and where we want guys positioned if there’s a battle in the corner, things like that.
“We’ve been touching on that lightly so far and we’re going to get a lot more into that as the regular season hopefully comes around sooner than later.”
Through four games with the Brooks Bandits in the exhibition season, the Oilers have yet to taste victory with a pair of losses in regulation and in overtime.
The Bandits eked out the 6-5 overtime victory on Oct. 16 in Okotoks after the Oilers rallied late with Parker and Bernard-Docker scoring in the final three minutes. Brayden Morrison, Zane Kindrachuk and Rieger Lorenz also found the back of the net.
Brooks took the Oct. 17 meeting on home ice by a 3-1 count with Okotoks rookie Nolan Flint providing the only offence with a first-period tally.
“It feels like it’s been four playoff games already,” Parker said. “It’s clear to see the rivalry that Okotoks and Brooks has and it’s obviously carried over from last year and the year’s before.
“I think the biggest things for us are going to be to play five-on-five against Brooks and anyone else we play against. We need to stay out of the box, we’re really good five-on-five, we’re a really good forechecking team and we’ve got good depth and once we get our four lines rolling we’re pretty dangerous.”
One other area the Oilers hope to improve in the third weekend against the Bandits is in the full 60-minute department.
“We have had good third periods so far,” the defenceman added. “Obviously you want to play full games, that’s what we’re trying to piece together right now the full 60-minutes start to finish. But it’s always a little easier when you have those good finishes to games to get that energy at the start.”
The six-game series comes to a close this weekend with Okotoks playing host on Oct. 23 at 7 p.m. and the finale going the following evening in Brooks. For more information go to okotoksoilers.ca
