Icing a lineup for exhibition hockey has never been more intricate.
The Okotoks Jr. B Bisons are planning a home-and-home set with the Strathmore Wheatland Kings on Oct. 9-10, but the Heritage Junior Hockey League combatants have more than a few decisions to make before puck-drop.
“The difficult thing is everyone is taking it day by day until we find out exactly when we can go back to playing,” said Bisons head coach Chris Beston. “We have set up some exhibition games, we’re just trying to finalize that stuff.
“It’s a different kind of a set up this year, now you have to submit a cohort of 20 from each side and only those guys are allowed to play until you finish that cohort and then you take a 14-day break and then you can go to another cohort.”
Having only 20 players available in a cohort, for both the practice and games, during the evaluation part of the season is challenging.
“We’re trying to work out some logistics to keep them on the ice and keep them skating so they’re not sitting out too long,” he said. “We’re trying to look at the bubble players a little bit more, look at some kids, we want to get them in games, but yet we want to get what we foresee our team playing as well.
“It’s just a little bit of a juggling act at the moment.”
Another big decision on the horizon for the Bisons brass is picking the four overagers — the maximum allowed — who will make the squad out of the group of five returners in forwards Tyson Scott, Tyler Witzke, blueliners Bryan Weber and Kale Hawryluk as well as goaltender Devin Reagan.
“I want to get those guys in a game, we have a pretty good idea of where everybody stands, but we owe it to them to give them at least a few games,” the coach added. “Unfortunately, there will be a guy or two who will sit out that are 21-year-olds in the first cohort and then we will get them in the second one, for sure.”
The Bisons currently have 31 players with them through the pre-season with the hopes of trimming down to the 25-27 mark closer to when the games get underway, the coach said.
“We’ve been running some skill practices just trying to get a better look at some things, we’ve still run a few blue and white games,” Beston said. “I think this week we’re going to start getting into a little bit more systems play and get people a little bit more comfortable with the system we’re going to run and just try to get a bit more a head start on everybody.”
With the High River Flyers not icing a team for the 2020-21 season, four of those players in forwards Layne Sniher, Josh Russo, Josh Fleck and blueliner Liam Thiessen are with the Okotoks squad along with a number of talented Okotoks minor hockey graduates looking to make the herd.
“We have a real deep pool and we actually have a lot of midget-aged players that came to us this year, more than normal,” Beston added. “It’s going to be one of those conflicting years because you want to try and keep as many of those graduating midgets as you can because you know you’re going to have them for three years minimum, but yet you’ve got some veterans that you don’t want to release just to keep your team the top team in the league.”
For more information go to okotoksbisons.com
