Coming off its best season in franchise history the Bow Mark Oilers will have a different group set to make an encore.
The Okotoks U18AAA squad announced its roster on Sept. 18 after an uber competitive training camp and the Oilers will ice a team with four returning players along with a heaping of promising talent for the 2020-21 season in the Alberta Elite Hockey League.
"This year was quite a bit different from years past just in terms of the competition factor — we were a bit limited in what we could do earlier," said Bow Mark Oilers head coach Ryan Barrett. "Each player got three skates and they were a skill-development, social-distanced type skate and then we were able to get down to our cohort group and then we were able to play four inter-squad games and a best of three scenario there. And then we got down to our team.
"So it was pretty quick and that was without any competition from other teams other than internally."
In the absence of a more regular training camp and exhibition season, the shorter evaluation process can be challenging. That's where prior knowledge is helpful.
"You try to learn as much as you can from these guys and try to get out on the ice with them in development scenarios throughout the summers and you hope you can give yourself enough to work with in regards to if you do get short-changed on some of the viewings," the coach added. "At the end of the day, we were very surprised with some guys and we're extremely happy with the competition in camp and it was a benefit to know some of these guys, for sure."
Returning to the fold with playoff experience in hand are forwards Liam Watkins and Ethan MacIntyre as well as the blueline duo of Caden Scott and Kegan Law. Just two of the top-10 scorers from last year are back in Green and Black, Watkins and his 22 points in 32 games along with Scott and his 13 points from the back-end.
"Top-to-bottom we're a good club," Barrett said. "We've got a lot of offensive gifts up-front and a lot of hard work and on the back-end we can certainly skate and definitely move the puck. And in net, we're extremely strong. All in all we're shaping up on paper to what I can see as a very good hockey team.
"We've just got to make that translate on the ice."
Okotoks should be buoyed by a group of new additions fresh off a season to remember.
Six members of the Okotoks U16AAA that lit the AMMHL league on fire, capped off by a Sutter Cup South championship, have made the jump to the U18 team including league-leading scorer Hayden Pakkala, a Winnipeg ICE prospect, dynamic forwards Aidan McArthur, Conyr Hellyer, Ty McRuvie and Sam Callahan along with blueliner Avery Greig.
"The forward group is deep, from Liam Watkins to Brody Spencer-Ha up through the middle, we've got four centremen we think can play," the coach added. "We've got a lot of kids that can play centre, that can play the wing. There's a lot of opportunities for those kids to score goals with the groups they get to play with. We're excited to see those kids perform on the ice because they're going to be an exciting group to watch."
Also returning to the Okotoks fold is DeWinton's Connor Poffenroth who played in the league last season with the Airdrie CFR Bisons as well as hard-nosed forward Easton Inglis, who plied his trade in 2019-20 with the International Hockey Academy.
"Last year they were both right on that bubble of making the team or not and we went with an older group last year and asked those guys to develop and go to the program they think would suit them best," Barrett said. "We wanted them back in the mix here and they came in and did exactly what I hoped they would do.
"They played extremely well and made the team and, to be honest, almost made me look like I made a mistake last year, which they should do ... Full credit to those guys for not just making the team, but making an impact."
Other new additions include former Okotoks AA Oilers forward Brody Spencer-Ha, Foothills Bisons products Ty Hipkin and Alex Izyk along with Adam Kirkpatrick and Zach Stangness out of the Wheatland Chiefs program and defenceman Connor Claughton, who skated with Red Deer's AAA team in 2019-20.
"We're not an extremely large group of players back there, but we're extremely mobile," Barrett said. "Kegan Law is extremely excited to play, he missed a lot of last year ... This year, he's looking good and playing well. Caden Scott is another kid we expect a lot out of in his second year and he definitely has not disappointed.
"Those two will be our guys we lean on early and we'll expect those other four guys to learn as much as they can here in a short period of time."
It's a clean slate in goal with a pair of 2004-born netminders mining the last line of defence in Chestermere's Daniel Hauser, coming off a couple strong seasons at the Edge School for Athletes, along with former Calgary Buffaloes shot stopper Kashton Payne.
"Kash Payne, he's kind of new to us coming from the Buffaloes organization and through Derek Purfield our goalie coach, Kash Payne did extremely well through the whole camp and kept showing what he could as a goalie and Derek saw a lot of upside," Barrett said. "And Daniel Hauser, in my opinion, is probably one of the best goalies in Alberta right now for his age, if not Western Canada.
"All in all, the goaltending situation is extremely strong."
The structure of the AEHL season is still somewhat in limbo with the hopes of a full return to normal league play and travel in December should the province be in the next phase of the restart. In the interim, there could be some games against regional opposition starting next month.
"It's not a bad thing to get more practice time, you can work hard and structure your practices based on where you want to go rather than sometimes you play games and are a little more reactionary off that," Barrett said. "This year at least you can touch on all spots, we're going to be skating them hard and touching all aspects without the distraction of the game. We will just keep them focused and make sure they understand the importance of their academics and getting a strong start there."
No matter what the season will look like, it's just good to be back on the ice.
"It's amazing what a group of people can do for a person," the coach said. "When you're on your own quite a bit, it's a little different, but once you're around those groups and start having fun and start hanging out with guys and find out that guys have similar problems and are going through similar things, it becomes a lot easier to deal with the day to day issues for them.
"I think it's better that they're around one another right now, I think they need to be around their peers and have fun and learn from another rather than being subject to being stuck in a house for three or four weeks at a time ... I think it's invaluable for the age group and the kids nowadays."
For more information on the Bow Mark Oilers go to ooaaoilerhockey.ca.
