Miramichi Sports: T-Wolves Rebuild Begins

MIRAMICHI - The Miramichi Timbewolves hit the ice at the Miramichi Civic Centre for Day 2 of training camp Saturday with 38 players trying to make the cut.

Some familiar faces were among the players at camp with a handful of returnees hitting the ice, but new head coach Rob MacDonald said nobody is guaranteed a spot on the roster on the Maritime Junior Hockey League team.

“This camp's wide open,” the coach said. “So realistically every spot is up for grabs.”

After a couple of strong regular seasons coupled with disappointing playoff results, this year's edition of the T-Wolves is younger and less experienced. MacDonald said fans will see a very different team this season.

“No question. If you look at the team last year a lot of 20s moved on, a lot of young prospects were traded away in trades last year. So this is a total rebuild. We know what we're in for but to have success it's just gonna take a lot of hard work and some patience. Every night we won't be outworked. We'll never be out worked but we're going to be in tough early on,” he said.

For the past three seasons, the T-Wolves roster, under then general manager and head coach Billy McGuigan, changed frequently and sometimes dramatically. McGuigan left the team over the summer to take the head coaching job with the Summerside Western Capitals.

MacDonald said fans can expect a different approach to running the team this season.

“We don't plan on having a whole bunch of turn over, bring in a bunch, sending out a bunch. That's not what we want to do. We want to develop and get better each year,” he said.

Of the 38 players in camp, 11 are goaltenders. MacDonald said the starter and back up jobs are wide open and he expects to thin the herd out this week.

“We're going to cut down after today's practice because we can't evaluate 11 in a game situation but we'll cut down to six for the inter-squad game today and this weekend. After that we'd like to cut it down to three or four heading into next weekends exhibition season,” he said.

Inter-Squad scrimmages are scheduled for today at 4:30 p.m. and Sunday at the same time.

The T-Wolves play their first pre-season game next Friday, Sept. 2, in Campbellton against the Tigers. The teams then switch venues and go at it again in Miramichi the next night at 7 p.m. Miramichi’s first regular season game is Friday Sept. 16 in Woodstock against the defending division champion Slammers. Miramichi’s first home game is the following night at the MCC against the Pictou County Weeks Crushers. Puck drop is 7:30 p.m.

Season tickets are on sale right now and MacDonald had a message for fans on the fence about returning this season.

“This is a team we want to build. Not gonna lie to them, this is a rebuild. But what we do promise is an entertaining, hardworking, lunch bucket team that will give 100 per cent effort every night. We will be young but we want to build for a championship. Any championship team that has been built was built from the grass roots up., you have to bring in your own players and you have to develop them. And that's what we plan on doing,” he said.