Who is your favourite North Star?
Just wait, you may not want to answer that just yet. The Battlefords North Stars are in the midst of evaluating and working towards their 2010-11 opening day roster.
Training camp was held at the Civic Centre on the weekend and, as expected, there was no shortage of forwards with potential and talent.
Nearly 40 forwards took to the ice including hopeful returning players Josh Daley, Boyd Wakelin, Shay Neufeld, Blake Tatchell, Nathan Tomac, Tony Oak and Brett Miller. According to North Stars' head coach and general manager Ken Pearson, the veterans returned with the right attitude and in good shape and the youngsters did a good job to push to older guys.
"We are pretty pleased," said Pearson of the weekend camp. "We thought it went well. Our young guys merged well with our older guys and some of the young guys played real well on the weekend."
After a practice and three scrimmage sessions for the 60+ hockey players, the numbers where cut down to 24 forwards, 12 defenceman and four goalies for the black and white game. Although it was one-sided Sunday, there was an optimistic look to the season as the players showed plenty of skill and hard work. Kyle Birch was stellar in the white net not allowing a goal and, after camp, two rookie goalies stuck around in Blair Mahon and Garrett Montour. Team white, coached by Dan O'Connor of CJNB, took the game 9-2.
Graham Hildebrand, who had a spectacular pre-season last year, is sidelined for at least another two weeks with an injury meaning the two other rookie goalies will get a chance to prove themselves while he is recovering.
On the blue line, returning players Dominic Perrault, Woody Klassen and Cody Folstad make for a solid core to build around and, with the addition of Jacob Chiblow, the 1990-born defenceman, they should have a strong four. Other rookie defenceman will have every opportunity to make the team with open roster spots on the blue-line.
Monday night, the younger rookies were in Eston playing for a chance to keep their name on the 50-man protected list and Pearson said the game accomplished what they had hoped despite the 8-3 loss to Kindersley.
"A few young guys got their eyes opened up," said Pearson. "We got what we needed, some young guys got a chance to see some action and that's what we wanted."
Blake Young, Joel Blaquiere and Brayden Serafini tallied for the North Star rookies.
Tuesday night, Pearson was planning to dress a few younger rookies, along with the older rookies and two or three veterans to fill out the roster against Humboldt.
Wednesday night, more veterans are expected to draw into the lineup since that is the final time the North Stars fans will have a chance to see the team play before the season opener Sept. 18 against Kindersley.
The remainder of the pre-season schedule, which takes the North Stars to Dauphin, Man., Yorkton and Humboldt, should make for some interesting hockey and tough decisions for Pearson and his staff.
There are high expectations for the North Stars this season and now the debate begins about which players should don the jerseys and try to live up to those expectations.
"We are going to see our younger guys pushing our veteran guys for spots and we are going to see our veteran guys, I hope, push back and keep their spots on the hockey club," said Pearson. "I expect some real good battles going forward here."
