No matter how this year's team fares down the stretch and in the playoffs, the Eagle Drilling Estevan Bruins believe that thanks to the quantity and quality of their prospects, they'll be restocked and ready to compete again next season.
Rick Oakes, Bruins director of player personnel and co-general manager, expects about seven or eight of their 1993-born prospects to make the roster next year, as many of them are progressing well in the AAA ranks.
"Our guys have had a great year on most of their respective teams," said Oakes. "We're looking forward to seeing them at spring camp to see how they've progressed and we're looking forward to having a large number of them in the lineup next year."
The Bruins have four players that are in the top 20 in Saskatchewan midget AAA league scoring, as well as some stellar defencemen and goaltenders on their protected list.
Forward Kyle Oleniuk is in his third year with the Moose Jaw Generals and is fifth overall in the Sask AAA league scoring race with 54 points, while Taylor Reich of the Saskatoon Contacts is sitting 12th with 41 points.
Estevan also has two local forward prospects who are excelling offensively this season; Tanner Froese playing in Swift Current and Ben Johnstone in Yorkton have 35 and 41 points respectively, and are having great years.
"Reich, Froese, and Johnstone played a number of exhibition games with us this year and all three were very close to cracking the lineup, and we have a very veteran laden lineup, so it speaks volumes as to what those three guys can do," said Oakes.
As far as defencemen go, Oakes said they have two solid players in Yorkton playing for the Harvest in Kade Halabuza and Denin Boesch. Halabuza, who has had a very good year despite some injury problems, has been contributing a lot lately and the Harvest are very happy with his progress.
The Bruins are also excited about their 16-year-old defensive prospects as well, namely Tyler Bell, who plays for the Regina Pat Canadians. Oakes said Bell is a big, strong kid who's played two years of AAA and he believes he's going to be able to make the jump to junior next year.
Estevan's goaltending prospects look very strong as well. They have two stoppers at the top of their list who play currently play in the Sask AAA league.
"Steven Glass is probably our No. 1 goaltending prospect," said Oakes. "He's playing in Beardy's this year and we have another young guy, a 16-year-old, Travis Pelletier that's playing in Moose Jaw with the Generals."
According to Oakes, the Bruins also have some great looking younger players in Manitoba as well.
We've got Jesse Bernard who's playing with the 小蓝视频west Cougars; he's leading the (Manitoba midget AAA) league in scoring," Oakes said. "We have a defenceman there as well by the name of Tanner Butler and we're looking forward to seeing (him) next year as well."
As a whole, Oakes said the future is looking good for the Bruins as they are in good from the net out.
"Overall we're very happy with the progress of our prospects," he said. "Some of these guys have been on our list for three years, so we're excited to have them in our lineup next year. Seeing them develop is a fun process."
