The Rebels entered the off-season with five players who would be headed to their overage season with the team.
Kristian Reichel signed a contract with the Winnipeg Jets AHL affiliate, the Manitoba Moose, and is not expected back in the Red and Black.
That signing left Riley Lamb, Colin Paradis, Reese Johnson, Brandon Hagel and the recently re-acquired Jeff de Wit fighting for the league limit – three overage roster spots.
A victim of the numbers game, Riley Lamb would not be part of the team’s plans for the 2018-19 WHL season. This information became public through the Red Deer Rebels radio play-by-play man Cam Moon in an interview with Guy Flaming of The Pipeline Show.
That interview can be found HERE: Cam Moon on The Pipeline Show August 18th
Despite having a 13-11-3-2 record while overcoming a thumb injury from training camp, Lamb was unable to maintain his place among the Rebels crease minders.
It is believed Lamb was released to make room for incoming rookie Byron Fancy. An early second round pick in 2016 by the Rebels, Fancy played the last two seasons with the Midget AAA Lethbridge Hurricanes. He was also part of the team that went to the national championships last year. Last season, Fancy played in 15 regular season games sporting seven wins three losses and five ties while allowing 2.47 goals per game and posting a .892 save percentage. Fancy has also seen some ice time with the Rebels, given spot duty in a game in each of the last two seasons. He will be given every opportunity to back up Ethan Anders full-time in 2018-19.
This also means that nearly 18-year-old Ethan Anders has been handed the opportunity to be the team’s number one netminder. Thrust into the starting netminder’s position early last year when Lamb went down with injury, Anders handled the responsibility with poise. Despite owning a 10-19-6-1 record, Anders was named WHL goalie of the week for the week of January 22-28th and helped the team out of a long slump.
Anders went undrafted to the WHL team and was listed while playing for the Tisdale Trojans in the 2016-17 SJHL season. He has also not been drafted into the NHL, and will be looking to make strides and have the scouting community notice him this season.
Newly added goaltending coach Kraymer Barnstable will have his hands full training the new tandem in the crease. The former Red Deer Rebel was added to the coaching staff during the off-season.
With training camp set to start later this week, the Rebels will also take a look at some of their recent bantam draft picks and set themselves into the future. Dylan Lacroix and Zane Winter were both selected in the 2018 bantam draft and while ineligible to play full time this season, will look to impress the coaching staff enough to be considered for the 2019-2020 season.
