There is a lot of familiarity on the Calgary Hitmen pre-season roster.
At the end of training camp, new Head Coach Steve Hamilton said that he intentionally avoided talking about players with other staff members to develop his own opinions about the roster.
Hamilton must have liked what was already in place, as 23 of 31 players to make the pre-season roster played for the Hitmen at some point last season — included in those 23 players is Nick Sanders, who never played a second for the Hitmen after being acquired at the trade deadline, but spent the final two-plus months rehabbing with the Hitmen and has 57 career games in the Western Hockey League.
“I wanted to formulate my own thoughts as we transition out of camp and into our pre-season and start to look at the group more critically. Now, we can create some lines, some different looks and work on all facets of the game,” said Hamilton.
Predictably, the overagers are in place with Luke Coleman (forward), Jake Kryski (forward) and Sanders. Same goes for the imported players in Vladislav Yeryomenko (defenceman, 1999) and Egor Zamula (defenceman, 2000).
Recent acquisitions in this calendar year have led to the uncertainty in net, as the Hitmen will carry four goaltenders with them for the near future.
As mentioned, Sanders was brought in during his 19-year-old season to presumably replace the graduating Nick Schneider. Sanders has logged the most minutes in the WHL, but hasn’t played since Oct. 17 of last season.
Earlier this month, the Hitmen sent a conditional fourth-round Bantam Draft pick to the Seattle Thunderbirds for Carl Stankowski (2000).
Stankowski brings the most success in the shortest time frame to the goaltending battle. As a 16-year-old, he played in seven games, but filled in for the injured Rylan Toth and led the Thunderbirds to an Ed Chynoweth championship.
The major issue and question mark that will surround Stankowski for the rest of his career is his health. The Calgary native missed the entirety of last season with inflammatory arthritis that has aggravated him in his hips and back in the past.
With no cure, the Hitmen are unsure what they will get from the goaltender this season, but early reviews look great.
“I was very impressed with Carl. From the hockey perspective, he went out and you would have never known the sat out a year. He claimed he was rusty and felt rusty, but he looked great and we thought he had a great showing this week,” said Hamilton. “Off the ice, his health is a priority. We’re not going to sprint to get him in net and wear him down. We want to give him time to acclimatize back to the daily grind. We want to make sure he’s in position to go through the grind of season again.”
With those two unknown injury question marks, the Hitmen decided to keep last year’s backup netminder Matthew Armitage.
Armitage is entering his second season in the league during his 19-year-old campaign.
The Creston native sat and watched most of last season while Schneider reset the Hitmen record book for most saves (1,651), games played (61) and minutes (3,491).
Armitage went 4-2 down the stretch last year and finished 4-7. The Hitmen probably want to get a few more looks at him to determine if he is the goalie that started the season 0-5 or if he’s the guy that finished the season of a hot stretch.
A surprising name in the mix is Jack McNaughton, a 17-year-old who took his Calgary Royals to the Alberta Midget Hockey League semifinals against the eventual champion Lethbridge Hurricanes. In 21 regular season starts, McNaughton went 14-6-1 with a 2.58 goals against average and a .906 save percentage.
Different from this year, the Hitmen brought 13 rookies to the pre-season in September of 2017.
Last year, the Hitmen were in more of a rebuilding mode than this season’s club, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there are less new faces that broke camp.
Of the eight new faces, six of them come up front.
Two of the top picks from the recent draft will stick around for a little longer in Sean Tshigerl and Tyson Galloway, but probably won’t open the season with the team.
Zach Huber (2000), Orca Wiesblatt (2000) and Hunter Campbell (2001) are the returning full-time players that could be in jeopardy.
The three off them were often found on the troublesome fourth line last year and didn’t provide that much defensive stoppage or offensive production.
Last year, Huber recorded five points and was minus-5 in 56 games, Wiesblatt tallied 13 points and was minus-2 in 49 games and Campbell registered 11 points and was a minus-14 in 59 games during his 16-year-old season last year.
Looking to make the jump up to the full-time roster is Bryce Bader, who came incredibly close to cracking the roster as a 16-year-old last season.
Bader was one of the final cuts last year and got called up for three games. Away from the Hitmen, Bader scored 10 goals and posted 25 points in 30 games for the Sherwood Park Kings of the AMHL. He also recorded two assists in four games for the Sherwood Park Crusaders of the Alberta Junior Hockey League.
Connor Brock didn’t hang around as long as Bader in camp last year, but reached the annual intrasquad game at the end of training camp.
Brock ripped up the minor midget league last year with the NWCAA Bruins in Calgary with 28 goals and 21 assists 36 games.
Ty Carriere nearly won the Mac’s Midget AAA World Invitational last winter with the Red Deer Chiefs at the Scotiabank Saddledome despite missing Hitmen training camp with appendicitis. He managed to score 18 goals in 34 games for the Chiefs and looked good playing alongside Tristen Nielsen and Coleman in the intrasquad game.
Ryan Shostak is the biggest unknown on the Hitmen’s pre-season roster. The 2001-born forward brings no WHL experience to the table, but did power the Calgary Buffaloes of the AMHL with 13 goals and 12 assists 35 games. He was not in Hitmen camp last year and was never drafted by a WHL team.
Riley Fiddler-Schultz is a little more well know of a name, as he was reassigned after the Young Guns Game last year but impressed enough to crack the pre-season roster as the only 16-year-old not to play for the Hitmen last year.
The only other two 2002-born players both played with the Hitmen last year. Ryder Korczak played three games and Luke Prokop suited up in 14 games on emergency basis. Prokop and Korczak were the Hitmen’s top two picks from the 2017 draft.
Two omissions following the intrasquad game were Matthew Gerke (2002) and Ty Naaykens (2001). Naaykens scored the eventual winning and insurance goal, while Gerke supplied two assists. Naaykens was in his first camp with the Hitmen, while Gerke was at rookie camp last year.
On the back end, all nine players played significant time with the Hitmen last year.
The Hitmen will boast a big back end this season regardless of who makes the opening day roster.
Daktoka Krebs (1999) and Dom Schmiemann (1999) stand 6-foot-4, Jackson van de Leest (2001) is the tallest at 6-foot-6, Zamula has reach at 6-foot-3, Andrew Viggars (2000) could be on the bubble and towers at 6-foot-3. Behind those trees stands some great puck moving defencemen in Layne Toder (2000), Yeryomenko (1999) and Prokop.
Devan Klassen (2001) filled in during an emergency basis last series for nine games but could be a long shot to break the pre-season with the team.
Even with all the familiar faces, there are still many jobs on the line. Hamilton now has an opportunity to get his hands on this roster and shape the team to what he feels is the best fit over the next few weeks.
