SASKATOON – He might not have the WHL resume of a Ken Hodge or Don Hay, but Dean Brockman has something that those legendary coaches may not have ever experienced, a career’s worth of adversity in one season!
Brockman and his staff of assistants Bryce Thoma and Ryan Keller all had their contracts extended through the spring of 2020 on Thursday.
In their first season together at the helm in 2016-17, Brockman, Thoma and Keller piloted the Blades to a record of 28-35-9 for 65 points, missing out on the WHL playoffs by five points. But, Brockman and his staff were lauded for doing as well as they did, considering Saskatoon lost almost 300 man-games to injury, with more than half of that to players aged 19 and 20.
“It was just a trying season in all regards,” said general manager Colin Priestner. “I think (the coaches) showed throughout the year that they got better and better. It was a no-brainer for us. It was just a logical extension of the work they did last year and we want to have these guys be a part of what we’re building in terms of building a championship team and a championship-type franchise.”
Before taking on head coaching duties with the Blades, the 50-year-old Brockman spent two seasons as an assistant to GM and head coach Bob Woods. Prior to that, the St. Benedict, Sk., native spent 17 seasons at the helm of the S.J.H.L.’s Humboldt Broncos.
“It tells your players that I’m going to be the guy they’re going to have to listen to over the next couple of years,” responded Brockman to what it means to him to receive the contract extension from Saskatoon. “You just develop that deeper rapport with them. For me, and I think for the organization, it was just important to have some stability in this position. We’ve went through some coaches over the last few years. I think it’s just good that we’re going to be one unit for a while.”
In addition to Thoma (aged 35) and Keller (33), Brockman will continue to have long-time volunteer assistant coach Jerome Engele and goaltending consultant Tim Cheveldae to lean on.
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At the same news conference Thursday, in which Saskatoon announced the contract extensions for the coaching
staff, the Blades re-adopted the “Pacman” logo and jersey on a full-time basis.
The “Pacman” was the franchise’s look for 12 seasons, from November, 1982 through the fall of 1994. During that time, the Bridge City Bunch qualified for the playoffs 10 times, won 11 post-season series and reached the WHL final in 1992 and 94.
“I love it!” said Brockman enthusiastically about the change of logo and jersey. “I think it’s great, there’s a lot of history in that logo. It just gives us that fresh air that we need…no more ‘stale blue’, now we’ve got the ‘royal blue.’”
The return of the skate blade, or “Pacman”, means the Blades have the Blue and Gold colour scheme back in their jerseys…a scheme that dates back to the franchise’s genesis in 1964.
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If anything, there will be symmetry of rosters when the Saskatoon Blades open their 2017 training camp on Saturday at SaskTel Centre.
The Bridge City Bunch expect to have 72 players register, go through medicals and physical testing before hitting the ice. The breakdown is eight goaltenders, 28 defencemen and 36 forwards. The group is being split into four teams for the three days of camp, meaning Teams (Wendel) Clark, (Braden) Holtby, (Glen) Gulutzan and Todd (McLellan) will each have two goalies, seven defenceman and nine forwards. The four teams will take part in a round-robin tournament, with the top two teams playing off for the “Kirkness Cup”, named after long-time Blades’ equipment assistant Bob Kirkness who was able to overcome cancer last year.
To further break it down, the Blades will go to camp with four, 20-year-olds (one more than W-H-L rules allow beyond October 10); six, 19-year-olds; 10, 18-year-olds; 14, 17-year-olds; 17, 16-year-olds and 21, 15-year-olds…the latter are not allowed to be regulars on a team. Twenty-three (23) of the players were invited to the Saskatoon camp.
The roster numbers will be reduced, significantly, once the Kirkness Cup is awarded late Monday afternoon.
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