With training camp opening later today, the work begins on a brand new season for the Red Deer Rebels.
It will be a season of change, with three-quarters of the leadership group from last season having moved on. Captain Reese Johnson, along with assistants Brandon Hagel and Alexander Alexeyev, have all turned professional. Johnson and Hagel, together with the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL, will look to continue their development. Alexeyev will be given every chance to make the Washington Capitals out of training camp.
For Red Deer, that means the search is on to find the next group of core players, willing to sacrifice it all when the game is on the line — the types of players that like to play the ‘Sutter’ style of hockey fans in Red Deer have come to know and love.
That search begins with the only remaining assistant captain, Dawson Barteaux. A sixth-round draft pick of the Dallas Stars, Barteaux has already shown the Rebels that he is a leader among his peers. The 2000-born product of Foxwarren, MB, has steadily improved his game on the back end and will be looked upon to lead the team.
“We’re gonna rely on him a lot,” said assistant coach Brad Flynn in an interview earlier this off-season. “He has shown that when he plays to his expectations — that he sets for himself and that we set for him — that he is a very good puck-moving, intelligent defenseman in our league. He still has to show up and put the work boots on every day and punch the clock and go to work and make himself better. We expect him, like everybody else in our organization, to show up every day and be a good person off the ice and a fierce competitor on the ice and do what you do well and let the chips fall where they may in terms of ice time. He’s going to have a lot of opportunities to play a lot of big minutes. It’s going to be pretty much up to him how much he is going to play, on how many minutes he is going to be able to handle with his off ice conditioning that he does during the summer, which he works really hard at, and how big of a step he is going to take skill-wise.”
Along with Barteaux, there are some other players on the Rebels that have played key roles, including Cameron Hausinger, Brett Davis, Chris Douglas, Ethan Sakowich, and Josh Tarzwell. There may be others not mentioned here, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t on the coaches’ radar.
It is also possible that the team will groom their next captain by handing over an ‘A’ to one of the young guns that make the team out of camp. There are all kinds of candidates in that category, including but not limited to Chase Leslie, Ryan Gottfried, Zak Smith, Kyle Masters, and Jayden Grubbe.
There isn’t expected to be a large team meeting or any kind of hoopla surrounding the team making their decisions on leadership among players. It is expected that the team will name a captain in the coming days and allow the players to showcase themselves and present the team with options for the naming of the assistants.
