The St. Albert Steel forge ahead into their fifth Alberta Junior Hockey League season with potentially the most promising team in franchise history.
“We’re excited to get going. It’s going to be a good year,” said Greg Parks, the head coach and general manager.
The Steel cut down to 25 players after Sunday’s 7-3 exhibition loss in Whitecourt against the AJHL champion Spruce Grove Saints. The line-up includes 11 returnees, plus four newcomers with AJHL experience.
“We’ve got a great squad this year. I think we’re going to be top three at least [in the north division],” said defenceman Matt Abt. “We’ve got lots of returning players. Those guys are going to guide everyone. They’re going to show everyone their roles.”
Reed Linaker, 19, and Taylor Fraser, 20, are the offensive ringleaders.
“We’ve got some pretty high-end skilled guys,” Parks said. “We’re going to be a team that scores some goals. Our power play is going to be very good, too. We’ve added some real good depth up front with players like the McNamaras [Liam and Mitch], Stefan Meunier and Andrew Gillespie.”
Rhys Hadfield, 20, is back between the pipes after appearing in 55 games last season for the fourth-worst defensive team in the AJHL. He led all goalies in minutes played (3,032), goals against (188), shots faced (1,861) and saves (1,673) for the 26-31-3 Steel.
Hadfield (26-25-3, 3.72 GAA) will share the net with Ty Swabb, 19, a former Sherwood Park Crusader.
“Goaltending is definitely a positive. By far it’s the best tandem we’ve had since we’ve been in St. Albert so we’re excited about that,” Parks said. “They will probably split the first 20 games and then we’ll go from there. Hopefully they will push each other a little bit and feed off each other. The idea is to keep them fresh. That’s the game plan as of now.”
The Steel has historically struggled defensively while giving up more goals than they have scored.
“Hopefully we can tighten up on the D zone and the penalty kill this year,” Parks said. “On the back end we’ve got five returning guys and some younger guys who are going to push them.”
The pre-season brought out the best in several hopefuls.
“There were a few surprises. Andrew Gillespie was one. He really earned a spot on the team. It was the same with McNamaras,” Parks said. “We’re fortunate enough that some St. Albert kids stood out. We’ve got eight on our roster now so that’s good news going forward for the local kids.”
The Steel opened their 60-game schedule Friday in Olds against the Grizzlys, but the score was unavailable at press time.
“It’s been a long preseason with eight exhibition games. We haven’t really had a full line-up yet so we’re excited to see how that will look Friday in Olds,” Parks said.
The Steel’s home debut is Friday against Sherwood Park at 7 p.m. at Performance Arena.
“It would be definitely nice to get off to a good start, but more importantly we’ve got to progress throughout the year,” added Parks. “We want to continue to get better day by day. We certainly don’t want to peak in November or anything like that. As long as we get a solid effort and we compete in games I don’t think the win/loss column is all that important necessarily right away. As long as we see development long term that’s what we’re looking for because it’s a long year.”
He is counting on several players to have breakthrough performances, including Abt. The six-foot-three 18-year-old from Leduc had a modest one goal, two assists and 41 penalty minutes in 37 games in his rookie season.
“Last year was awesome. Definitely lots of learning. Every game I gained a lot of confidence,” said the brother of Steel defenceman Jordan Abt, 20. “I didn’t get to play every game, which sucked, but some people have got to go through that. I fought through it so hopefully I can play every game now.”
Matt gives the Steel a strong presence on the blue line.
“I’m obviously big, so I like to play physical. I like to move the puck too, but I’m not going to go end to end. I guess I’m just a solid stay-at-home defenceman,” said Matt, who has received scholarship feelers from Boston University and University of Alaska Fairbanks.
ICE CHIPS: The Steel traded defenceman Thomas Ward-Cardinal, 19, to the Waywayseecappo Wolverines in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League for future considerations. The Hobbema resident asked for a change in scenery. He had nine goals, 30 assists and 89 PIM in 46 games after arriving from the Calgary Mustangs in a trade for disgruntled defenceman Ryan Wilkinson. Cardinal also quarterbacked the Steel power play and scored five times with the man advantage.
