Construction continues for the rebuilding St. Albert Merchants.
The foundation is in place for the Capital Junior B Hockey League team with several pieces in place from the fourth-place 21-16-1 finish in the west division and quarter-final playoff appearance.
“It was a bit of a rebuilding season. We were fairly young. We had a lot of first-year guys,” said Zach Rodda, the new head coach after serving five seasons as an assistant coach with the Merchants. “Overall, I think it was extremely successful. It was a really good building year. We built a lot for the future. We’ll be in a really good spot this year with the midget grads from last year getting a full season in of junior hockey. They know how the league works now.”
The Merchants scored as many goals as they let in during the 38-game regular season while averaging 3.95 at both ends of the ice.
Defensively, it was a substantial improvement after averaging 4.55 goals-against the previous season.
“We were exactly even (at 150 goals for and against) so we’re definitely going to build from the back end up,” Rodda said. “We’re really going to strive to be a good defensively sound team that’s hard to play against in our zone.
“Good defence creates good offence so that’s definitely something we want to improve on this year,” he added. “We’re going to be pretty big and mobile on the back end, our goaltending is looking pretty good and we’ve got a ton of speed up front. We’re going to play in-your-face style of hockey so it will be very exciting hockey to watch.”
This week’s two-day conditioning camp gave Rodda and his staff a sneak preview of some of the newcomers and veterans projected to attend the main camp, starting Monday at 9:30 a.m. at Akinsdale Arena. So far, more than 30 players have been confirmed for the tryout sessions.
“We have 17 guys eligible to come back out of the 23 from last year,” said Rodda, noting four of the five 20-year-olds from last season are returning as overagers as teams can carry a maximum of four 21-year-olds. “Guys like Andy Barr, Jack Langenhahn and Peter Corrigan are back with us. We have a couple of four-year vets like Dan Spatafora. We’re still waiting to confirm a few other guys, they’ve got some work stuff going on, as well as some other returners.”
Rodda, 28, a forward back in the day in the St. Albert minor hockey system, started coaching 10 years ago.
“I’m just really excited for this opportunity. It’s my first year as a head coach so I’m still learning some of the aspects of it, but I was blessed to learn from three or four really, really good coaches in the past four or five seasons so I feel like I’m ready to take that jump,” said the Paul Kane high school alumnus, who will be joined behind the bench by Jake Behiels, B.J. Smith, Dallas Cantera and trainer Scott Paradis. “I’ve got a pretty good coaching staff in place and we can’t wait to get started.”
The Merchants skate into the season with exhibition games Friday against the host Sherwood Park Knights at 8:15 p.m., Sept. 9 against Edmonton Royals at 8 p.m. at Confederation Arena and Sept. 16 against the Knights at 8 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
The 35th anniversary season for the Merchants kicks off with the Sept. 21 home opener against the Beverly Warriors, who swept the Money Men in the best-of-five quarter-final series.
The Merchants will also unveil their anniversary edition jerseys at the CJHL lid-lifter.
Leading up to the 8 p.m. puck drop is the tailgate party starting at 6:30 p.m. Original Joe’s charity food truck will provide hamburgers and hotdogs to the first 150 fans in exchange for donations to the Diabetes Research Foundation of Canada.
It’s also Kids in the Crowd Night and tickets are available at school offices in St. Albert for free child admission when accompanied by a paying adult ($5 for adults and $2 for seniors).
Visit www.stalbertmerchants.com for more information.
