Construction is underway to rebuild the St. Albert Tire Warehouse Raiders into a winning midget AAA hockey team. The blueprint for success, according to new head coach Jack Redlick, revolves around four pillars: speed, compete, pressure and support.
Construction is underway to rebuild the St. Albert Tire Warehouse Raiders into a winning midget AAA hockey team.
The blueprint for success, according to new head coach Jack Redlick, revolves around four pillars: speed, compete, pressure and support.
“You need to be able to play with speed and it's not necessarily just skating but it's the way that you transition. You play with speed, puck movement and the ability to think two steps ahead, in essence,” Redlick explained.
“Compete is non-negotiable and we told them that on day one. We said we're not going to come in kicking and screaming trying to motivate them to play triple AAA hockey. We're going to find 20 guys who will compete so that will look after itself more or less.
“Pressure is pretty self evident. Usually the team that makes the least amount of mistakes is the team that will come out on top so we're going to force teams to make mistakes through pressure.
“Support is both on the ice and off the ice. We'll be very involved in the community this year because we're part of it and the Raiders have a huge legacy here. It's also a form of development in getting these guys ready for the next level because if they want to play junior there will be lots of community involvement. They've got to be able to manage the school and hockey cycle as well as still participate in the community.”
It's a work in progress after the Raiders suffered one of the worst seasons in team history with only seven wins and 17 points in 34 games to finish ninth out of 10 teams in the north and 16th out of 18 teams overall under then head coach Craig Goebel.
Monday's 5-3 exhibition win over the KC Pats signaled a fresh start for the Raiders after falling 13 points short of a playoff spot.
“Right now we're looking for habits and the attention to detail so we'll throw some structure at them here in the first few games,” Redlick said. “We're not looking for them to execute it exactly, we want to see who is willing to try and who is willing to kind of buy in because once stress hits the fan you'll default down to your lowest level of training. We'll see who is willing to adapt to new things or who is just going with what's comfortable for them.”
There are slightly more than 30 players in camp as junior teams finalize their rosters.
“It's been good thus far. We've had good responses. We pushed them with some team building stuff in camp for the guys to buy in,” Redlick said. “With players who come back from junior, especially as a 17-year-old, there is always a little bit of getting over that kind of thing. I don't think there is a 17-year-old that wants to come back and play midget AAA. They have that aspiration for junior but once they come back I like to talk to those 17-year-olds and let them know that we're here to develop them so that come the next season they're playing there and they're not going to be sitting on the bench, they will get some quality minutes at the next level. Sometimes you've got to take a step back. The goal is to play at the highest level you can where you can get the most quality minutes then you get the most development, which is better in the long run.”
Redlick, 33, spent the last four seasons with the Drayton Valley Thunder in the Alberta Junior Hockey League in a variety of capacities, including assistant coach, before applying for the bench boss position with the Raiders.
The last St. Albert rep team for the noted physical defenceman was midget AA before embarking on a 71-game career in the Western Hockey League with the Kamloops Blazers, Vancouver Giants and Regina Pats while registering five assists and 210 penalty minutes.
The St. Albert Catholic High School alumnus also skated in 26 games with the Victoriaville Tigres in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League before winding up with the Grande Prairie Storm in the AJHL and amassed 13 assists and 304 PIM in 52 games in 2003/04.
The Edmonton police constable considers the midget AAA head coaching role the next best thing to becoming a fulltime junior coach.
“Development-wise at the junior level there were some things where you're wondering ‘OK, they should be taught this already' so rather than I guess complain about it you do something about it so you come back and focus on development with these guys,” Redlick said.
“Also, growing up in St. Albert there is such a big legacy here with the Raiders program. They've been around for so long and so many good players have come into the organization. There really is a legacy here and there is no excuse why this shouldn't be one of the top midget AAA organizations in western Canada or in the country and it has all the tools to be such.
“It's an honour to come back and be selected to be the coach of this club and be part of that legacy.”
The Raiders continue pre-season action today against the Maple Leafs and Saturday against the Southside Athletic Club. Game times are 5:45 p.m. at Bill Hunter Arena.
The Raiders close out the exhibition schedule Friday against Grande Prairie at 5:15 p.m. at Bill Hunter and Wednesday versus the Sherwood Park Kings at 7:45 p.m. at Akinsdale Arena.
League play starts Oct. 1.
