It is a total coincidence, but still noteworthy, that the two teams heading into the year with new head coaches are the two West-Sask Rivals: the Battlefords North Stars and their southern cousins, the Kindersley Klippers.
Connor Logan, at 29 years old, will this year take his first Junior A head coaching job with the North Stars, for whom he played in 2016-17. He inherits a club with a few established leaders and a nice corps mostly in the 2006 and 2007 birth years; it’s a recipe for sustained success.
Logan wasted no time in naming his captains and leaders for the new year this summer, as scoring forward Anthony Campbell will wear the ‘C’, and underrated two-way defender Gavin Granger and talented power forward Josh Knittig the ‘A’s.
The most significant question marks are twofold: First, with long-time stalwart Justen Maric gone to the University of Regina, who is the answer in net? Second, can Logan and the Stars secure the services of star forward Kent Moors, who will start the year in the BCHL, but has a history with the Battlefords bench boss.
Let’s take a look at some key numbers from the last regular season for the North Stars:
Young Linken Fisher burst onto the scene last year on the back end and was dynamite when healthy, and acquisition of Raiden Zacharias up front looks to a be a savvy move to replace the offence of the departed Nikita Ivaschenko and Rylan Williams.
SJHL Co-Director of Media Jamie Neugebauer sat down with Head Coach Connor Logan in the SCSA Coaches’ Show ahead of the 25/26 season and got his thoughts on the upcoming year.
