REGINA, SK
Bruins look to build off positives from 26/27
Certainly, a lot of attention was paid to the Bruins’ top veterans a year ago, including Ewan Rennie, Rylan Williams, Ethan Andrews, Noah Asmundson, and Matthew Ronn.
Still, a large contingent of youngsters had the opportunity to apprentice at an appropriate pace.
Head coach/GM Drew Kocur invested early in one of those youngsters, elite 2007-born defender Aiden Laing, and made him his captain for the 26/27 B’s in early August.
The 25/26 campaign saw plenty of highs, especially early, but some second-half lows led them to an eighth-place finish and a date with Flin Flon in Round 1. Though the Bruins kept almost every game in that series close, it was a pretty steep hill to climb, and Kocur has talked about finding consistency throughout the campaign ahead to avoid a similar situation, given the talent he has at his disposal.
Top line centreman Nathaniel Harvey returns to continue a development arc that saw him as one of the breakout stars in the league in the second half, and with Laing, veteran Jaren Ashbee, Owen Brees, and newly acquired hulking Ethan Nordli on the back end in front of the criminally underrated Dylan Adams in net, it should not be easy to score on this team this year.
Like with most teams in the league, scoring should be a work in progress, but Kocur and his staff often have some impressive irons in the fire for talent around the hockey world.
They will be looking for 20-year-old Drew Beasley, WHL-experienced Lochlan Tetarenko, and the freshly returned elite offensive producer Steven Steranka to fill some of the void left by the graduated elite producers like Rennie and Williams.
Let’s take a look at some key numbers from the last regular season for Estevan:
SJHL Co-Director of Media Jamie Neugebauer sat down with Head Coach and General Manager Drew Kocur ahead of the 26/27 season and got his thoughts on the upcoming year.
