NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Brayden Boehm corrals the puck while Owen MacNeil skates alongside in the Tigers scrimmage Sunday, their final of their three-day training camp.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
With training camp coming to a close for the Medicine Hat Tigers, there are a lot of roster decisions looming for general manager and head coach Willie Desjardins.
“Now you’re into some tough decisions on who’s going to play, you have extra 20s, (Oskari) Kuntonen is in camp now, which is exciting because now we have extra guys here and spots are going to be hard to come by,” Desjardins said. “I hope guys know that just because they played last year doesn’t mean they play this year. We want more. We need to be better this year, so I think there’s going to be a challenge for spots.”
Kuntonen, the Tigers 2020 import draft pick is one of four 20-year-olds competing for the three overage slots, with Noah Danielson and Brendan Lee returning from last season and invitee Dallon Melin, who played in Red Deer with the Rebels in 2021-22, also in the mix.
There was a competitive atmosphere to the Tigers training camp that got underway Friday and wrapped up Sunday afternoon. Each of the three scrimmages featured checking, hard puck battles and a lot of chirping between the orange and black teams.
Desjardins said that competitiveness started behind the bench.
“(Associate coach) Joe (Frazer) was running one bench, (assistant coach) Josh (Maser) was running the other and we want those guys to compete, we want that to be really competitive and it translates to the players,” Desjardins said. “I go back to when I first came to Medicine Hat, that was the very first thing I tried to bring in was a really, really competitive nature, where every drill was important, every drill guys got excited to win. Competition can bring out the best in you, it can also bring out the worst, but we want it to bring up the best and we have to work that way. We’re going to have to compete hard against each other but we compete fair and honest.”
Desjardins said the 2007 draft class that was selected in May had a great camp and provided excitement for their potential.
“There’s a lot to be really excited about. Every year you’re excited about your young guys, but I think this year was even more so,” Desjardins said. “(Gavin) McKenna was really good, (Hayden) Harsanyi was really good, (Matthew) Paranych was excellent, (Kadon) McCann was really good and (Jordan) Switzer had a really strong camp. Even more than that, there was more depth than them but those guys all had great camps.”
Desjardins said if those players play games for the Tigers this season, he doesn’t think they would be out of place. There were also multiple returning players who impressed Desjardins in different ways.
“I thought (Brayden) Boehm had a good camp. I think he led us in scoring in those games and he finished first in our fitness testing,” Desjardins said. “That shows something, you put the time in off the ice and you’re going to get rewarded on ice. Other guys really improved off ice, (Shane) Smith had big improvements off ice, (Josh) Van Mulligan did, (Oren) Shtrom did. There are some guys who worked hard this summer and we’re hoping it’ll translate on the ice.”
Desjardins said a good organization has older players who welcome the younger players into the competitive culture, which they are working on building again.
“We want all our young guys to feel welcome but we need them to know when they get on the ice, it’s going to be hard and they’re going to have to compete,” Desjardins said. “You need to build the right culture. If you build the right culture, winning will come. We’re back on building the culture that’s acceptable and if we put that together again, good things are going to happen.”
He added there is encouragement to take from training camp but it won’t mean anything if they don’t work hard.
“Those young guys and how talented they are, they’re pretty special. Some of the older guys are way more accepting, saying we have to make some changes, we got to make things happen. Looking at guys like (Owen) McNeil, Dru Krebs, Tyler MacKenzie, those guys are a big part of us saying, ‘We have to be a better team and we need to have that go through the group.’ I do think there’s some positive things but it’s a really tough league and we’re going to have to work really hard if we want things to change.
“Every group in the league says they’re going to be the hardest working team, every team says it. Only one team will be it. So we can say it but the question is, will we be it?”
