NEWS File Photo
The Medicine Hat Tigers training camp gets underway today as preparations begin for the franchise's 56th season and their sixth championship defence. Head coach Willie Desjardins leads a drill in a practice in this file photo.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
A mere three months removed from hoisting the Ed Chynoweth Cup and falling in the Memorial Cup final, the Medicine Hat Tigers are back on the ice beginning preparations for the title defence.
Training camp gets underway today for the Tigers ahead of their 56th season as they look to add to the trophy case recently crowned with the club’s sixth championship, tied for the most in the WHL. That championship run in May, which encapsulated the city, is now in the rearview for head coach Willie Desjardins as they prepare for another grind.
“You approach every training camp the same, it doesn’t matter what happened the year before,” Desjardins said. “Hopefully you’re smarter from the year before, you learned as you went through. So hopefully we’ve learned from last year for things we can get better at.”
Desjardins is entering his 15th season in the WHL, carrying 523 wins, just four shy from a spot in the top 10 career coaching wins in the league.
This season comes with a new look to junior hockey with CHL players eligible to commit and play at NCAA schools. It’s led to the early departure of Tigers forwards Gavin McKenna, Cayden Lindstrom and Ryder Ritchie and others around the WHL. But they’ve also been able to recruit more U.S. players who had previously committed to NCAA schools and are now able to play in the CHL before going to those schools.
It’s a changing landscape that is yet to be fully painted, just on the precipice of getting the background finished. For Desjardins, the NCAA rule change doesn’t alter his plans, he’s chasing a seventh banner to hang from the Co-op Place rafters. It is a change in Medicine Hat, the first training camp in three season where the No. 72 won’t be followed up and down the ice by fans dreaming of a season of highlights and wins.
Is it a new era in Medicine Hat? Desjardins doesn’t think so.
“We have lots of guys the same you know, I think we’re going to have an exciting team,” the franchise’s winningest coach said. “We have some high-end guys, so I don’t think anything’s changed, I think it’s going to be a really exciting team. It’s like last year though, we’re going to build as the year goes. How much we build, we’ll see. But I think we’ve got a good start.”
The Tigers have invited 86 players to training camp, split among four teams set to play in an eight-game tournament starting today running to Saturday before an intrasquad game on Sunday wraps camp. They have 15 returnees from the championship team last season, not including Finnish defencemen Niilopekka Muhonen and Veeti Väisänen who will not attend camp due to the long summer and attending pro camps, but are on the Tigers roster.
Of the 86 invitees, 34 are 2010-born players who are ineligible to play full time this season. With the extended 2024-25 season, the Tigers did not hold a rookie camp over the summer, getting a look at that next wave of players this fall. All seven players the Tigers signed this off season – Noah Davidson, Kyle Heger, Kade Stengrim, Gavin Kor, Jaxson Craig, Carter Casey and Luke Warrener – will also be at camp competing for spots. Import drafted forward Yaroslav Bryzgalov is also at camp.
They have 16 players on the training camp rosters, born from 2006 to 2009, all vying for a spot with the returnees. Included in those are 19-year-old forwards Will Jamieson and Dayton Reschny. Jamieson played 10 games for the Seattle Thunderbirds before going the Camrose Kodiaks of the AJHL (four goals, 10 points in 15 games.) Reschny, who turns 19 in October, played in the BCHL with the Bonnyville Pontiacs (seven goals, 21 pants in 24 games). There’s also four 18-year-old forwards, Ben Deacon, Ethan Stewart, Miller Komarniski, Colson Ganser and Ethan Makokis.
Desjardins says it starts with competition for spots and then competition for the ice time as the calendar ticks toward opening night on Sept. 20.
“The way I always want guys to look at it, they want their teammates to be great and then they want to be better,” Desjardins said. “You don’t want your teammates to be bad, so then you’re better just by default, you want them to be great, then you want to find a way to be better than them. It’s where you’re pulling for each other but you’re determined you’re going to make it to the top.”
Camp scrimmages run today from 10 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. The rest of the schedule can be found on the Tigers’ website along with the entire roster for the training camp. All skates are open to the public.
