With as many as 17 veterans potentially returning, next week’s main training camp and tryout process for the Richmond Sockeyes may appear to be nothing more than a formality.
Not so fast, says new head coach Steve Robinson who is determined to get the storied junior hockey franchise back to serious championship contention.
Richmond has not gone beyond the opening round of the Pacific Junior Hockey League playoffs the past two seasons and have been eliminated by the Grandview Steelers for three consecutive years. The Sockeyes are guaranteed to be playing next April as host of the Cyclone Taylor Cup but want the provincial showcase event to be part of a deep post-season run.
“Nobody wants to be the guys going into the tournament that have had three weeks off,” laughed Robinson “The big thing now is to reunite that (winning) culture. The one thing that has happened the last couple of years, for whatever reason, the team has got more defensively positioned and become very deliberate.
“Almost to me, when I watched them, they had taken on the persona of trying not to lose rather than trying to win.”
Robinson has set the stage for a very competitive camp which starts Monday at the Richmond Ice Centre.
Forty players advanced from the club’s recent prospects camp. They will be joined by 10 others who received direct invites to the main sessions.
There will be two separate practice sessions each night to accommodate the 50 players. About 10 veterans will be removed from Friday’s camp finale that will simulate 4-on-4 and 3-on-3 overtime periods.
Robinson and assistants Mike Ball, Jordan Andrews and Brett Reusch will then trim their roster down to around 30 players. They all will tackle the Grouse Grind on Saturday before being invited back to the pre-season camp in mid-August.
The Sockeyes have already seen enough to offer player cards to forwards Logan Bromhead and Allan Gekham, along with defensemen EJ Shaw and Callum MacDonald.
Local product Kyle Ahlfied was acquired from Port Moody and also was signed.
“When you include the veterans as well and potentially three guys returning from junior ‘A,’ I’m already at plus 23 players,” said Robinson. “But the reality is the composition of the team the last three years wasn’t great. As much as they are all good guys and everyone gets along with each other, I have been brought in to win games. The question is of all those veteran depth guys, how much bump do I get compared to the hungrier younger guys? That’s where the juggling action comes in trying to find the right composition.
“The great thing about me being new is nobody is pencilled in to inclusion or the doghouse that perhaps they were before. Everybody gets a clean slate and that can work for you or against you. It’s up to them.”
Thanks to his impressive long run guiding Seafair rep teams, including the Midget AAA program, Robinson has had former standout players, still eligible for junior, asking about roster spots.
He also is reunited with goalie Troy Latrace who is going to make the time from his full UBC course load to play for Robinson in his final year in junior. That could fill a potential big void in the crease with last year’s standout Marek Pipes signed by Yorkton of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
