Kings coach optimistic for new season

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Agra Risk Wheatland Kings Head Coach, Doug Raycroft, says there is a lot to work on with the new team following the conclusion of the exhibition season. 

Squaring off against Airdrie for a home and home, followed by two games against Red Deer, the Kings closed the exhibition rounds with a 3-1 record.

“Overall, there are a lot of things to work on. We have big turnover this year with players, so we definitely noticed areas of weakness and things to work on going forward,” he said. “Mostly, exhibition is for sorting out your team and trying to pick the right players so you can get ready for the season. I think we did a good job of that, so we are ready to go next weekend with our home opener.”

Raycroft added following a summer off the ice, as well as building a fresh team has left the Kings pretty rusty – but that bodes true for all the teams within the league.

Many of the mistakes being made on the ice that are uncharacteristic of the Kings, he explained, are happening because the team is still finding their footing and resharpening their skills.

“We noticed a lot of defensive zone mistakes and a lot of complacency in our own end especially. We are going to obviously work on that and be ready to go for next weekend,” said Raycroft. “I think mostly, we are excited for the year, but we realized we have a little bit of work coaching here to get back to the level we were last year for sure.”

During the exhibition games, the Kings featured several of their veteran players over the course of the two weekends. 

Raycroft’s roster, as of the end of the exhibitions, was still incomplete and had yet to be fully set in stone. 

His idea being to see how many of the guys meshed as a team for the first time before making his final cuts.

“We wanted to give lots of opportunities to our young guys to try to make the team … we gave lots of games to the younger guys and tried to get a good look at them,” he said. “We have cut quite a few already. I think we are just down to two or three (cuts left), so we are right down to the last ones here. We are not quite sure yet how many rookies we will have because we have a couple more cuts to do, but we are going to have half a dozen at least I think.”

Among Raycroft’s promising upstarts are Cole Tweit from Langdon, Luke Nottveit from Chestermere, and Trey Kam, also from Chestermere.

The first game of the regular season for the Wheatland Kings will be against Ponoka, Sept. 19. The following day will see the Kings square off against High River. Both games will be played on home ice at the Strathmore Family Centre.