Kings prepare for upcoming season

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Agra Risk Wheatland Kings are readying for the upcoming regular season, with a new roster and a new gameplan in the wings. 

Head Coach, Doug Raycroft, explained the preseason training camps have been progressing smoothly, and though most of the roster is effectively set, there are still several decisions yet to make before the puck drops on the first exhibition games. 

“We have had a really good look at all the players and we want to see them in some games now, so we are looking forward to these games to try to figure out those last couple pieces and get ready for the season,” he said. “Everybody has to earn their spot, so we have not announced anybody or anything official yet, but we have got a lot of veterans; those guys come back and most of ours is figured out. We just have five or six spots that we are looking at and give guys a good chance to fight for.”

Raycroft explained the idea has been to gradually make practices harder and harder on the prospective team to get the boys prepared for the upcoming season.

To add fairness for the new rookies trying out, Raycroft said he added several team-based exercises in order to gauge how well they mesh with the returning roster. 

The exhibition season includes four games, squaring off against Airdrie Sept. 4-5 and Red Deer Sept. 13-14. Raycroft said he is looking forward to taking this opportunity see his new team on the ice in actual game settings for the first time in order to finalize the roster.

“At the beginning of the year, we have some summer skates and stuff – we work on edge work and some skills and stuff, but we want to make sure that we are not going too hard at the beginning where people get injured,” he said. “We want to build up and so there is more and more conditioning, and the drills are more high-paced as we go along to get ready to play the pace that we want to play for our games.”

Statistically speaking, Raycroft said last year was the best season the Kings ever played, finishing second in the regular season, then falling in the playoffs to Medicine Hat in Game 4 of their best of five series. 

Raycroft’s Kings have tended to favour fast, forward-focused games. He added once again, he will be adding to the philosophy of reinforcing play on the defensive side of the rink.

“We are always trying to adapt and get better. For us, I think the biggest thing is building a good team, a strong team – it is a long season and a rough league, so you want to have a team that can stick up for each other and plays fast,” he said. “A lot of the things we do is build around playing fast and moving the puck well, so it is a lot of the same stuff, but with the different crews you have to do it a little differently.”

The Kings two home exhibition games will be Sept. 6 and Sept. 13, with the season opener on Sept. 19 (7:45 p.m.) at the Strathmore Family Centre versus the Ponoka Stampeders.