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The Central Icepack have brought on a new bench boss. Shane Lukinchuk, head coach of the Grand Falls-Windsor Cataracts for the past three seasons, has parted ways with the provincial senior hockey champs to get back to what he enjoys most about hockey – developing young talent.

When the Central AAA Icepak hopefuls hit the ice in Lewisporte this weekend for the first tryouts, Lukinchuk will be back to his roots, sort of.

“I’ve never actually coached a midget team,” Lukinchuk told the Advertiser Monday, “But my background is at the junior level where I coached for eight years.

“Junior age ranges from 17 up to 20 so they’re fairly young players, too,” he said in comparing the dynamic of leading the two groups. “The midgets are a little younger than that but still, it’s not just my job to be on the ice every day, it’s their’s too.

“This is the closest thing we have in Newfoundland to junior.”

Lukinchuk said things might have developed differently for him as a hockey coach in this region had this door been open before.

“When I moved here, I knew nothing about the senior league but I had heard of the midgets. But, the timing didn’t work out,” he said.

Running the midget team is going to demand more time and commitment, he noted, with more regular season league games and more practice time than with the Cataracts. There are also a couple of out of province excursions.

The extra work isn’t a factor for Lukinchuk.

“What I enjoy most is developing younger players and the promotion of young players,” he added. “If they have aspirations of playing college or pro or whatever I look forward to using my knowledge and network to help them.”

Getting to practice more regularly and an opportunity to build team chemistry is part of the atmosphere he’s looking forward to.

“Practising and building team concepts is one of the intriguing parts for me,” Lukinchuk said. “Coming up with a yearly plan will be different because I didn’t get to do that with the Cataracts.”

Lukinchuk said his decision to switch organizations actually came quite a well ago.

It isn’t like Lukinchuk is running from a bad situation, however, and he admits there’s mixed emotions.

“Any time you spend three years with a group including the staff and the executive, it’s never easy to leave, especially when things are going good,” Lukinchuk said.

The Cataracts finished the regular season last year in second place with 13 wins and 10 losses and eventually pulled off a defence of their Herder Memorial Trophy before putting up a respectable showing in Allan Cup play.

“The team couldn’t be run any better than it is,” he said “There is an opportunity to build a roster right from training camp and play for the Allan Cup again this year, so its tough not to be part of that.

“But, then again, this is also an opportunity for me.”

The first home game for the Icepak (playing out of the Lewisporte Stadium) is Saturday, Sept. 26, at 8 p.m. against the Tri Pen Osprey.

A Cataracts official told the Advertiser last week an announcement on a new coach can be expected soon.