The Okanagan Rockets will be defending their BC Major Midget League championship with a roster full of new faces.
After capturing their second BCMML title last season, the 2014-2015 roster will see up to 18 new faces on the club, but General Manager David Michaud is excited for the challenges facing his team.
Though the roster isn’t finalized, there is hope that there will be players returning to the club. “As far as returning faces go, the nature of the beast for us is that we’re at the mercy of the junior teams, much like the way they’re at the mercy of the pro teams when it comes to getting guys back,” Michaud said, “We came into the offseason expecting to get Mark Krabben (Victoria Grizzlies) and Mitchell Oliver (Vernon Vipers) back for our defense, and as it stands right now, both players are still at their camps and getting a long look there.”With a team full of rookies, there is plenty of room for new players to earn key roles, and that is exactly what has Michaud excited the season.
“We’re awfully excited about a 15-year-old defenseman, Nolan Kneen (drafted third overall by the Kamloops Blazers in the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft), who instantly becomes the highest draft pick to play for our organization.
He obviously comes with some expectations about what he’s going to be able to do for us,” Michaud said, “but with so much turnover, there’s lots of new faces to get excited about.”
The rookies aren’t the only newcomers to the team this year, as former Kelowna Rocket Simon Ferguson was brought on as Head Coach this offseason. “Simon was a guy that we felt his professional experience as a player would really be invaluable to our team, and he’s come in as advertised.
He was a really hard working, tenacious player, and I think his style will suit the team that we’re building this year.” Michaud also added that Assistant Coach David Whistle is still with the Rockets and will be critical to Ferguson’s success as a coach.With the season drawing near, the General Manager was careful to note that there is no easy competition this year as they defend their title. “We always expect that the Giants, Cougars, and Hawks will have good programs, but the league has more and more parity over the years.
We have a challenge this year as teams know we’re the defending champs, and they get up to play the defending champs, but the reality of the situation is we’re probably going to have 18 players that had nothing to do with winning last year. It’s going to be a unique season in the sense that we truly have the bull’s-eye on us.”
This weekend, there will be an exhibition tournament with 12 teams from the BCMML and the Academy League. The games are free of charge and the Rockets will be playing four times over the course of the exhibition series. They are the only exhibition games on the club’s preseason schedule.The regular season gets underway on September 20th with a pair of games against the Vancouver North East Chiefs at the Capital New Centre.
