Well the time is here the start of the WHL season and our Regina Pats open up the series against the team the swept us in the 1st round of the playoffs last year with very little fight put up by our team.
My last report BRN is still missing Jayce Hawryluk, Peter Quenneville, John Quenneville, Richard Nejezchleb (even though 2 of them are 20 & may not return anyways) Eric Roy was returned to BRN yesterday but has a shoulder injury that happened during CGY Flames rookie camp. As of this morning the Pats are without Klimchuk & Burroughs as both Christoffer & Hunt were returned to the team on Wednesday (I believe was the day).
Both teams have some worthy 16yr olds to watch in Sam Steel, Nolan Patrick and Kale Clague all 3 were top 10 picks in the 2013 Bantam Draft. As well as Tanner Kaspick (2nd rd) Ty Lewis & Luc Smith (both 3rd rd). Both teams also have 17yr old Russian defensemen who are making their WHL debut tonight in Sergey Zborovskiy (preaseason 3g2a +7 in 7gp) & Ivan Provorov (preseason 6assists +2 in 4gp)
Both teams are set with their starting goaltenders this year in Daniel Wapple (19yr) and Jordan Papirny (18yr) as always both will play key roles in the success either team has this coming season. The Wheat Kings on paper look to be able to fill the net on a consistent basis where the Pats may be more on a defense first outlook.
Look forward to tomorrow night's home opener but in the mean time I'll be watching tonight's game on webcast. For anyone who is interested there is a Early Bird special right now if you are interested in getting the package to watch all your teams away games for a price of $69.95, which is a great price considering each game runs at about $7 if I recall right from last year.