The next edition of the Flin Flon Bombers has began their journey, returning to the Whitney Forum in hopes of regaining lost glory.
The team's training camp is over and their preseason campaign is well underway, playing their fifth and final exhibition game Friday night at home against the MJHL's Northern Manitoba Blizzard.
There are quite a few spots left to fill this year and quite a few suitors for them - over 60 players, ranging in age from 16 to 20, came to the Forum to try their luck at camp. That group has since been whittled down to 17 forwards, nine defencemen and two goalies - 28 players in total, as of Sept. 12.
From that group, Bomber head coach and Mike Reagan feels he can craft another contending team. He felt positive about the new crew in an interview with The Reminder during training camp.
“I’m happy with where we’re at for this time of year. We’ve got a few guys that we’re still waiting on from major junior camps and that we’re excited about, the potential of them coming back,” said Reagan.
Returnees
There aren’t many pieces left from last year’s juggernaut Bombers, one of the best regular season squads in recent team history. Just 11 players remain from last year’s team - nine aged out of junior hockey, star forward Alexi Sylvestre will play NCAA hockey at Bemidji State and three 20-year-old players, Liam Bridger, Jerome Gilbert and Dawson Karol, have been traded this summer. Another 20-year-old player, defender Aiden Chow, is not with the club at camp and is presumed to be gone for this season.
All that remains from last year are six forwards, four defenders and a goalie. The remaining names up front are headlined by Carter Anderson, the SJHL’s top returning scorer. No other player in an SJHL camp this fall scored more points or goals in the league last year than the Thompson native.
Also up front are local fan favourite Joey Lies, sophomore playmaker Reid Arberry and all-purpose play drivers Keefe Gruener, Kylynn Olafson and Anthony Piccininno - the latter three are each entering their final junior A season, as is Anderson.
On the blueline, Cole Tanchuk headlines a four-man unit of veteran defenders, along with Luke Lepper, Conor Ryan and Pierce Yakimchuk, all left-hand shots.
“We’re happy with our core. When you look at the league finals and who was in our top six, Gruener was in our top six. Andy was playing in our top six - so was Senft and Piccininno. You’ve got four guys who have top six experience and the left side of our D core, four guys are returning. That’s a pretty good start,” said Reagan.
In net, the Bombers’ starter is set in stone - barring disaster, the starting job belongs to Kenny Marquart, the team’s backup for the past two seasons. After leading the SJHL in shutouts last year and either leading or coming second in every statistical category with battery-mate Harmon Laser-Hume, the crease belongs to Kenny now.
“Kenny, I think, deserves the opportunity. Not too many 18-year-olds have a .931 save percentage,” Reagan said.
“We know he’s played behind a good team, but you also have to make saves. I don’t think we finish first in the league last year if it wasn’t for the work Kenny did. Kenny did his job last year, did a tremendous job, now it’s up to him to seize the opportunity.”
The Bombers brought five new goalies into camp, sticking with as Marquart's backup - Massimo Urbani, a 17-year-old B.C.-born netminder who joined the BCHL's Nanaimo Clippers last season, but who only played one period all season.
Newcomers
Each Bomber camp includes a new crop of potential impact players - Reagan believes he’s found a few. The latest is Quebec forward Justin Duval, a 6-foot-5 17-year-old who spent part of last season with the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts.
“He played 14 games in the Q last year and did really well with his AAA team. Watching him on video, he looks like a guy that’s going to be a real good player for us," said Reagan.
"He reminds me a bit of the situation that Alexi Sylvestre was in when we got him - he’d just been released from a Q camp at 18 but hadn’t played any games and we got him right before camp. If history repeats itself, we’re going to be pretty happy.”
Other players who have stood out are Quebecois defender Natan Meunier-Roberge, whose 6-foot-2 frame, solid positional defence and physical play have got Reagan’s attention. Former Bomber first round pick Leo Seitz and his high-octane offence and pinpoint shot have done the same, as has Rhett Ewen, a prospect from Saskatoon picked up in an offseason trade with La Ronge.
“Those are some of the guys who have really stood out so far,” Reagan said.
Prospects
Several youngsters are also in the picture for this season - three 2007-born players, two of whom are locals. Ryder Mucha and Wyatt Stinton grew up playing together in Flin Flon’s minor hockey system, but went two different routes for developmental hockey. Stinton, who is from Channing, went through Manitoba, playing for Winnipeg’s Rink Hockey Academy, while Mucha, a Creighton native, played Saskatchewan AAA hockey with Tisdale. Both players’ roads have led them back home this year, where they’re not only likely to make the team as 17-year-olds, but to push for serious ice time.
If Mucha and Stinton both make the cut, they’ll join Joey Lies on the team and make some modern Bomber history. The Bombers haven’t iced a lineup with three local players since 2010, when Ryan Fox, Tanner Korchinski and Dillan McCombie had regular spots on the ice.
Reagan knows all three well. All three have gone through his annual hockey schools in the summer - Joey has even helped teach young players at them in the past.
“I’m excited for them, I’m excited for this community,” said Reagan.
Entering his third season, Lies will be looked on as a veteran presence - one that can also help out the local prospects and guide them through the pressure cooker of being a local boy playing for the Bombers.
“We really want to see Joey embrace that challenge of being consistent. He’s had some adversity he’s had to go through, being in and out of the lineup as a 17-year-old, then at times last year, but I’m a big believer that adversity makes you stronger. Wyatt and Ryder are going to go through adversity at times too and I think Joey can help them with that,” Reagan said.
“I was a 17-year-old on the team once too - I remember there were times when, late in the game, I was sitting on the bench, standing, because I knew I wasn’t going to get another shift. That can be hard on you. With my own experience as a local guy and Joey’s experience as a local guy, hopefully we can help them through.”
The third youngster is Seitz. Last year, Seitz left his home province and went to Rink Hockey Academy in Winnipeg - where he played with Stinton, occasionally playing on the same line.
“He’s been terrific in the skates we’ve had,” Reagan said.
Lessons learned
The elephant in the room this year is what happened in April. The Bombers are haunted by the playoffs, coming so close to that first league championship since 1993 and never coming closer than last season. A six-game loss to Melfort in the final killed the dream. Later this month, the Bombers will be in Melfort for the Mustangs' home opener, where they will like raise the championship banner they earned by knocking out Flin Flon.
After reaching five of the last seven SJHL finals, the Bombers have nothing to show for it - five times to the dance, five straight losses. The last one hurts the most.
“If there’s one year that hurts the most out of them all, it’s probably last year,” he said.
“We were the favourite - the previous four, we were the underdog. When you’re the favourite and you don’t get it done, that stings the most. There was potential for a storybook end and it was there up until the finals.”
That loss lead to some offseason soul-searching and strategizing. Reagan doesn’t want to lose in the finals again. Neither do the veterans, two of whom - Olafson and Tanchuk - have shaken the champs’ hands for three straight seasons.
“I think the one thing that the players have to learn from last year is don’t get too comfortable just because you’re having success,” he said.
“I think there’s some things internally we learned from last year that we’ve talked about as a group and you’re always learning - winning or losing, you’re always learning. It’s all about the process. We can’t get to the finals tomorrow, and if your whole focus is about the finals and you forget about the process, you won’t get there.”
For Reagan and the Bombers, the SJHL title has been their great white whale, always pursued and always elusive. By the time playoffs end this season, it will be 32 years since the last time a Flin Flon team won a title. The Bombers’ crew has come close to the prize, painfully so, but have missed at every chance.
This year, Reagan feels this team has what it takes to hunt it down.
“I think we’ll be in the mix again,” he said.
“I think that any time you go to the league finals, the guys who can return, they grow a lot from that experience. They get almost another quarter of a season that other players don’t. They learn about how to win, what it takes. I expect big things out of guys.”
