Despite his firm commitment to retiring from the head coach position behind the players' bench, Doug Smith finds himself lacing up for a final season.
“We've had a couple of good candidates, but the timing is off,” he explained. The candidates – local coaches who would be moving up from minor sports – want more experience, he said, and he'd be spending the season mentoring the possible choices.
Last year's team played a strong season, losing out in the division finals. This year, with much of that team returning to the ice, Smith said the framework is there to have another season just as good, if not better.
“Almost all our players returned,” he said. “We lost our four overage players last year,” and now it's a matter of seeing how the players balance hockey and work.
Each team in the Heritage Junior Hockey League can have up to 25 players, and Smith packs his roster to ensure the team always has enough players, regardless of their work schedules.
The Lightning will be holding tryouts starting on Aug. 26 at 7 p.m., with registration from 6-6:30 p.m. The cost to try out is $80. With a few holes in the roster, Smith is looking for a bit of everything – defence and offence. Goalies are welcome to try out, too.
Smith said that while finding goalies right now isn't a problem – there's more goalies than there are positions – in a few years he thinks that will change.
“I expect to see a goalie crunch in the next 3-4 years since minor (teams) usually only have one goalie,” he said.
The league itself is seeing some changes this year, too.
The Strathmore Wheat Kings are returning to the ice after a year off, and Ponoka, which seemed to “be on the bubble,” has pulled it together to play again this season.
Over in Three Hills, tragedy was narrowly avoided after a section of the arena roof collapsed last year. The arena was mostly empty, and staff had just finished flooding the ice when the piece of ceiling collapsed in. The structural damage is significant and repair work hasn't yet begun. Three Hills games will be played out of the arena in Trochu until the Three Hills arena is repaired.
With 14 teams in the Heritage league, there's plenty of hockey action coming this winter, and plenty of chances for the Stettler Lightning to strike.