The Trail Smoke Eaters head coach and GM Tim Fragle is preparing for a BCHL season filled with unknowns and uncertainties, but excited about the possibilities.
Conference restructuring: The Smokies are in building mode and determined to take their game to the next level. But the process is a competitive one, with this year seeing 21 BCHL teams, rather than 17, vying for the same resources.
The league welcomed the five new teams from Alberta through conference realignment, creating East and West divisions in the Coastal and Interior Conferences, which will undoubtedly heat up the competitive element.
“It is already,” said Fragle. “You can tell just by recruiting. All the Alberta teams are loading up, definitely all the teams in our division are, which we are used to.
“Our division is obviously going to be hard, but our conference in general is going to be extremely competitive.”
The Smoke Eaters will play most of its games east of Penticton, with 48 of 54 games scheduled against Interior West and East Division rivals.
The Smoke Eaters play six games against its West division opponents the Penticton Vees, Vernon Vipers, West Kelowna Warriors, and Salmon Arm Silverbacks, and four each against the East Division’s Cranbrook Bucks, Brooks Bandits, Blackfalds Bulldogs, Okotoks Oilers, Sherwood Park Crusaders, and Spruce Grove Saints.
Considering Brooks just won the Rocky Mountain Challenge over the Surrey Eagles, this year’s Smoke Eaters schedule may be one of the most difficult and intriguing to date.
“Having coached in the Alberta junior league for a number of years, every year it was a guarantee that Brooks, Spruce Grove, and Okotoks were going to be at the top of the league,” explained Fragle.
“Now you look at Blackfalds which is a new franchise, they have been really strong out of the gates and Sherwood Park over the last number of years have taken a step forward. So you are getting the five best teams from that league.
“It’s pretty exciting, but a little bit more travel east for sure, five trips out to Alberta this year.”
Recruitment: With the changes, BCHL teams now have access to a larger pool of players, and teams like the Smoke Eaters need to come up with creative ways to tap into those resources.
Hence, the Smoke Eaters hockey staff has had an eventful spring and summer. It started with the Smokies ID Camp at the Cominco Arena in April, a prospects camp in Minneapolis, Minn. at the end of May, and an inaugural “Prospects Combine” in Toronto in June that saw coaches and scouts from every BCHL team attend and participate.
“The Minnesota camp was exceptional,” said Fragle. “We made a lot of good contacts. It was a smaller camp than our Trail camp but the quality of play was really good.
“We had to educate them about the BCHL and Trail, as a town and the program we offer, so we had a couple of information sessions which I thought were extremely well received, and we made a lot of good contacts.”
Fragle says that they are in the process of talking to elite players from the camp and believes fans will see them in the orange and black in the near future.
The Toronto camp catered to a younger group of emerging players, which saw an impressive 300 attend and become potential recruits for the independent BCHL teams.
The camps were followed by the BCHL Annual General Meeting June 14, which put the finishing touches on the restructuring of the 21-team league, and named Smoke Eaters owner Rich Murphy the new chair of the BCHL board of governors.
Team Building: The Smoke Eaters expect to see a strong core of returning players like Trail products Judah Makway and Nathan Dominici, as well as veterans Jason and Chase Stefanek, Ridge Dawson, Gryphon Bucci and Christian Kim, and goalies Teagan Kendrick and Ryan Parker.
In addition, Trail has committed several high quality players adding skill and size up front and on the back end, including Trail product Owen McCarthy.
The skilled defenceman played two season at the RINK Academy and was selected to Team BC for the WHL Cup in October. The 16-year-old is excited about returning to Trail to play for his hometown squad.
“As a hometown kid who has always been a Smokies fan, this opportunity to become part of the team and play in front of my friends and family is a dream come true,” said McCarthy in a release. “I chose the Trail Smoke Eaters organization because of the rich hockey history, great coaching and first-class facilities, which will help contribute to my growth as a player.”
After falling to the Vernon Vipers in the first round of the BCHL playoff in April, the Smoke Eaters looked to add skilled players with a bit of size. Since then, they have signed forwards Dylan Lariviere at six-foot-four, Josh Evashesen and Jack Ziliott at six-foot-one, and committed two defencemen with junior experience in Noah Ziskie at six-three and Carter Matthews, six-two.
“Overall we’ve got good experience on defence, picking up some experienced guys, but also some good young guys coming in, so a good combination there,” said Fragle. “Up front we turned over a lot of forwards, but with the addition of four other forwards and some of our younger commits, we feel deeper.”
Fragle notes that the two top teams in the league, Penticton and Surrey, had tremendous depth throughout their respective line ups and while the Smoke Eaters were competitive, they couldn’t keep pace, winning 2-of-7 games against the Vees last season.
“They just have four lines and three sets of D that just keep coming at you, so that’s where we feel we’ve improved our team overall.”
The Smoke Eaters are three months away from opening season and Fragle says they will continue to build on what is a solid foundation.
“I still think in order to be successful, we are still looking for those high-end guys with experience,” said Fragle. “These are kids that whether they’ve played in the USHL, Major Junior, the Western Hockey League, there are going to be players that come available over the summer, and so I would still be open to adding another forward, another D, and in net too.”
The Smoke Eaters also signed 17-year-old rookie goalie Jake Torget from Langley, who posted a 2.06 GAA in 21 games in the U18 BC Elite Hockey League with the Fraser Valley Thunderbirds last season.
“We have players competing in every position, which is exactly the position we want to be in.”
The Smoke Eaters season opens at home on Sept. 21 against the Vernon Vipers.
