CANMORE – An underwhelming start to the 2023-24 season and the Canmore Eagles have shaken up its roster, with the expectation that more moves are on the way for the team.
Sitting 14th in the league on a 1-4-0-1 record, the local Junior A hockey club sent three players – Kaiden Billey, Luke Chase, and Hunter Burgeson – to teams in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League for future considerations and have signed forward Josh Hoekstra, formerly the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League.
After the addition of Hoekstra, 20, the Eagles look to add a final 20-year-old vet to the roster shortly.
“The shake-up definitely brought the team’s attention to the fact that no one’s butt is secure and I think that helped focus them a bit,” said Eagles’ top goaltender Matthew Malin. “I don’t know who the next person coming in is, but I hope they’re a very good addition and I hope they can fit in and contribute.”
Prior to the AJHL Showcase, the Eagles traded defenceman Chase to the Nipawin Hawks, and forward Burgeson got traded to the North Battlefords Stars. Forward Billey had been traded to the Hawks a few days before the others.
In Hoekstra, the Eagles land a three-year veteran of the WHL, who scored 16 goals and 28 points with the Warriors.
“It’s unfortunate the dominos didn’t fall at the same time, [but] we just felt we had to jump on these opportunities for those players and open up some more ice time for some of our other guys,” said Andrew Milne, Eagles head coach and general manager.
“[Hoekstra’s] going to be a good addition to our club. He played one game on Saturday night and I thought he played really well.”
Hoekstra is one of the 13 new faces on the roster this season, which Milne said has been a “real trying out period for a lot of guys” to start out.
The getting-up-to-speed woes have shown on the stat sheet.
Canmore is among the league’s worst on the power play (13th at 10.8 per cent), penalty kill (12th at 76.7 per cent), goals for (14th), goals against (15th), and the club currently has the league's worse goal differential at -17.
The latter of those stats took a hit following an 8-1 loss to the Calgary Canucks at the AJHL Showcase last week.
Defenceman Brody Tallman leads the Eagles in points with five (three goals, two assists). No Eagles are in the AJHL top 50 for points scored.
“Obviously we’re early into the year and it’s a long year. We have 56 more games to go and you know we're identifying what we have and what we need to work on,” said Milne.
“I think the guys are working hard to move in the right direction.”
Before the season began, the Eagles’ veteran defensive core was touted as one of its strongest dynamics.
Milne is still high on the blueliners but said there has been some “meltdowns” on the backend in the lopsided losses. Of the six games played, the Eagles have lost four by three goals or more.
“I think that’s the mental side of it,” said Milne. “I do like the defence and the way they’re playing, I do like that. We have veteran guys back there, and from our standout, we’re gonna continue to mould from the backend out.”
Between the pipes, veteran Malin has a .906 save percentage and a 3.75 goals against average. Malin was in net during the Eagles’ lone 3-2 victory on Sept. 26 against the Spruce Grove Saints.
The 20-year-old third-year player, who’s aiming to win the league’s top goalie of the year, said the first few games were rocky for the club, but it’s a learning curve as new players get adjusted to the junior level of play.
“I think this team has a lot of potential – there’s a lot of young, really talented players here,” said Malin. “Once we can start finishing, ‘cause we’ve had a lot of opportunities here, but once we learn how to just finish, I think we’ll be a very competitive team.”
The Eagles have three games remaining in their five-game road swing this weekend against Bonnyville, Lloydminster and Camrose before returning to the Canmore Recreation Centre next Thursday (Oct. 12) against the Grande Prairie Storm. Puck drop is 7 p.m.
