The 2023-24 season is over, but Blake Spiller isn't sitting around and taking time off. He's already working on off-season activities, including scouting young talent for the draft this summer.
"There's always things happening. There's a TELUS Cup regional this weekend in Winnipeg, so our scouting staff and I will attend and then we have our Spring Camp on May 2nd and 3rd."
Spiller said the year that just ended was a tough one, largely due to inconsistency and also struggles the run at the Centennial Cup in 2022-23.
"With hosting last year, we made some moves that were for last season, and normally, it's a little bit of a struggle to get going the following season. We brought in a bunch of unknowns, and some of them worked out and some of them didn't. We had some guys that could've returned, which happens to every team," Spiller continued. "Overall, I thought our regular season was pretty good. We just struggled a little bit with inconsistency, and it was similar in the playoffs. I've said to more than one person, in Game 3, if we would've capitalized and won that one, it could've changed the outlook of the series. And when you're playing in a playoff series, it's similar to an individual game, a lot of it is about momentum, and we had it at times, but we didn't grasp it enough in the series."
Spiller spoke highly of the players who are coming back next season, and says he feels there will be a good group to start things again in the fall.
"I have confidence in our ability to recruit and bring some guys in to help replace those guys (the graduates). And we've got, I really think, a good core of returning players who will help send the message next season. I thought a lot of our younger guys really played well in the playoffs, and that was a tough series. Winkler is a big physical team. I was impressed with how our younger guys played in the series."
Spiller also noted that several of the graduating players are still weighing their options going forward and will be making those decisions in the coming months.