A competitive training camp has wrapped up for the Swift Current Broncos.
They brought in over 135 players through five days as the Broncos build a team for this season and the future.
"It was very competitive and it's going to continue to be competitive," said new Broncos Head Coach Dean DeSilva. "And as numbers whittle down a little bit, the competition's going to go up. And the expectation for that competition is going to go up. The message that the players are hearing is the habits and the details and the players that play the right way on the right side of the puck and don't cheat the game, the results will come. And that's what we're preaching. When we get down to these numbers as the week goes on here and get into some exhibition games, we're going to see some players that look really good in practices and other players that look really good in exhibition games, trying to whittle those out. But it's the habits, the details, and the execution of those that are the byproduct is going to be the wins and losses.
"We want to really push those players to be a little bit uncomfortable with some things. The work ethic is going to be key, but it's then working towards those things that are going to help us with the habits and the details."
The Broncos wrapped up their camp with the annual Blue and White game yesterday afternoon.
"I thought it was very good," DeSilva said. "There were some great things, some things that we had been working on, some of the few practices that we had during training camp here, the messages that we gave to players in between periods of the rookie camp and the main camp, we'd go in and say, hey, we want to try some of these things, we want to see you try to do, execute this. structure. And we saw it then in the rookie game. We saw some really good entries, some really good net drives, some really nice goals off the rush, which is what we're preaching. When you're a young team that lost a lot of scoring those are some of the things that we have to do to generate offense. I was real pleased to see those guys do that in the blue and white game."
Team Sakic blew open a close game in the third period with 5 goals on the way to a 7-4 victory of Team Kennedy.
It was a strong showing from Anthony Wilson leading the way for Team Sakic with multiple points. The Swift Current native joined the Broncos at camp after 239 WHL games with Victoria, Brandon, Regina, and Lethbridge.
Aiden Eskit and Joey Rocha started the game for their respective teams in net. They both left midway through the 2nd period with a 2-2 score.
16-year-old Connor Thorn took over for Rocha and earned the win in net, while Berney Weston took the loss in the Team Kennedy net.
With a big camp, the Broncos had some pleasant finds mixed in.
"There's always surprises at camp and the camp I think it showed," DeSilva said. "We had some free agents at the blue and white game here, and when we spoke to them and let some of those players go, it's not a knock against them, but they certainly open up our eyes.
"We're going to have some room for free agents next year. But just where we are within the landscape of our organization with kind of being a young rebuilding, trying to set that foundation, we're really excited about what we have here and looking forward. After Wednesday, we'll probably be down to about 35, 36 players and a little bit more manageable numbers. But the players that we did let go when we spoke with them, they opened up our eyes."
Swift Current hosts Regina in a rookie pre-season game tomorrow night.
The Broncos then play a home-and-home with Moose Jaw on the weekend.