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Terriers Season Preview: champs look to keep dynasty alive

When the Yorkton Terriers 2013/14 season ended with a National Junior A Championship at the RBC Cup in Vernon, British Columbia it was a culmination of arguably the best era of hockey in the history of the Terriers and years of roster building combin

When the Yorkton Terriers 2013/14 season ended with a National Junior A Championship at the RBC Cup in Vernon, British Columbia it was a culmination of arguably the best era of hockey in the history of the Terriers and years of roster building combined with timely trade add-ons to give the city its first national title. With a core of veterans including Devon McMullen, Tayler Thompson, Brady Norrish, Chase Norrish, Tyler Giebel and goaltender Kale Thomson all reaching the peak of their careers in their final Junior seasons along with superstar rental pickup Brett Boehm the Terriers reached their peak with players who they knew would be moving on when the road to the title came to an end.

With those key players moving on to lives after Junior hockey the roster in Yorkton will retain a mix of role players from the championship team, some with two SJHL championships under their belt, but also a roster that will be lacking in the proven high end talent that the Terriers have possessed as a group of exciting new faces will be looking to fill some big shoes on head coach Trent Cassan's roster to defend the national crown.

Who will replace Kale Thomson in goal?

Some of the biggest questions will be in between the pipes as the Terriers will enter their opening weekend with last year's backup Riley Medves and former Yorkton Harvest starter Carson Bogan as the two netminders vying to replace the outstanding Kale Thomson. The hope will be that Medves can do what Thomson did in replacing Dawson MacAuley after MacAuley left to the Regina Pats before last season, but Medves lacks in the experience and statistics that Thomson had before taking over the starter job. Bogdan's experience largely comes from Midget AAA with Yorkton, where he took over the starting job as a rookie in 2012-13 where he had a playoff GAA of 2.40 before starting 33 games for the Harvest (now Maulers) last year with a 3.54 GAA. It will be interesting to see if Cassan goes with the older experience of Medves or the young upside of Bogdan to start the season, but an audition for the majority of starts may be in the cards early as the team will be looking to find their longterm answer in goal to start the year.

Blue line questions

Beyond goaltending there will also be plenty of spots to fill on the blueline in Yorkton as Trent Cassan will be losing the Norrish twins, Devon McMullen and Tanner Lishchynsky on the backend which leaves Dylan Baer as the longest serving Terrier in defence going into the season. That means plenty of opportunity to bring in new faces to the forefront, something that paid off in dividends when the likes of the Norrish twins and McMullen played their entire Junior careers in Yorkton.

Cassan will be hoping the next generation can follow a similar script, although it would be a big ask to expect the replacements to match the offensive production of the last few seasons from the defence. McMullen and the Norrish twins were once in a generation type of offensive talents from the blueline and especially on the powerplay, but if the new look blueline can keep pucks out of the net that will be the first step before the offensive production becomes a focus. If Baer can develop into a quarterback from the blueline on the powerplay the drop off may not be as drastic as anticipated, but replacing hundreds of points from the blueline will be an unrealistic expectation for this unit.

Forward experience a strength

While fans may wonder how the Terriers are going to perform in goal and on the blueline, there are plenty of returning faces up front for Yorkton that will be looking to provide the experience needed to remain one of the best teams in the SJHL despite having plenty of new faces. Even better is that the experienced forwards are also hard workers as Dylan Johnson and Daylan Gatzke provide power forward grit along with the occasional scoring punch on the wing. With more ice time the expectation is the scoring numbers will increase from Johnson and Gatzke, who could be the base of a team that scores plenty of goals in front of the net in 2014/15.

2013/14 trade acquisition Riley Hunt is also back and provides speed along with a scoring punch to the forward group that will be the strong point of this Yorkton roster on paper. Fellow BC native Josh Ellis will also be a player to watch as the now third year veteran has filled plenty of roles in Yorkton and is a frequent face on the penalty kill as one of the best two way players on the roster. If Hunt adds penalty killing to his usual powerplay duties and Ellis adds offensive production to his defensive skills the British Columbia connection could be key to continued success in Yorkton.

Gervais expected to lead

Kailum Gervais will be returning for his fourth season with the Yorkton Terriers and after two seasons of filling power forward roles on some of Cassan's top forward lines the 1995 born Kamsack product could be the leading scorer this season in Yorkton. Posting point totals of 38 and 32 in his last two seasons the sometimes enforcer, sometimes talented scorer will need to add more offense to his game should the Terriers expect to contend. Arguably the most gifted player on the roster, Gervais could be the leader on the ice and in the box scores this season as a potential 20+ goals, 50+ points player if he can stay healthy and productive in his fourth year with the Terriers. Losing Brett Boehm and Tayler Thompson's scoring punch, Gervais will be a counted upon player to become a offensive leader in the upcoming season.

Young guns to watch

Tyson Enzie scored nine goals and registered 11 assists in his rookie campaign with the Terriers, playing 53 games an occasional fill in on the top lines due to injury or needed rest to some of the more experienced players on the roster. With more time on the ice as one of the expected top line centres this season, Enzie should be poised for a breakout year after managing to put up impressive numbers in a limited role to score when counted upon. If Enzie is one of the players who is given increased ice time from Cassan this season expect the Calgary, Alberta product to be one of the most improved players in the league.

Perhaps even more impressive than Enzie last season was Foam Lake native Zach Zadorozniak who came from playing house league hockey to the SJHL and looked perfectly in place amongst the best Junior players in the province. Like Enzie, the 1995 born prospect put up a 20 point rookie year to debut at the Junior A level with eight goals and 12 assists in addition to two goals in the playoffs. A true minor hockey product locally much like Dylan Johnson, Zadorozniak will continue to hope to put Foam Lake on the map with the Terriers as a potential breakout prospect with the Terriers who has plenty of time left to grow and develop from his promising rookie year.

Expectations to contend

Despite the questions at the blueline and in goal, expect this Yorkton Terriers team to contend despite massive departures much like the rival Melville Millionaires did last season when they made the SJHL Championship despite losing three of the top five scorers in the league.

That will be the task that Trent Cassan will be facing this year, but due to the excellent scouting of Garry Carson that has helped kept the Terriers competitive in every season Cassan has been behind the bench in Yorkton this team should once again be close to the top of the division and in the mix come the spring. More than 10 players from the RBC Cup winning team will be back despite losing some of the best players in the history of the Terriers, including some key contributors in the likes of Baer, Gervais, Gatzke and Johnson to help lead the young players who will be hoping to become new household names in the SJHL.

Role players like Tyson Enzie, Josh Ellis, Riley Hunt and Zach Zadorozniak give the Terriers forward depth that will be amongst the best in the league this season, something that will be different from the blueline based core from recent years but will be a strength that keeps Yorkton amongst the best teams on paper to start the year. With the potential of returns from the WHL coming back to Yorkton that has helped in the past when the likes of Austin Bourhis and John Niedbrandt returned to the team after being let go from their WHL teams can always bolster depth on a roster that already is good enough to finish in the top half of the SJHL. Should more reinforcements come on the blueline by the way of trades or WHL rights this is a team that once again could be in the picture for at least the league semifinals.

The biggest question will be in goal as for the past two seasons a top goaltender has helped put everything together in Yorkton whether it was MacAuley or the hometown Kale Thomson there was always a top statistical performer in between the pipes for the Terriers to count on. If Medves or Bogdan can answer the call and turn into "the guy" in Yorkton this team will be much more complete than some may think from an outside glance, but if goaltending is a problem in Yorkton it may be a season where you don't know what you are going to get out of the Terriers every night. Blessed with one of the best personnel staffs in Junior A hockey and one of the brightest head coaches in Junior hockey in Trent Cassan the odds that the Terriers figure it out and find a winning formula are greater than the odds they struggle.

While last season the Terriers were easy favourites to win their second straight SJHL season, Yorkton fans may have to settle with the knowledge that at the very least Cassan's boys will be in the mix once again. Getting to the playoffs will be step one, once they are there you never know what can happen in a long Junior hockey season.