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Cold Lake the new hockey home for Junior A Aeros

A new hockey team has come to town.
Cold Lake Aeros
The Cold Lake Aeros team bus is decked out with its new team name.

COLD LAKE - It's a season of new starts for the Cold Lake Aeros, and team owner Axel Axmann says he couldn't be more excited to see his players hit the Imperial Oil Place rink at the Energy Centre.

With a new name, new location and new head coach, the Junior A hockey team is gearing up for training starting on the long weekend in September, after moving its operations from Edson to Cold Lake this summer. 

Axmann said though there may still be a few i's to dot and t's to cross, the team has already moved in.

“Already in the dressing room, the jerseys are hung up, and we've already moved into the office. I mean, we didn't want to give them a chance to say no,” he laughed.

Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland said the city is excited to welcome a new team to the area, noting it opens up another league opportunity for regional hockey players. The Aeros, which are part of the Western States Hockey League (WSHL), were at the top of the league when the WSHL shut down at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Edson team has been winning the Canadian division for the past few years, before COVID of course,” Copeland said. “This is pretty exciting for us … Edson has always put a really high-level hockey team together.”

Copeland said he thinks the Junior A team will complement the Junior B program already running in Cold Lake. The Imperial Oil Place rink was designed for Junior A hockey, he noted.

Axmann echoed that sentiment, adding he wants to build a strong working relationship with the Cold Lake Ice, the city's Junior B team.

Axmann said the Aeros have experienced a wellspring of support from the community as well since he announced their move. 

“Within 24 hours, I think we had half a dozen billet families already,” he said. People came forward to offer their services as billet co-ordinator, timekeeper, score keeper, and to help with game day operations.

“I was overwhelmed by the response. It has just been truly amazing.”

The deal to have the Aeros move into the city came about so quickly and smoothly, head coach Corey Bricknell said it felt like it was meant to be. He'd just moved from Ontario to Edson in July when Axmann got the news that Edson wouldn't be renewing the team's exclusive lease at the Centennial Arena.

“We needed some concessions in order to be operational, in order to financially make it work,” Axmann said, citing the need for a dedicated dressing room and office among other things. “When the Town of Edson decided to do that … we just kind of said, 'You know, this new process isn't going to work for our team.'”

He broke the news to Bricknell the day after Bricknell arrived in Edson. Already in mid-July at that point, the clock was ticking fast to secure a new home before the season started. With the help of WSHL league commissioner Ron White, Axmann and Bricknell connected with Copeland and went to tour the Energy Centre.

“What I felt at the facility, it seemed like it was a perfect match,” Bricknell said.

“Now, we're going to try to give everything we can for the players to move on to the next level, and playing in this arena allows them to do that, with the professional dressing room, the cardio room, the weight room. I think it's going to be a seamless transition.”

The team has been making signing announcements throughout the summer with the goal of building a championship team.

“From what we're bringing in, we're going to be a 200-foot hockey team that can play the run-and-gun style, we can play the defensive style and we can play a crash-and-bang style, so we can adjust on the fly,” Bricknell explained.

“We'll be having a full booklet of plays on face-offs, alignments in all three zones, what our entries are and what our defensive responsibilities are.”

The fresh team roster includes a new team captain, Esa Patton, who is entering his fourth year at the Junior A level. Bricknell previously coached Patton as part of the French River Rapids Junior A team in Ontario.

“He brings stability in the back end on the defence. He also brings tremendous maturity on the ice and off the ice,” Bricknell said. “He'll be able to mentor the young players that are coming in and kind of groom them into not only great hockey players but great citizens of the community.”

Patton told Lakeland Today he's happy to join a top organization like the Aeros and help lead them to a championship. He said he expects the team to challenge him as a player by forcing him into a leadership role, especially on the power play, and letting him work on his game as being a quarterback with the puck.

And with a year of no games behind them, after coming off a promising season, he said he expects the Aeros to be working even harder for a win.

“This is the year for the guys that have been training harder to excel,” he said.

A rough year

As for the Aeros as an organization, Axmann said they may be starting from scratch in Cold Lake but the foundations they built as a team are still there.

Securing a home in Cold Lake came after a rocky year for Axmann and the team, after news broke earlier this year that the team's former coach, Bernie Lynch, had been suspended by the Fort Frances Lakers in northwestern Ontario for allegedly sending inappropriate messages to a player. 

That news was followed by the publication of allegations Lynch had been abusive while coaching the Aeros as well, according to CBC News. Since then, Lynch has been arrested and charged with assault and sexual assault.

Axmann said when Lynch was with the Aeros, the organization wasted no time in reprimanding him after a complaint was filed against him. Shortly thereafter, COVID-19 hit, the season ended abruptly, and Lynch's contract with the Aeros expired, prompting the former coach's move to Ontario.

With all that in mind, coupled with the loss of their lease in Edson and personal ramifications for Axmann from the news, Axmann said it's been a tough year.

“I know that we've got some reputational repair work to do, and I'm OK with that. It's not like we're a new team – we've been around the block a couple of times already, and we're a good team,” Axmann said, adding he runs a transparent and professional organization and wants to set the record straight if any rumours start to circulate.

“If anybody ever has any questions, or they think they heard something, and they want to get it right from the horse's mouth – call me.”

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