Tough decisions will have to be made this year at the Bonnyville Jr. A Pontiacs 2013 training camp as head coach and general manager Rick Swan feels the team has a great group of players set to attend.
“For the first time in history we have been able get the players we are excited about getting and they are coming to our camp,” said Swan. “We are currently in a situation for our main camp where we are turning kids away, turning good kids away that we think could play here. That is a great situation.”
According to Swan, the team has had a successful offseason, going out and signing players from all over Alberta, Ontario, B.C. and the United States.
“It has been exceptional. We believe we have got the top kids from Alberta. We believe we have got the top kids from Minnesota,” said Swan.
The Pontiacs connected with the father of current defenseman Sean Mostrom, who is involved with the Minnesota Blades minor hockey organization. The team was able to get a couple players from the minor hockey system to commit to playing in Bonnyville this season.
They also signed, Mitch Fritz, a forward out of St. Cloud, Minnesota, who Swan compared to ex-Pontiac Kevin Carthy.
“There is going to be a lot of pressure for us because we believe every kid can play, everyone of our 60 kids (attending camp).”
The Bonnyville Pontiacs have landed 17-year-old, left-handed defenseman Max Gottlieb, who spent last season playing for the New Jersey Rockets in the Eastern Hockey League.
Gottlieb scored six goals and 14 assists in 43 regular season games with the Rockets last season. He is known as a powerplay specialist, having recorded 10 of his 20 points with the man-advantage.
Rick Swan feels that Gottlieb was exactly what the team was looking for.
“We think he can make a really big impact on our team, especially on the powerplay,” said Swan. “We believe that he has the intelligence and maturity that he is going to step in and be a top six guy right away.”
The Pontiacs coaching staff found Gottlieb while attending a prospects tournament in Toronto earlier this year.
“We were in a great situation where we were able to go out and look for a need that we had for our team,” said Swan.
Swan thought their task was going to be difficult attending a tournament with 33 teams and 533 players, but said that Gottlieb stood out right away.
“We were able to have a father-son meeting and sell the concept of him coming to Bonnyville. He is an elite kid and he is a great person.”
The Bonnyville Pontiacs Board of Directors addressed the many changes made around the organization this offseason at the team's Annual General Meeting on July 23.
“We have invoked change this year and that change is in the form of Chad (Mercier) moving on to a different career path,” said team president Don Sydora. “I just want to say from a personal standpoint Chad has taken the organization to a level that we have never been.”
Sydora went on to thank everyone that was involved with the organization for the past season, including all of the volunteers and members in hockey operations.
The committee re-elected every board member, including Sydora, who kept his seat as president. The board also added one new member in Gene Sobolewski.
The board went over last season's financial statement, saying that the team is in a great situation currently running well into the black.
Sydora went on to talk about the exciting new direction the organization will be taking under the reigns of Rick Swan and new associate coach Larry Draper.
“Hockey has never been greater here in Bonnyville,” said Sydora.
“The community can look forward to another great, outstanding team to be iced in the RJ Lalonde Arena this year. I am looking as forward to that as I am sure the rest of the surrounding community is.”
