THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay North Stars don’t want to take a step backward in 2019-20, but to maintain last season’s pace, they’re going to have to fill a few very big holes in their lineup.
Keighan Gerrie, the Superior International Junior Hockey League scoring leader who joined his former teammates for practice sessions at Port Arthur Arena over the weekend, was drafted by the Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL and won’t return.
Defenceman Kyle Auger, who became the first SIJHL rearguard to top 100 points, left for Lakehead University, as did No. 1 goaltender Brock Aiken.
Finally, captain Ryan Mignault, who fell a goal short of 50 in his final Junior A campaign and gritty forward Brendan Gillis, aged out and won’t be back.
Most coaches would be in panic mode.
Not Rob DeGagne.
About to start his third year behind the North Stars bench, the 54-year-old said it won’t be easy to replace the quartet that led Thunder Bay to a 40-5-2 mark last season, but he thinks the team is up to the challenge.
“We’ve got 350 points we’ve got to find somewhere, but in saying that, that’s the life of junior hockey. We’ve got to have younger guys stepping up and hopefully have good seasons. We’ll be a different team, we’ll play a little different style,” DeGagne said.
“But the guys we’ve got coming back, we’ve still got good speed. We’ve got lots of forwards coming back. We’re probably looking for at least two or three defencemen and a goaltender.”
One of those speedy returnees is Joel Willan, who scored 22 goals and added 65 assists, second to Auger’s 69, and returns for a final season of Junior A.
He’s champing at the bit to get the season started in three weeks, when the North Stars open on the road against the expansion Wisconsin Lumberjacks.
Willan said he and the other veterans are ready and willing to step up to keep the championship vibe alive at Fort William Gardens.
“Hopefully those guys can step up and we can have another good year,” Willan said.
“I think that it’s going to excite some other guys to step up and play another role that they weren’t used to playing last year. So I think it’s going to be a good year.”
There will be one fewer veteran on the team this year, thanks to a three-year plan implemented by the Canadian Junior Hockey League to reduce the number of 20-year-olds on each team from nine to six in 2020-21.
In addition to Willan, Jacob Brown, twins Ben and Alex Erwin and Evan Nicholas up front, blue-liners Logan Mihalcin, Maxime Fortin and Keon Fox and goaltender Dougie Newhouse are eligible to return as 20-year-olds, fighting for seven spots.
Other returnees include Jacob Anttonen, Michael Stubbs, Michael Vecchio and Jayden Mrakic up front and Thomas Brassard and Matthew Halushak on defence.
DeGagne said with so many returnees, it’d be easy to dwell on being swept out of the Dudley Hewitt Cup last spring with a lacklustre performance, after entering the post-season ranked No. 2 in the nation.
But it’s a new beginning.
“We’ve had a long summer to dwell on things. The game’s changed,” he said. “Every year the game changes, but one thing that doesn’t change is our compete. I’ve told them you’ve got to be competitive, whether it’s competitive in the gym, competitive on the ice and competitive for ice time.”
Star gazing: Forward Jonathan Kilby, who asked for a trade, will suit up for the Junior B Caledonia Corvairs of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.
