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Lots of new faces as Wolves open camp

Several key players have moved on this off-season, opening up opportunities for veterans and newcomers to fill the gaps as Lakehead looks to return to elite status in the OUA.
Wolves practice
Newcomer Josh Laframbois (12) looks for a loose puck in front of Thunderwolves goaltender Justin McDonald on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017 at Current River Arena (Leith Dunick, tbnewswatch.com).

THUNDER BAY – Justin Sefton is off fighting fires in British Columbia and won’t return. Forwards and top three point-getters Carson Dubchak, Cody Alcock and Kelin Ainsworth graduated and feisty defenceman Linden Springer decided to turn pro.

In other words, there are plenty of holes to fill when the Lakehead Thunderwolves return to OUA action later this fall.

But that’s just part of hockey, says third-year forward Billy Jenkins, coming off a self-described, injury-plagued disappointing sophomore season in Thunder Bay.

It’s an opportunity for returning players to step up and show what they’ve got, a chance for newcomers to step in and add to what the team began building last season.

It might be the most exciting time of the year, Jenkins said on Tuesday, as the Thunderwolves hit the ice at the Current River Arena on Day 1 of training camp.

Jenkins said they're ready for the challenge.

“We’ve got a pretty good recruiting class. They’re going to be asked to do a lot this year and I think they’re more than capable of it,” said Jenkins, who had seven goals and six assists in 19 games for Lakehead in 2016-17.

Coach Bill McDonald, back for a fourth season behind the bench, said there’s no question there were a lot of new faces tugging on LU jerseys when camp opened, despite 17 returnees.

“I guess you can say we more or less filled the cupboards with the other guys,” McDonald said. “We kind of knew what we had going in. We had a couple of guys come from a different route, the NCAA guys. We didn’t expect them, but they popped up.”

Defenceman Callum Fryer spent two seasons with UMass-Amherst, as did goaltender Nic Renyard, expected to give Devin Green and Justin McDonald a run for their money in net.

Other first-year faces include Thunder Bay’s Daniel Del Paggio, who spent three seasons playing major junior hockey, and another North Stars graduate, defenceman Jonathan Masters. Josh Laframboise, Scott Gall and Cooper Leitch round out the freshman forward corps, while Joseph Leonidas gives the Wolves eight defencemen to start the season.

“It’s a mixture of some guys from last year and some new blood and I think everybody is excited,” McDonald said.

The Thunderwolves are hoping to build on last season’s bounce-back campaign, which saw the team return to the OUA playoffs after a one-year absence, finishing seventh in the West Division with a 13-13-2 record.

That’s what training camp is about, Jenkins said -- hitting the regular season in stride.

“It doesn’t all come together in one day. It’s a process. We’ve got three weeks of practice and then we start playing games. We’re just trying to get better every day, trying to find chemistry with one another and get more and more comfortable,” Jenkins said.

“Honestly the main thing is consistency. Some nights last year we could beat any team in the league. Then other nights we just weren’t there.”

Claw marks: Several recent North Stars graduates were on the ice on Tuesday, including defencemen Joe Newhouse and Aaron Wesley-Chisel and forward Nicholas Nigro. McDonald says the walk-ons will be given a chance to make the team. 



Leith Dunick

About the Author: Leith Dunick

A proud Nova Scotian who has called Thunder Bay home since 2002, Leith is Dougall Media's director of news, but still likes to tell your stories too. Wants his Expos back and to see Neil Young at least one more time. Twitter: @LeithDunick
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