GAME ON: Hunting the Warriors + Season Preview

St. Malo Warriors head coach and general manager Ralph Collette knows that the rest of the Capital Region Junior Hockey League is coming after his team “hard.” “I think we have a good team and we have the personnel that will help us defend our championship,” said Collette modestly. “But I also know that the rest of our league is very good and they will coming at us hard. I’ve told our guys that you have to be prepared every game to see the other team’s best because when you’re the defending champ, they all want to take you down.”

After last spring’s well- earned title after a tremendous championship series against the upstart Beausejour Comets, Collette’s Warriors have a new designation. They are no longer the young team trying to knock off Selkirk as league champs, they are now defending champs trying to keep an expanded seven-team league at bay.

This new dynamic was tested in Game 1 of the season when St. Malo journeyed into Beausejour’s Sun Gro Centre and got whipped 5-1. Since then, the Warriors have played much better, but they learned early that no other team is about to back down.

The 2024-25 CRJHL season will be close, hard-fought and highly competitive and with the expansion franchise in La Broquerie, there will be new pitfalls for any team that thinks they’re good enough to challenge for the title.

Let’s take a look at the seven members of the CRJHL and how they stack up this season.

ARBORG ICE DAWGS

Head Coach Derric Gulay is thrilled to have a mix of returning and rookie players as he builds the culture in the Dawgs locker room. “The majority of our roster is rookies, which is nice because we’re looking years ahead, not just this year,” Gulay explained. “With the rookies combined with a nice group of veterans, we now have a culture we’re excited to grow and there has definitely been some leadership contributions this year, not just from our veterans but from our newer guys, as well, and that’s nice to see. It’s a good mix.”

This is a team with plenty of talent.

“We definitely have a few guys in the Top 5-6 scorers in the league – Drayson Letendre, a rookie who is playing really well, and Tyson Barylski, an all-star from last year who obviously is one of our top players.

We have a new kid named Brandon Burak who we expect to be one of our top players this year, as well.”

PLAYER TO WATCH: TYSON BARYLSKI

BEAUSEJOUR COMETS

The 2023-24 championship series finalists are off to a great start.

“We had a really good run last year and really woke the town up,” said head coach Troy Kennedy. “We were filling the building and even getting 300-400 people coming on the road with us. It was awesome.”

This season, the Comets are playing like a team that is ready to challenge for the title once again.

“We lost a couple of 21-year-olds and we had seven 21-year-olds coming back this year and, of course, we can only keep four, so we lost three of those guys,” Kennedy added. “But we gained some young guys to take their places and they’re pretty strong. We’re going to be in there and ready to go this year.

“Nik Bear is back. He was one of the top scorers last year. He was also the league’s most sportsmanlike player. He didn’t have a penalty minute last year and got four penalty minutes in our first game against St. Malo this year, so his Lady Byng is out the window already.”

PLAYER TO WATCH: NIKOLAS BEAR

LA BROQUERIE HABITANTS

Coached by local hero Dan Taillefer, the former star of the 2012-13 MJHL champion, Steinbach Pistons, the expansion Habs don’t look like an expansion team.

Although they have an almost complete rookie lineup, the Habs have already won a couple of games this season – a 1-0 win over powerhouse Selkirk in their season opener and then an 8-1 shellacking of visiting Lundar in Mid-October. The Habs do not play like an expansion team.

Led by captain Felix Asselin and a leadership group that includes Colton Pakoo, Mario Gagnon and Caleb Normandeau, the Habs are going to make life difficult for all six of the other teams in the CRJHL.

PLAYER TO WATCH: CONNOR TALLAIRE

LUNDAR FALCONS

Falcons head coach Tyler Medeiros is quietly confident this season, and for good reason. He has a veteran lineup and plenty of smart, talented players.

“This year, we have a lot of returning players,” said Medeiros. “We had a couple of good rookies crack our squad, but we have a
lot of familiar faces this year. We have a lot of good players to keep an eye on.

“Riley Zdan, the league MVP from last year and Kennedy Kerr, our goaltender who was co-rookie of the year last year are both back. We also have Zach Halldorson returning on defence, an all-star from the last couple years, and Gavin Miller an assistant captain veteran forward. I could name every guy on our roster. We’re off to a decent start this year and its by committee. It’s about all of our players buying into what the coaching and management staff have put together.”

PLAYER TO WATCH: RILEY ZDAN

NORTH WINNIPEG SATELITES

Head coach Murray Monkman might be rebuilding once again, but he’s also excited about the players he’s brought into the Satelites locker room.

“We’ve got a lot of new guys coming into the lineup because we had a lot of guys move on to other leagues, which is great for
us in the sense that we had trouble recruiting the last few years there and now that players see you can move up if you play in the Satelites program, that really makes our recruiting more successful,” said Monkman.

“We lost Jack Speechley, who was co-rookie of the year last year. He’s moved up to the St. James Canucks in the MMJHL. Jared Unrau, our goalie who was the team MVP last year, has aged out as has our captain Daniel Valente, a league all-star last year. We also have four more players who have gone to the Superior-International Jr. A League or the MMJHL so we’re proud of them. It’s meant I’ve had to do a lot more recruiting this year.

“It’s great to have Aidan Marchand back, my 21-year- old overaged goalie and then Emerson Veloso, a member of our leadership group, is going to have a tremendous season, I think. He was Glenlawn’s leading scorer two years ago. And Bryce Raven, a local North End boy, who will be our captain this year.”

PLAYER TO WATCH: NATHANIEL FLETT-NEAPEW

SELKIRK FISHERMEN

General manager Chris Poponick figures that as soon as his team figures out how to score on the chances it gets, the Fish will be off to the races.

“It kind of started last year in the playoffs,” said Poponick. “We just started squeezing the stick a little too hard. We’ve been putting up 40-45 shots every night and just can’t get the puck in the net. If we start converting our chances, I think we’ll
be in real good shape.

“We’re a team that’s building but we have some great young players. Our captain Kyle Folhoffer and assistant captain Dawson Bergagnini are real good players for us and on defence Ryland Schroeder and Ty Johnson have been looking really good back there. Also among our top forwards are Marcus King, Theo Courchene and Matt Wagner. I’m confident we’ll start to score some goals and get this turned around.”

PLAYER TO WATCH: KYLE FOLHOFFER

ST. MALO WARRIORS

Head coach and GM Ralph Collette is confident he has the personnel to defend his hometown’s first CRJHL championship.

“We look very good because 80 per cent of our team has returned from last year’s championship team,” he said. “We have a few local extra players from Eastman and the high school programs who are not quite ready for Jr. A which is OK for us.

“Ashton Cure, a local product who played at Eastman the last few years, already has seven points in his first four games in our league and we’re excited to have him in the lineup.
And of course, Zach Maynard, Jeremie (Collette) and Ashton Dubois are back. Ashton actually has two years left.

“We also picked up Riley Tirschman, a defenceman from Pinawa, who was an all-star with the Beausejour Comets last year. We’re really happy to have him. He just kind of fell in our laps.”

Having starting goaltender Jozse Gauthier-Urmos back in the fold is a big plus for the Warriors, as well.

PLAYER TO WATCH: JEREMIE COLLETTE