The season ended sooner than they would have liked, but the Salmon Arm SilverBacks still feel pretty good about the 2012-13 campaign and their prospects for the year ahead.
Salmon Arm was swept 4-0 by the Penticton Vees in their Interior Conference semifinal matchup but with Brandon Mistal the only player graduating due to age, the Gorillas have a solid group forming their foundation for next season.
The SilverBacks will also have forward Riley Hunt back in action next season. The Revelstoke native and Harvard recruit missed all of this season due to injury. Evan Anderson, a high-end talent who missed the playoffs due to a concussion, recently got a clean bill of health and should be a major factor for the ’Backs next season.
Given the season began with just one win in the first seven games and just seven goals scored in that span and a coaching change from Troy Mick to Scott Robinson in late September, things turned out pretty well.
“We had a lot of work to do, made a couple of good acquisitions but we had a ton of teaching to do,” said Robinson, looking back on the season. “To the credit of the players in the room, Troy made sure we had character and we got a ton of mileage out of that. It was a very enjoyable season. We didn’t like how it finished, but how (the players) elevated their play and competed was good.”
By average age, Salmon Arm was the youngest team in the BCHL this season to post a winning record and get back to the playoffs, so Robinson sees big things ahead for some of his young returning players.
“I look at Harlan Orr, Jordan Levesque will eventually score more, Ryan Schwalbe will score more,” said Robinson. “There’s a half-a-dozen guys you could pick out.”
That’s all just potential. Robinson says it won’t come to fruition if the players don’t follow their offseason guidelines given to them by the team.
“Our team will be better next year on paper but if they don’t do the work over the next four or five months, we won’t be better and that won’t be acceptable.”
Though young enough to return, defencemen Shane Hanna and Brayden Sherbinin appear set to head to the college ranks next season at Michigan Tech and Quinnipiac respectively. Forward Steven Iacobellis is fielding offers from some schools but may return for his 20-year-old season. Those are few of what Robinson terms “on-hold situations” that may go either way.
What he does seem sure about is the team’s goaltending. Adam Clark will be back for his 20-year-old season and Angus Redmond comes back after a solid rookie season that didn’t begin until halfway through the season when he joined the team from the Junior B ranks.
“That’s a definite strong point for us,” said Robinson. “Clark… really didn’t have the second half that he wanted to. Angus earned his starts and didn’t have a weak outing. We’re very happy in that position, and they’re two great kids.”
Team directives to all players are to hit the gym with the goal of putting on 10 pounds each and to come back with a more assertive mentality on the ice. Robinson also talked to each of the players about learning from watching the game on TV, rather than watching idly as a fan.
Overall, the results were above what Robinson had in mind.
“I would say better than expected… we’re optimistic,” he said. “But we know we just started something. It’s really important to better the franchise and all the pieces in it.”
The SilverBacks will conduct their spring evaluation camp from May 3 to 5, which will be open to the public.
“We’re looking for those few that will make our roster and trying to target those kids for the future,” said Robinson.
• In other news, general manager Mick is headed to Calgary this week for meetings centered around getting a new ownership group in place.
