Saskatoon Blades head coach Dan DaSilva has gone back to the basics to begin practice this week, with a dressing room full of newcomers to the organization.
“It’s a little bit like training camp 2.0,” said DaSilva.
Almost a third of the Blades roster has been turned over to a group of six players who have been added to the team following last week’s WHL trade deadline.
In an effort to restock their prospect and draft pick cupboards, Saskatoon traded away several stars including defenceman Tanner Molendyk to the Medicine Hat Tigers, fifth-year sniper Brandon Lisowsky to the Victoria Royals and centreman Ben Riche to the Prince George Cougars.
“It’s never easy when you’re losing some of your top guys and guys that you’ve worked with for four or five years,” said DaSilva. “It’s never easy saying bye to those guys, but we’re excited about working with these new guys too.
“We know that we’re building towards something special here and we’re trying to make the most of these next three, four months of the season as well.”
As part of the return for Saskatoon, which included the six players, two prospects and 10 draft picks, has been a pair of 2007-born players in Hayden Harsanyi and Jack Kachkowski who are already earning big minutes.
Two of the biggest pieces of the Molendyk blockbuster with Medicine Hat, the pair were targeted by Blades general manager Colin Priestner.
“It’s super exciting to have someone that believes in you,” said Harsanyi, who already has two goals with the Blades. “I just want to make the best of it and really show the fans that [Priestner] made the right decision.”
Also helping to make that adjustment for new faces like Hunter Laing, Kazden Mathies and Frantisek Dej has been overager Tanner Scott who is a newcomer to the Blades himself.
Brought in from the Royals as part of the package for Lisowsky, he said it’s been a balance of learning the ins and outs of a new organization and helping along the younger players making the same change.
“We do have a lot of young guys that’s right,” said Scott. “Just being the best leader I can, even though I just came in here. I’m still 20 and I still want to lead this team and be a big part of that.”
Offence will be harder to come by for Saskatoon following the trade deadline, with DaSilva confirming there isn’t so much a dedicated first line of production anymore.
However, there’s still lofty aspirations for the division-leading Blades to produce wins both now and in the future.
“It’s good that we get to start at such a young age to build that chemistry over the next couple of years,” said Harsanyi. “I think lots of people are still counting us out this year and I think we can still make a good push this year as well.”
After four consecutive games on the road, the 22-14-2-2 Blades begin a three-game home stand on Wednesday night hosting the Portland Winterhawks at 7:00 p.m.