MOOSE JAW -- Moose Jaw Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary has been through his share of training camps with the Western Hockey League club since first joining the team as an assistant coach in 2012-13, but this time around carried a bit of a different look.
For the first time in a decade, the Warriors are coming off a campaign where they didn’t crack the WHL Playoffs. Of course, that blow was softened somewhat by what the team had accomplished the previous season, but it’s safe to say the Warriors are looking to change their fate heading into the 2025-26 campaign.
That quest began in earnest when players took the ice for rookie camp and main camp practices on Thursday, with the Warriors hosting close to 110 players at Temple Gardens Centre for the five-day event.
“It's been great,” O’Leary said after Friday afternoon’s second-to-last rookie camp scrimmage. “I think with our meetings, talking among each other after each scrimmage here, we've been very happy with the young guys. It's a lot of hockey, but the skill is fun to watch. Then with our returning players, the first thing that stood out was how good of shape they were in. Obviously, we had a longer summer than we want to have every year, but with that time, you have an opportunity to put in some work and our guys did.”
While there were way more scrimmages than in past camps, the event followed a familiar pattern. Rookies plied their trade through the first two days of ice sessions before attention turned to Main Camp on Saturday and Sunday. It all wrapped up with the Red Grey Intrasquad Game on Sunday evening.
Rookie camp marked the first time O’Leary had seen many of his young charges on an extended basis, which made for a learning experience for the coach as well as players.
“”You know the names whether it's through the draft or a list or an invite, but seeing what type of player they are is the next step,” O’Leary said. “There's guys that score goals, there's guys that check and the same goals for the defenceman. So it's getting a grasp on what type of player they are and seeing how they play against their peers.”
A highlight even at the rookie camp stage -- generally featuring 15-year-olds who had just been drafted and 16-year-olds looking to crack the main roster on a full-time basis -- is seeing the progression of players. For the youngest skaters, that could be from scrimmage to scrimmage, and for the older rookies, from where they were last season.
“Some of these younger guys have been to a couple camps now and seeing how much they've improved over the year, that's a lot of fun at that age,” O’Leary said. “If you work at your game, you can come a long way in one year and that's one of the exciting things about this time of year seeing the work that they've put in and how they've developed as a player.”
While the rookies were doing their thing, the team’s veterans were putting in their time in a series of practices leading up to Main Camp. O’Leary and his coaching crew took a bit of a different approach this season, spending less time on basics and more on intricacies. That plan appears to have worked out well.
“We've jumped right into a little more structure and a lot more teaching in terms of what it means to be a Warrior and what we're looking to do with our team on the ice this year,” O’Leary explained. “So I think they're equipped, they've put in the work in terms of preparing themselves to play the right way and I know they'll be chomping at the bit now to get some scrimmages under their belt.”
Beyond that, the message to the team in Main Camp sounded familiar.
“First and foremost is taking ownership,” O’Leary said. “What you think about things, how you talk about things and how you act and that's what we're looking for in these guys. And then doing it with a purpose whether it's our system or the habits or playing your game. After that, it's the effort and compete. We know what type of players these guys are, we've seen them for years now. With everything you do, the effort level and the compete level has got to be there right from the drop.”
The Warriors wrap up training camp with the Red-Grey Intrasquad game on Sunday at 5 p.m., with admission by donation to the Canadian Mental Health Association.
They open their pre-season schedule on Friday when they travel to Swift Current to face the Broncos at 7 p.m.. Moose Jaw will then take on the Broncos at the Southland Centre in Assiniboia on Saturday, with that contest starting at 5 p.m.
The Warriors play their lone home game of the preseason on Friday, Sept. 12 when the Saskatoon Blades are at the Temple Gardens Centre. Game time is 7 p.m.
