ESTEVAN — The Eagle Sky Estevan Bruins have lots of new faces as they look to rebound from their most disappointing season in more than a decade.
The Bruins will open the 2025-26 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League regular season Sept. 19 when they visit the Melville Millionaires. The two teams will meet again the following night during the Bruins’ home opener at 7 p.m. at Affinity Place.
The Bruins are looking to return to the SJHL playoffs. They missed out on the postseason in 2025 for the first time since 2010.
It’s also the first full season for Drew Kocur as the team’s head coach and general manager. He was put into the role on an interim basis in January after the Bruins parted ways with Jason Tatarnic. Then the club hired Kocur into the role permanently in May.
“Our offseason recruiting was pretty solid, and we’re excited to see how it all unfolds ,” said Kocur.
He thought the club had a pretty solid preseason with new players in the lineup. Estevan went 1-2-0-1 in four games.
“It’s always good to see new bodies in the lineup, and we had obviously a lot of turnover in the offseason, so we’re pretty happy with how the preseason went, and looking forward to getting ready for Game 1,” said Kocur.
Six players are back from last year’s team, including Criag Rennie, who was their top scorer. Also back are defenceman Ethan Andrews, and forwards Carter Onrait, Rorey Elson, Chase Holt and Kade Stringer.
Elson had a great summer, Kocur said, and looks bigger, stronger and faster this season. Rennie and Onrait have also impressed since the start of training camp.
The Bruins have added five players who have varying degrees of junior A experience: goaltender Dylan Adams, defencemen Logan Goodwin and Alex Scheck, and forwards Rylan Williams and Colton Getzlaff.
“The five guys, they all come as advertised, and we’re really excited to see [them] ... now with the Black and Gold, and see where it takes us,” said Kocur.
Adams will start the season as the club’s No. 1 goalie. He has experience from the B.C. Hockey League last season. Kocur said the Bruins talked a lot with him during the offseason and watched a lot of video on him.
“He’s very excited about taking the reins and being the guy, and Dylan, he puts the work in on and off the ice. We're really excited to see how he takes it from here.”
Former Estevan U18 AAA Bears’ goaltender Brady Carr will begin the season as Adams’ backup.
Kocur believes the club did a great job with offseason recruiting, keying on areas they needed to address. Forward Cashton Olson, and defenceman Aiden Lang, Owen Breeze, Parker Seymour and Carter Shingoose are among those who impressed.
“There’s a lot of good players that we went after this summer, and we’re excited to see how their development goes over the next two or three years,” said Kocur. The players they recruited had a great offseason and did as asked, he said, earning themselves a spot on the team.
The Bruins have 27 players on the roster, so they have a little trimming for the upcoming season. At this time, nobody is unable to play due to injury.
