Moose Jaw Warriors general manager Jason Ripplinger has had to make his share of tough decisions in his two seasons with the Western Hockey League team, but the 2023-24 campaign will bring something he’s yet to deal with.
Too many overagers.
In fact, Ripplinger was even able to add a 20-year-old goaltender his first two seasons -- to great effect on both occasions -- as the team continued to carry a relatively young line-up overall.
This season, the Warriors have four overagers in camp and two more who could potentially be returned to the team. And that could make for some tough decisions down the road.
“It's a different year, for sure,” Ripplinger said during fitness testing on Wednesday afternoon. “Usually we're looking for 20-year-olds here, but this year we have four quality 20s that could play in the league. We know what they can do so we just have to make sure to go with the right three.”
Leading that group, of course, is Moose Jaw Minor Hockey product Atley Calvert. The former Prairie Hockey Academy standout is potentially one of the top overagers in the league after putting up 40 goals and 73 points in 67 games last season. He’ll be with the Warriors for the start of the pre-season but will be off to Pittsburgh Penguins camp as an unsigned free agent in mid-September.
Defenceman Max Wanner is signed by the Edmonton Oilers and is unlikely to return, while import forward Martin Rysavy is heading to Columbus Blue Jackets camp as a drafted but unsigned overager.
That leaves defenceman Lucas Brenton (68-2-13-15) alongside forwards Eric Alarie (65-19-27-46) and Josh Hoekstra (67-10-7-17) as players who will be battling for spots with the Warriors until the NHL situation shakes itself out.
Teams can carry any number of 20-year-olds until mid-October, but must cut down to three for the remainder of the season,
“We’ll be evaluating everyone through camp and see who is the right fit and go from there,” Ripplinger said. “There’s always some obstacles there and if something happens and Atley signs with Pittsburgh, then we’re down to three 20-year-olds. So we’ll have to see what happens and make decisions as the time comes.”
While it seems unlikely that Wanner and Rysavy will be back, it’s not out of the question. And one just has to look back to this past November to see how something like that can come out of the blue when elite forward Ryder Korczak was returned to the team and played a key role in their success the rest of the campaign.
Production from their overagers will also be key -- something the Warriors have had success with in recent years.
Goaltenders Carl Tetachuk and Connor Ungar played the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons respectively and were utterly outstanding, Tristin Langan had 53 goals and 113 points in 2018-19 and a season earlier, Jayden Halbgewachs tied the team’s single-season goal-scoring record and won the Bobby Clarke Trophy as the league’s leading scorer with 70 goals and 129 points.
As a result, Ripplinger has no intention of rushing things, especially knowing what can happen if one of the overagers makes one of ‘those’ jumps in their game -- like Langan’s leap from 40 points in his 19-year-old year.
“You never know what can happen, and that’s why we want to make sure we make the right decisions,” Ripplinger said, adding that it’ll be far closer to the overage deadline before anything final is decided.
Training camp begins Thursday with rookie camp sessions and continues through to main camp Saturday before the Black White intrasquad game at 12 p.m. Sunday.
