http://www.cambridgetimes.ca/sports-sto ... 17-season/
It goes without saying that the Cambridge Winter Hawks have been one of the busiest Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League teams so far in the offseason.
After a last-place finish in the Midwestern Conference and missing the playoffs for the first time since 1992-93, the Winter Hawks wiped the slate clean after last season’s debacle and started assembling a team that they hope can make some noise this year.
In 20 days the team has put 11 players, only three of them returnees, on cards.
“We had a look at the core group and assessed them not only throughout the year, but in the offseason, and began to see what direction we wanted to take the team. So far, the signings are ones that we feel are going to be beneficial to us moving forward,” said Winter Hawks general manager Jeff Grimwood.
To start the signing period when cards were handed to teams on June 1, the Winter Hawks faced a hiccup when Scott Del Zotto and Matt Steen went to the Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Toronto Jr. Canadiens,
then saw the Midwestern Junior C Hockey League rookie of the year, Ayr Centennials Tyler Harrison, of whom they purchased the rights for last season, commit to the Wellington Dukes.
The Winter Hawks turned around though and signed forward Liam Buckley, who spent 11 games with the Ontario Hockey League’s Guelph Storm last season before picking up 23 goals and 23 assists with the Niagara District Junior C Hockey League’s Dundas Blues, and 20-year-old forwards Ryan Young from the Newmarket Hurricanes and Ryan Shaw from the Aurora Tigers.
Young had 10 goals and 21 assists last season with Newmarket, while Shaw was traded from Newmarket to Aurora and had a total of 11 goals and 16 assists.
The Winter Hawks also picked up defenceman Ty Jackson in a cash deal from Elmira. Jackson had two goals and one assist in 12 games with Elmira last season, before finishing the campaign in Junior C Mount Forest where he had three goals and six assists in 14 games.
In the biggest move they made this summer, Cambridge traded defencemen Harlen Van Wynsberghe and Kyle Somani, and the rights to Ben Maidment, to Guelph for forward Corson Searles, who tallied 18 goals and 16 assists for the Hurricanes last season.
To top things off, defenceman Josh Urbschott, forward Brandon Waterhouse and forward Evan Spencer, whom the team committed to at the April prospects camp, signed on the dotted line, before returning defenceman Mitch Montgomery, forward Mat Mercier and forward Sean Ross decided to come back.
Buckley, Young, Shaw, Searles and Ross will be amongst those expected to lead an offense that, last year, really had little punch. Besides scoring a paltry 129 goals as a team – second fewest in the entire GOJHL – the Winter Hawks lost 13, one-goal games.
“Overall team scoring was something we struggled with last year,” Grimwood said.
“We attempted to add that overall team scoring as opposed to just one or two guys. With these fellas we brought in, they bring a sense of character and are committed to the 200-foot game. There’s a lot of other factors other than just their scoring ability.”
Even though the Winter Hawks struggled last year, there are still some players eligible to return that Grimwood thinks could be contributing members to this year’s squad,
including goalie Owen Savory.
Savory was mentioned as a player committed to the team for next season, but has yet to sign a card.
“There’s factors with the different players that haven’t (signed yet),” Grimwood said.
“It’s not that they aren’t coming back, whether it’s the logistics of the actual signing or, you know, kids have options. We’re working through it and we hope our program rises to the top in terms of their priority.
“I’m not concerned by any stretch in where we’re at by returning players.”
While management would obviously have rather spent its time watching the team in the playoffs than going out to start rebuilding the roster at the end of February, Grimwood explained a positive aspect of missing the playoffs.
“It gave us the ability to get out and key on some of the kids who were on our radar,” he said, noting he tries to be a glass-half-full GM.
“We were able to not only watch them as hockey players, but get to know them while their season was still on, making some of these commitments a lot easier. Being a hockey player, for me, it’s not just being a good player, it’s about being a good person, having good character and being a good teammate.”
With main camp beginning on Aug. 14, Grimwood said he would like to have almost all his ducks in a row by then, with just the last few players coming out of that camp.
The idea is for the team to “hit the ground running” this season instead of coming out of the gate 0-3 like last year.
“We want to get the core group together and practising, and once that regular season starts, we’ll be further ahead in terms of the development of the systems and team chemistry.
“We want to be better than what we were. I know, collectively, we’ve worked really hard to try and achieve that. I’m positive, moving forward, the results will show that.”