Prince Albert Raiders training camp continued on Saturday, as four teams kicked off round robin scrimmages at the Art Hauser Centre. (Mark Peterson/Prince Albert Raiders)

By paNOW Staff

High level of compete

Raider prospects making lasting impression at training camp

Aug 31, 2024 | 10:44 PM

Prince Albert Raiders Head Coach Jeff Truit is happy to see a lot of ‘energy and compete’ amongst players invited to the team’s training camp this weekend.

Prospects had the chance to show off their skills during four scrimmages Saturday and Truit said that high compete level was driven by the team’s older players.

“They’ve done a tremendous job of showing the way. Tomas (Mrsic) and Lukas (Dragicevic) have fit right in and have been impact guys. It’s added to our offence and we’re looking forward to seeing what lies ahead,” Truitt said.

Earlier this week, the Raiders acquired forward Tomas Mrsic, a 2025 third round pick, and a 2028 third round pick from the Medicine Hat Tigers in exchange for forward Ryder Ritchie. Mrsic, a 2006-born Surrey, BC product, was a near point per game player last season with the Tigers, scoring 62 points (23G-39A) in 63 regular season games. In July, the Raiders acquired defenceman Lukas Dragicevic from the Tri-City Americans along with goaltender Eric Kahl, and a seventh round pick in 2025 in exchange for Terrell Goldsmith, Grady Martin, Nathan Preston, and a 2025 third round pick. The 19-year old Dragicevic is known as an offensively-gifted defenceman.

There are six goalies at camp battling for the backup goaltending spot on the team.

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“The goalies here know what’s at stake, and this is healthy competition. It’s great that they’re playing well, and they’re showing the compete and that they want to be here. That’s exactly what we want,” said Truitt.

The 2009 born players invited to camp, including local skaters Connor Howe and Declan Borthwick, won’t be able to crack a spot on the roster full time until next year. Truitt said ‘everything is new’ for the ’09s that are there.

“To see the style of how we play and spending time talking about the different things we do is huge for them,” Truitt explained. “We’ve broken it down into groups and given them expectations of what it takes to be a Raider. We don’t want to take their skillset or their hockey IQ away from them, because they are here for a reason, and that goes for our invited kids too. They’ve proven that they should be at camp.

Meanwhile, the 16 year olds, including 2023 first rounders Daxon Rudolph, Riley Boychuk, and Ty Meunier are hoping to make a lasting impression on the scouting staff.

“We just want them to play right now,” Truitt said of the 16 year old group. “We’re going to get deeper into our systems and our discipline within our systems here in a little while, but we want to see their natural talent come through. As we move along, the structure gets a little more tightened down, then they’re going to have to adapt. It’s a different league from where they’ve come from.

Truitt said he looks at a player’s coachability, IQ and the ability to adapt because no matter where they end up playing, they will get a lot of different systems thrown at them as they progress.

“You have to be able to adapt to that kind of stuff. It might be unnatural, but in order to make a team, you’re going to have to adapt to it, so that’ll be the next step that we’re looking for out of these guys. They’ve been tremendous so far, and it’s been great to watch them.”

Training camp continues Sunday with another four scrimmages:

8:45 am: Team Guhle vs Team Draisaitl

10:30 am: Team Pachal vs Team Morrissey

5:15 pm: Consolation game

7:15 pm: 1st place game

The annual Green vs. White game will take place Mondayat 11 a.m. Admission to the game is with a donation to the Prince Albert Food Bank.

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panews@pattisonmedia.com