Raiders 2024-25 year in review: Final thoughts on the season and the season to come with McDonald and Hunt

“The future is extremely bright for us here. Some tremendous young talent and tremendous young men who’ve been with us for the last couple of weeks as we go through our playoff journey.”

McDonald continued to describe what the young guns learned from the veterans through this year’s playoff run, “The resiliency of this group, just continuing to come each day and build and learn and keep pushing each other to get better. Each day was so inspiring to watch.”

That theme of resiliency also stands out for Raiders General Manager Curtis Hunt, who knows this team will remember this season for the rest of their lives.

“I’m proud of our players. They’ll walk together with that Pennant and they’ll remember that series forever. We all do when we reflect back on our careers and yeah, there’ll be moments in it that guys will be upset with themselves because they maybe had a chance to score or a chance to block or whatever, but for the most part a very positive experience, and we are certainly appreciative to the community as a whole as well. What great support.”

One big storyline this year came from the coaching change that saw Ryan McDonald take over head coaching duties from Jeff Truitt late in the season. McDonald commanded the bench for 21 games in the regular season, the first 15 after Christmas when Truitt left due to eye surgery, and the final six games of the regular season when the coaching shakeup was made to help the Raiders push for the East Division title.

The impact that Truitt had on this team will live on through McDonald, who said that because of his time spent under his predecessors, Truitt and Marc Habscheid, he felt well-prepared to step into the head coaching position.

“I’m very fortunate. I’ve had very good mentors, and being in the league for five years, there are always little details that you come upon as stuff continues to go throughout the season. I don’t know if anything surprised me. For me, the most important thing was being me and my coaching style and how I coach and how I lead this group. For me, the big part of it was leading by example, the work ethic, the attention to detail, the details and the game within the game, just making sure that you continue to improve our game management and continue to keep building day in and day out.”

As of now, McDonald still has the tag of ‘Interim’ to his title. That said, the opportunity to coach the team that he grew up watching and then played for three seasons has been special.

“I was fortunate enough to play for the team and now have the honour to lead the guys. Just a dream come true for myself and my family. Last night, having the ability to have my oldest daughter sit up on the couch at the post-game show and my youngest daughter sitting there eating Smarties and running around, my mom and dad, I know my brother and the rest of my family were at the game as well. So for me, that’s something really special.”

Looking ahead to next season, the Prince Albert Raiders are going to look different next year. We’ve released articles this week showcasing the three 20-year-olds graduating from the team in Rilen Kovacevic, Niall Crocker, and Max Hildebrand, but there are also the 19-year-olds who will grow into 20s next season.

The Raiders finished the season with seven 19-year-olds as part of their roster: forwards Brayden Dube, Aiden Oiring, and Harrison Lodewyk, and defencemen Lukas Dragicevic, Matteo Fabrizi, Justice Christensen, and Vojtech Vochvest. Only three will be able to return as Raiders next year.

Hunt said that the planning stages for the 2025-26 roster started about three months ago between him and the scouting staff. While the coaching staff kept their eyes on the prize during the playoffs and the games ahead of them, Hunt and the scouting staff have been watching potential trade targets and Raiders prospects’ development both when they were playing in their AAA seasons as well as when they joined the Raiders practice squad during the playoffs.

“When I look at our group globally, yeah, we have an excess of 20-year-olds going into 25-26. We’re going to face having to expose players in an expansion draft. We’ve got some tremendous young players that are going to push from the young end of our group, six of them that were here throughout this playoffs that see the intensity, saw the urgency, saw how the team really runs itself, the adjustments, the emotion. So we never really stopped projecting not just for 25 but for 26 as well, at least from my chair and try to keep that discussion away from the coaches. They, as mentioned, need to stay in the moment, like the players.”

While the older side of the roster is going to see some changes for next year, there is a lot to be excited about with the young core coming up. The three first round picks from the 2023 draft, Daxon Rudolph, Riley Boychuk, and Ty Meunier, all got valuable experience playing big minutes in the playoffs.

“You look at Dax and certainly the league accolades he’s receiving, and or has an opportunity to win, I really like the progression through the season. By the end here, he was a 26-28 minute player. Reliable. I think all areas of his game improved, and certainly a key player too. And then forwards, you have more forwards so it’s a little deeper, a little tougher to get some traction, especially when we had the offense we did have when we were healthy, but by the end we got to where we got to because of the incredible month of January that those two young forwards had. They both found the magic around the net, they certainly found some chemistry with each other, and then to get into the postseason and and to see the the intensity to see how important the habits are, the shift lengths, the discipline, the willingness and wanting to get to the inside of the ice and and how hard it is to score, that will pay us dividends into the future.”

As things stand, the Raiders are shaping up to be a younger team to start the season again with the three 16 turning 17-year-olds returning, and the likes of Brock Cripps, Ben Harvey, Kyle Obobaifo, Bennett Kelly, Liam Myhre, Jonah Sivertson, Steele Bass, and more hoping to find permanent spots on the team. The Raiders will have eight players returning who will be between the ages of 18-19 next year.

Either way, as we close the book on the exciting 2024-25 season, it already looks like 2025-26 is building on that foundation.

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com

by Nick Nielsen

Raiders 2024-25 year in review: Final thoughts on the season and the season to come with McDonald and Hunt

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