By Jeff D'Andrea

Hunt has been ‘a Raider always,’ lays out plan for team

Sep 15, 2015 | 4:58 PM

Curtis Hunt has always been a proud Prince Albert Raiders alumnus as he was part of the team’s only Memorial Cup victory in 1985. Even though he graduated from the program in 1987 and played for seven different teams and coached eight others between his two Raider stints, he’s always followed along with the Green and Gold.

Now that he has a hold of the general manager’s reins, Hunt plans on building a strong foundation internally and from the draft.

“I’m a Raider. I watched from the outside. You’re a Raider always, whether I worked for Moose Jaw or Regina, it didn’t matter. Traditionally, they’ve stolen from Peter to pay Paul—and Peter is the future and Paul is the present. You can’t do it,” said Hunt at the Raiders chamber luncheon on Tuesday at the Ches Leach Lounge. “When you look at the best franchises in our league, they build from within. Brandon’s done it through the draft and a couple trades here and there. In essence, you have to grow your own teams and grow your own 20’s and you grow your own culture.

“One of the best 20-year-olds I ever played with is the president of our organization [Dale McFee]. That’s how that passion carries through and that’s the mentality we have to have moving forward to get back to where this franchise needs to be.”

During his speech at the luncheon, Hunt also took a selfless approach and said that if the Raiders do have success, he and head coach Marc Habscheid will only be a small reason why. Hunt said their job is to put the Raiders in a position to succeed and to rally around each other so the players can execute during the games.

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“It’s about creating that environment in that room that we’ll do anything for each other—those are the best teams,” said Hunt. “It’s the journey, that’s the most important part.

“It’s exciting because I feel that we have a business staff that thinks that way. On the hockey end, we’re real close to where we need to be…We all want to be associated with something special. There’s so much excitement around this team, whether it’s the last nine games, to me it was the community that Marc was able to generate—the feeling in the room,” said Hunt. “It’s a special place to play and it’s a special community.

“Because we’re a community team, it expands beyond that. Everybody wants to win, I think what our fans want to see, we don’t have to win today, they want us to work towards something.”

jdandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea

by Jeff D'Andrea

Hunt has been ‘a Raider always,’ lays out plan for team

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