Carrot River Outback Thunder focus on return to play during annual general meeting

Sept. 18 to 20 – training camp in Carrot River

Sept. 22 – regular practice schedule in Carrot River begins

Sept. 26 – first home exhibition game against the Prince Albert Titans

Oct. 10 – regular season home opener against the Titans

The latest Hall heard from the PJHL is they want to have a season; 34 games instead of the typical 40 due to the Southern Rebels’ one-year leave due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Not only in the sense of starting later because everything is up in the air, but also to save teams some money during this pandemic,” Hall said. “In terms of the actual return to play policies, those haven’t been released yet. The Saskatchewan Hockey Association has has to do that in conjunction with the Saskatchewan Health Authority. [Sask Hockey is] waiting for another week or two to ensure the government isn’t making more changes. As far as we know, we’re going to be good to go.”

Along with preparing for the season to go ahead, Hall was also informed PJHL teams would need to get their own plans in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. He said the Thunder isn’t worried about covering the costs of extra sanitization or keeping social distance, even if there’s a restriction on the number of fans allowed for games in the Carrot River Community Centre.

“[Sponsorships] was our biggest worry at the start,” Hall said. “As our board had gone out and started lobbying our sponsors again, we found out that we’re in a pretty unique community with agriculture; they hadn’t been hit as hard by the pandemic as businesses in the big cities have. A lot of our sponsors are back on board again for the same amount, if not more, and we’re getting new sponsors.

“I know we have a lot of people in town here that support the team through the rough times and good times. It’s going to suck if we have to limit that. But in terms of revenue, I don’t see that having a major effect on us.”

Returning players

In the 2019-20 PJHL season, the Thunder finished with a 16-23-0-1 record: 33 points in 40 games. They defeated the Saskatoon Westleys 2-1 in a best-of-three survivor series before being swept 4-0 by the Saskatoon Quakers in the North semifinals.

From that team, the Thunder are projected to see 16 players return, including four Carrot River boys: forwards Trey Hardie, Tyrell Nicklen, Matthew Ratzlaff, and David Wiens.

“A lot of those kids are born in 2001, which means they were rookies last year,” Hall said regarding the returnees. “They come out here and fell in love with [Carrot River], and that’s why there are so many people on that list that want to come back. There’s a lot of talent and skill there. To see these guys come back and play this season with us with a year under their belt, I think we should be a very strong team. The guys we do have will be eager to improve what we did last year.”

Hall said the Thunder will need to find another goaltender, potentially a few more top-four defencemen, and fill out their bottom two lines.

Until then, the Thunder will look towards one of their massive fundraisers – the Annual Slo Pitch Summer Slam – between Aug. 7 to 9 in Carrot River.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow

by Aaron Schulze

Carrot River Outback Thunder focus on return to play during annual general meeting

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