(Photo Courtesy/Stacey Simpson, Tisdale Trojans)

By Ben Tompkins

Season Recap and Offseason Look Ahead

“We got the most out of a young group”: Trojans to return significant core next season

Mar 18, 2025 | 5:15 PM

The Tisdale Trojans are now a week removed from their first-round playoff exit, at the hands of the Saskatoon Blazers.

While four teams still remain in the SMAAAHL playoffs, the Trojans’ season is over, a little earlier than they had hoped for.

According to their head coach, however, this year’s squad was quite young and has the potential to return a significant amount of players for a deeper run next season.

“I think going into this year we had quite a young group and the expectations weren’t real high from the outside looking in. A lot of people thought we were going young and that we weren’t going to be as good as the year before. I personally don’t like to compare teams but I thought we got the most out of the group that we had this year,” said head coach Wes Rudy.

“Moving forward to next year, that youth should benefit us for sure because they got a lot of experience. I think our ’09 group is as good as it gets in the league next year, but as far as expectations go, I just want to make the playoffs and then go from there. As long as we’re competing hard, winning games, and making the playoffs, that’s the goal.”

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While Tisdale was unable to win a round this season, like they did last year over the Warman Wildcats, their regular season record, as well as where they were in the standings, was an improvement.

The Trojans had two more regular season wins and finished five points better, making them a fifth-seed, rather than a sixth.

Their coach was also awarded the Coach of the Year honour, as his club fell just short of taking down the two-time defending champion Blazers, losing games 2 and 3 in overtime.

“We had our top scorer out for both those games and I’m not making excuses but it really hurts to not have a guy like that available in one-goal games. I also don’t think we had very good puck luck during that series, but the boys never quit, they battled hard to the finish, the belief was always there, and I’m proud of them for what they accomplished this year,” Rudy added.

“The coach of the year award should be named coaches or program of the year because there are a lot more people involved than just me. It should be shared amongst the whole group, and the other thing about it too is that you need to have a good team. Nobody wins an award of this status without having a good team, so the boys share in that award too.”

As far as the offseason is concerned, there isn’t a whole lot to be done right now, with Spring Camp still a month away. It will go from April 18 to the 21 in Humboldt.

For now, calls will be made to bring guys to the camp and fill some of the holes that may open up before the new year.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8