The Melfort Mustangs hosted their annual intersquad game to conclude their 2025 training camp (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW)

By Ben Tompkins

And so it begins

Busy preseason ahead as Mustangs conclude successful training camp

Sep 8, 2025 | 3:34 PM

The beginning of the Melfort Mustangs’ 2025/26 campaign has officially arrived, as the organization hosted its three-day-long training camp over the weekend.

Seventy-five hockey players began competing for spots on Friday evening, with that number now closer to 35, as the team’s exhibition schedule begins tonight (Monday).

“I thought our training camp went very well, it was very competitive, and all our veteran guys came back in good shape and with a purpose. They really proved that they want to be here for another year,” explained Mustangs Director of Player Development, Rick Oakes.

“We have a great returning core of veteran guys that are going to be able to carry the ball for us, but we also have some young guys coming in to fill some holes. It’s a pretty impressive group of young guys we have coming in, I’m excited about that group of 2007-born players, and I think they have good futures. They’ll have a lot to offer our team this year, as well as moving forward.”

Melfort had significant turnover this offseason, losing eight 2004-borns due to aging out, their 2005-born starting netminder to the NCAA, a 2006-born defenceman to the NAHL, and a 2005-born forward to retirement.

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Four of those 2004-born players were defencemen, leaving room for plenty of opportunities on the backend for newcomers.

“It created a loss of five defencemen of our returning eight, so there’s definitely a hole there. There were some young guys that really stepped up this weekend, proved that they can play in the league, and will be good Mustangs moving forward and play huge roles for us this year and down the road,” Oakes added.

“I think we were pretty aware of the group that was coming in, and we knew what they could do. We also had some younger guys that really stepped forward and looked like they could earn spots down the road, so excited about those kids as well.”

The Stangs will continue to slowly whittle down the roster this week, as four exhibition games are on the docket.

The Blue and Green will have a home-and-home set with the Nipawin Hawks today and Tuesday, before another home-and-home set goes this weekend against the Humboldt Broncos.

“Just looking forward to getting into the preseason and seeing how we measure up against some of these other teams around the league. They have a bit of a head start on us, but we’ll be ready to go and looking forward to getting everybody in the lineup and giving them an opportunity to start building towards the ultimate goal here again,” Oakes concluded.

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

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