The Windsor Spitfires completed a tough journey last season, and are now ready to begin a tougher one.
Coming off their improbable Memorial Cup victory, the Spits face the even trickier challenge of repeating with their roster in flux. Some of those roster questions will be answered beginning this week, as training camp opens Monday at the WFCU Centre.
Spitfires General Manager Warren Rychel says the organization is up to the challenge and eager to get started.
"It'll be exciting," says Rychel. "We will have a lot of battles. It's open. Whoever comes in and plays well is going to play for the Windsor Spitfires."
The team won the Memorial Cup last year despite a rocky part of the season in which key players were injured or suspended. They were also the first team in Memorial Cup tournament history to win the cup after losing in the first round of their league playoffs. The Spits were eliminated last season by the rival London Knights.
This time, six forwards are moving on, either as overage players or moving into the organizations of the NHL teams that drafted them with the intention of putting them in their system. With that being said, Rychel says the competition at camp will be wide open at forward.
"More than years before, I think we're going to have three jobs open at forward and a couple at [defence], so it's going to be exciting," says Rychel. "We're going to see a lot of competition."
At last check, 52 players have been invited to camp, though Rychel says that number could fluctuate during the week. Those will include two recent new acquisitions. Last week, the Spits traded to get centre Luke Kutkevicius, and were able to convince forward Matthew MacDougall to forego an offer from the NCAA to officially sign with Windsor.
There have also been changes in the coaching staff. Head coach Rocky Thompson, who guided the team to the championship last season, left to take the bench boss job with the AHL Chicago Wolves. Assistant Trevor Letowski has been promoted to head coach. The Spitfires also brought in Perry Wilson as their new goaltender coach after Jimmy Bedard was lured back to the NHL. Wilson gets a promotion, having been with the Junior B LaSalle Vipers last season.
