Troops set to train amid renovations
NORTH BAY, Ont. – Amid continuing renovations to its home arena, the North Bay Battalion is expected to welcome more than 45 players to training camp Wednesday.
The Ontario Hockey League club’s veterans, prospects and free-agent invitees will report for fitness testing and medicals on the opening day of the four-day camp. The players will practise at Memorial Gardens on Thursday morning before skating in the first of three intrasquad games at 4 p.m., with the same schedule in effect Friday. The camp wraps up after an intrasquad game at 9 a.m. Saturday.
“We still have some logistics to work out; there are just some things we’ll work through,” Matt Rabideau, assistant general manager and director of player development, said Monday. “We’ll be ready to go Wednesday morning.”
Among the players in attendance will be 16 who skated last season with the Brampton Battalion. That group will be joined by veteran goaltender Brendan O’Neill, acquired Aug. 16 in a trade with the Sudbury Wolves, right winger Alex Henriksson and left winger Vincent Praplan, the club’s two selections in the Canadian Hockey League’s Import Draft on July 3, and 13 players chosen in the OHL Priority Selection on April 6.
“Those returning guys need to come in and make the team, too,” said Rabideau, who noted that Henriksson and Praplan were due to arrive in North Bay on Monday night. “We have a number of free agents coming in, and we have seven goaltenders coming and we have a spot open there. Hopefully someone can step up and take that spot.”
After 15 years in Brampton, the Battalion held its first on-ice sessions in North Bay during a two-day orientation camp in May.
“In talking to other people who were up here, I hear it was one of the most intense orientation camps the Battalion ever had,” said Rabideau. “We’re hoping, with the guys working hard over the summer, that they’ll come in and elevate the intensity and give us a good snapshot at what we can be looking at as far as the team goes.”
With Memorial Gardens undergoing renovations in advance of the home opener Oct. 11 against the Peterborough Petes, players will dress at Pete Palangio Arena before busing to the club’s home arena.
“It’ll be just like the old days, when the guys showed up to the rink with their equipment on, put their skates on on the bench and got to work,” said Rabideau. “It’s nothing we can’t manage. Ontario Northland has been great helping us out with buses.”
Club president Mike Griffin said access to Memorial Gardens will be restricted to the hockey operations staff and scouts, players’ parents and accredited media.
“It’s still a high-profile construction zone here,” noted Rabideau. “It’s been great that they’ve allowed us to let the parents in and let them see things like the dressing room as they are so far.”
The Battalion opens a five-game exhibition schedule at 2 p.m. Sunday with a visit to the Kitchener Rangers. The Troops visit the Guelph Storm at 2 p.m. Monday.
