Habscheid pleased with progress as regular season begins
By DANNY RODE – The first step in building a championship team has been completed.
The Red Deer Rebels put together a 2-2 record in the WHL Preseason, now comes the real thing.
The Rebels open Friday at 7 p.m. at home against the Edmonton Oil Kings and coach Marc Habscheid believes the team is as prepared as they can be this stage of the season.
“I’m happy so far, but it’s still a work in progress,” he said during a press conference Thursday.
“We’re a long way from the finish line for sure but I like the steps the guys have taken so far.
“We’re here to win … it’s a win-based business, but having said that, there’s steps moving forward. You need to build a foundation before you put on the roof, but I like the fact especially in the last two games, and the practices, the way they’re done things.”
Habscheid has instituted his systems, now it’s a matter of the old and the young feeling comfortable, especially on the defensive side.
“When you bring in some different systems it takes a while for them to get adapted,” he said. “But they (the defence) have progressed quicker than we probably expected.”
Habscheid feels defence will be a strength of the team with three veterans – Derek Thurston, Jake Missura and Luke Vlooswyk – and two adds from the Brooks Bandits in Nate Yellowaga and Keith McInnis.
There are also a pair of 16-year-olds in Graeme Pickering and Nikolas Ferry of Los Angeles, as well as Matus Lisy from Slovakia, who was a second-round pick in this year’s CHL Import Draft.
Vlooswyk, along with veteran forward Matthew Gard, is still at the Philadelphia Flyers camp. As a result, the newcomers saw a lot of action during the preseason.
“I like our strength at that position,” said Habscheid of the blue liners. “I think we have some experience there and the new guys are good as well. It just takes awhile for not only the players but the coaches as well to understand each other.”
Overall, the first-year Rebels bench boss and longtime WHL head coach likes what he sees from the younger players.
“They put on their jerseys just like the veterans. The expectations are that they just don’t wear the jersey but contribute as well. I like the fact we don’t call them rookies and veterans. We call them older guys and younger guys as we’re all in this together.
“The older guys have done a real good job of including the younger guys in the expectations in the way we’re trying to do things. For the older guys, as well, we’re trying to do things a little bit different so there’s a learning curve for them. For everybody it’s a learning process but it seems the learning curve has been pretty good so far.”
An interesting aspect of the younger group is that four of the five true rookies up front are from the United States.
Landon MacSwain, who just signed with the team this week, is from Anchorage, AK, Zane Torre from Ladera Ranch, CA, Owen Shadrick from Valencia, CA, and Grayden Peterson from West Fargo, ND.
Overall, the Rebels have 10 returnees among the 14 forwards in camp. Among them Gard and Jaxon Fuder, who is at the Dallas Stars camp, are still away.
The three overage 20-year-olds on the club’s roster are all forwards in Talon Brigley, Brett Calhoon and Arjun Bawa.
The other veterans are import Samuel Drancak, Noah Milford, who played 10 games last season, Nolan Schmidt, Beckett Hamilton and Ty Coupland.
A 15th member of the forward group – Matej Mikes from Czechia, who was the Rebels’ first round pick, 19th overall, in the 2025 CHL Import Draft, hasn’t arrived yet as he recovers from a lower body injury. He’s expected to arrive sometime in October.
The goaltending appears to be in good hands with veteran Chase Wutzke leading the way when he returns from the Minnesota Wild camp.
Peyton Shore, who backed up Wutzke for most of last season, and Matthew Kondro are sharing duties until Wutzke returns.
“Our goaltending has been good,” said Habscheid. “(Goalie coach) Ian Gordon does a great job … we’re fortunate.”
Habscheid indicated he wasn’t sure who will start Friday.
“That decision will come quickly, but we’re comfortable with both (Kondro and Shore) and all three once Chase gets back.”
One thing the Rebels do is play a style of hockey Habscheid believes in.
“The Rebels have always been about work ethic and grit, similar to teams I’ve coached,” he said.
“We want to add some speed, puck movement and maybe let the guys be more creative, but creativity has to be within a structure. It can’t be just here’s the puck and go play. There has to be structure first of all. But the main thing is we want our guys to love coming to the rink, enjoying their teammates and playing together … talk about systems. Teams that win most often are the closest and pulling together in the same direction and that’s what we want from these guys.”
He hopes that will add to the team’s scoring, something they struggled with last season.
“That’s a work in progress,” he said. “We’ve given them everything but it’s baby steps and once we move forward then we can add a few more wrinkles, but they have to walk before they can run and so far, they’ve done a good job of it.”
Those systems Habscheid has instituted is just a different way to doing things form previous coaches.
“If you look up hockey for an inventor there is no one who invented the game and no system is better than the other,” he said. “There’s no magical formula. I’m just a coach and I have things I like doing while other coaches have their ways of doing things.
“There’s no coaching book 101, everyone has different systems and styles and I’m no different.”
The Rebels defeated the Oil Kings 5-3 last Sunday in preseason play, but Habscheid expects a tougher test Friday.
“They are obviously moving into the top of their cycle, but we’re not here just to put in time. We’re here to win championships and that’s what we’re all about. They’re a good team to measure ourselves against, but we’re not coming in here to just participate but to win.”
