New bench boss Walser impressed with city, Rebels organization as a whole
There’s no place like home.
For first year Rebels head coach Derrick Walser and his family, Red Deer is their new home.
The Rebels bench boss, hired in July, wife Sara and sons Camden and Hudson visited Red Deer for a week last month and returned last week to settle in.
Walser said Tuesday he’s been impressed with the city and all it has to offer. He finds Red Deer is similar to his hometown as well as Peterborough, where he was an assistant coach for the reigning Ontario Hockey League champion Petes for the last six years.
“Ontario is so big, getting in and out of a city like Toronto it’s hustle, hustle. Everybody seems to be in a rush,” said Walser.
“Here, it reminds me of being home in the Maritimes,” added the New Glasgow, NS, native. “It’s a slower pace which is great. It has everything we need. It’s beautiful.
“I compare the two — Peterborough and Red Deer . . . very similar size cities and surrounding areas. I’ve loved the first two weeks I’ve been here. It’s been fantastic. The people, everyone I’ve met, have been awesome.
“And the help here has been great.”
Walser sees himself as fortunate to be involved in an organization that is widely seen as one that is run in a professional fashion with a knowledgeable and courteous staff.
“It’s top notch, you’re happy coming to work every day,” he said. “Everyone is always asking if you need anything. It’s the same way with the (hockey ops) staff downstairs.”
Walser praised the entire hockey operations staff, which includes assistant coaches Mike Egener and Clayton Beddoes, among others.
“Clayton and Mike have been awesome to get to know right away. And I know Arie (hockey operations manager Postmus) has been unbelievable with all the jobs that he has.”
Walser has been particularly impressed with the 7,000-plus seat Peavey Mart Centrium and the Rebels dressing room that features a gym and other extras that benefit the players.
“Everything here is top notch,” he said. “I keep reminding players that when I played (minor and junior) we had rinks that had chicken wire on the cages.
“We didn’t have a gym in the rink. We didn’t go to the gym. We went to the rink and we were lucky to have hot water in some of the rinks. I haven’t seen anything better than here. It’s unbelievable, very professional how he (owner/president/general manager Brent Sutter) runs it.”
Walser was the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Defenceman of the Year with Rimouski in 1997-98, scoring 41 goals and collecting 110 points in 70 games with the Oceanic.
He went on to play 19 seasons of professional hockey, including 91 NHL games with Columbus and stints in the AHL and ECHL, in Russia, Switzerland, Germany and Belfast, Ireland, where he served as a player/head coach before retiring in 2017.
He won numerous all-star awards and championships during his playing career, including the Spengler Cup, AHL Calder Cup, the European Trophy and the German DEL championship.
Now he wants to share both the knowledge and experience he gained as a player and coach with the Rebels skaters and goaltenders, who will register for training camp on Thursday and hit the ice Friday.
Walser has touched base with most of the incoming veterans, including recently acquired 20-year-olds Carson Latimer and Elias Carmichael.
“I’ve tried my best to get everyone. I know I probably missed a handful,” said the coach. “The big thing is I just want them to come in and be them. I’m not here to change them.
“Be your own self. When you’re your own self and you’re confident, you’re going to play. That’s the big message at camp for me. The players I’ve talked to are really excited (for the start of camp) and coming to this facility how can you not be excited?
“The hardest part of being a hockey player is the summer time. That’s when you’re actually putting in hours and hours of eating right, training, this and that. When the season gets going, it’s not the same.
“The season is really the vacation part, instead of all that work that is done in the summer when you have to watch what you eat, watch what you’re doing and making sure you’re hitting all of your boxes to make sure you’re ready to go.”
Although he hasn’t seen the Rebels players in real time, Walser is confident he’ll pick up and tune in on the skills and styles that each player possesses during camp and beyond.
“The first impressions is always the most important,” he said. “Your eyeballs don’t lie. You get a lot of stuff from video but I still like the eye test.
“With how the professional the Rebels and the organization are, they have so much hockey knowledge and so many people who know the game. You have so many eyeballs that you’re going to get a pretty good ready off it.”
Rebels veterans will go through fitness testing Thursday and training camp practices and scrimmages will run through Monday — including rookie camp, which starts Saturday — with the Black and White intrasquad game set for Tuesday.
Over the years Rebels coaches have run a demanding camp and this year will be more of the same, Walser stressed.
“I’m not here to change anything,” he said. “It will be a hard, aggressive camp.”
