Kelowna Sand & Gravel Preview: Rockets begin pre-season with Blazers

The Kelowna Rockets will kick off their 2024 preseason campaign with a busy weekend that features a home and home series with the Kamloops Blazers.

Kelowna will begin their exhibition schedule on Friday night at 7:00 pm at the Sandman Centre, the two will shift back to Prospera Place the next night for a 6:05 pm rematch. No online stream or radio broadcast will be available for either game.

 

ROCKETS ROSTER UPDATES

Kelowna announced on Thursday they had reduced their roster down to 32 players, including four (4) goaltenders, ten (10) defencemen and 18 forwards.

This year saw camp feature a new format which saw players split into four teams – Team McLean, Gorges, Schenn, and Weber and compete for the Kelowna Sand & Gravel championship trophy. Each team played each other once through the round robin before Saturday’s semi-finals and championship finals on Sunday. Team Weber won the tournament with a 7-5 victory over Team McLean while Team Schenn took the third-place game.

“I felt that our veterans came back as advertised,” Mallette told kelownarockets.com. “Everybody looked like they were excited and ready to go. I thought that they led by example during camp.”

“With that being said, it was really nice to see our draft picks from years previous, the 2007’s and 2008’s, and now our new 2009-born players. They improved each day and were very competitive, so it was good to see the maturation in our group which was obviously led by our returning players.”

Rockets rookies and prospects Owen Hayden, Levi Benson and Kalder Varga could all see game action this weekend.

“We’re going to implement a few small details and habits that we want to incorporate with our group,” Mallette said of what he’s looking for over the weekend. “The lineup (this weekend) is going to be very young and inexperienced. We understand that this is a process to build towards the season, and we’re looking for guys to show that they’re able to be coached while also being really competitive. That’s what we’re looking for.”

ROCKETS PRE-SEASON ROSTER >

TICKETS

The Rockets will play two pre-season games on home ice. After the Blazers this weekend, the Vancouver Giants will visit on Saturday, September 14. The Rockets will wrap up the pre-season against the Giants in Ladner on September 15.

Two dollars from each preseason ticket sold will be donated to Cops For Kids. Suite and club seat holders receive complimentary home pre-season game tickets.

Single-game tickets for both preseason games and the Rockets home opener on September 21 against Portland, are now available at Select Your Tickets.

Tickets for all Rockets games are only available at Select Your Tickets, they are the official provider of Rockets tickets. To view pricing and a seating map please click here.

Tickets can be purchased:

• Online at selectyourtickets.com
• By calling Select Your Tickets at 250-762-5050
• Or by visiting the Select Your Tickets box office at the Prospera Place box office. The box office is open 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and opens at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday home game days.

 

Broadcast

None of the Rockets preseason games will be broadcast online on CHL TV – anywhere else claiming to be broadcasting a stream for the game is a scam.

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Don’t miss a minute of the action this season with season tickets. Learn more about Rockets 2024-25 season tickets here.

Kelowna Sand & Gravel are the sponsoring partner for this year’s Kelowna Rockets training camp. Kelowna Sand & Gravel is the original source for Kettle Valley Granite in Kelowna, BC. They have a range of landscape materials, including natural stone products with a wide variety in size, colour, and shapes, as well as preparation materials like sand and drainage rock. They sell natural stone and hardscape materials to both landscapers and homeowners and look forward to serving all your landscaping needs.