Trotter looks to turnaround Headwater Hurricanes

By Lethbridge Herald on October 5, 2023.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

A new coaching staff and almost a completely new roster will hopefully turn the fortunes around for the Lethbridge Headwater Hurricanes U17AAA hockey  team as they start a new Alberta Elite Hockey League season tonight.

New head coach Scott Trotter is inheriting a team that finished dead last in the South Division with a  1-30-1 record.

“We’re really working on a kind of move forward attitude and we have a brand new coaching staff,” said Trotter.

“Over half of our guys are new faces in the dressing room . I think we only have … five returning guys, and the returning guys, same thing, we forget about last year and move forward … and they’re ready to work.”

Returnees are Keetly McAulay, the Stengler brothers of Connor and Kaden , Parker Gamble and Tyson Church.

“I guess just experience of having to play a full 60 minutes,” said Trotter, on what he wants the returnees to bring to the table.

“But with that being said, we have some new guys and  some new faces that  are bringing a lot of leadership as well.”

The Hurricanes’ are going to use what they call an attack mentality —where players are on pucks constantly— to help them during the season.

“Even in the ‘D’ (defensive) zone we want to play offence, we want to be first on pucks, we want to outnumber other teams and the less time we have to play in the ‘D’ zone, the better for us,” said Trotter.

“Our defence are very good,” said Trotter.

“Like I said our guys work hard (at) practice. They want to win. So it’s easy to I guess teach when they want to be there.”

In addition, the team has speed and anticipates having a good penalty kill unit.

Trotter said it’s going to be by committee, when scoring goals.

The players are learning creativity at the U17 level.

“They’re going to have to take on different roles, whether it’d be powerplay or PK (penalty kill) for them to get to the next level, right,” said Trotter.

“It’s a good building step for them (and)  to some guys that should have maybe made the U18 team  to take a year and play in different situations and get different opportunities.”

Lethbridge opens up tonight on the road against the SEAC Tigers before heading to Calgary to play the NWCAA Flames on Saturday.

“Excited, actually,” he said.

“Like I said, we just finished a team builder and the excitement’s up. I think there’s going to be some jitters for some of our guys. Both our goalies are new to this league and like we have a majority younger team, so there’s going to be some jitters. But I think after we settle in after the first period or so, it’s just back to business.”