Steve Robinson admits it took about a week to get the lingering bad taste of his team’s playoff exit out of his mouth. Now the Delta Ice Hawks general manager and head coach is beginning to proceed with plans for the the 2019/20 season.
The Ice Hawks will be holding a prospects camp April 27-29 and Robinson expects about a 50 percent turnover of his roster for a variety of reasons.
“You want some continuity but at the same it’s important to bring in new talent as well. We want to be younger and we want to be faster,” said Robinson. “I don’t think any team in the league has advanced more players onto the next level over the past couple seasons. That’s important to maintain and it makes us an attractive program.”
Robinson loses three forwards — Jordan Deyrmenjian, Daniel Rubin and Kyle Uy — to graduation and has 17 eligible players to return. However, following a disappointing post-season, he made it clear not all will be back.
Delta finished with the league’s second best regular season record (32-7-2-3) but was not the same team in the playoffs, needing seven games to get past No. 7 Aldergrove then bowing out to the No. 5 seed Langley Trappers in five games.
The Trappers were swept by regular season champion North Vancouver in the league final. The Wolf Pack will now represent the Pacific Junior Hockey League at next month’s Cyclone Taylor Cup in Campbell River.
Robinson watched his team become unglued in far too many key situations in both playoff series, whether it be undisciplined penalties or costly mistakes.
The Hawks blew 3-0 leads in their final two games on home ice to Langley. It was a far cry from a year earlier when this team thrived playing with the lead because it was so sound defensively and took few penalties.
Delta finished the playoffs with not one player averaging a point-per-game clip after having three among the top seven in the league.
It all adds up to changing the team’s chemistry that at times was toxic during the biggest moments of the season.
“This team was obviously built for regular season success but not the playoffs. That’s what has to change moving forward and not everyone is going to be back,” said Robinson.
Liam Visram was the least of Delta’s problems.
He played 10 games as a call-up with the Nanaimo Clippers and is poised to join former teammates Aidan Hansen-Bukuta and Isiah Hendricks on the B.C. Junior Hockey League club’s blueline next season. The Langley native, who turned 19 last month, was arguably the Hawks’ MVP this past season given how thin their defensive depth was at times.
Power forward (6-foot-2, 200-pound) Dillon Maher is also in position to earn full-time status with the Clippers.The 17-year-old impressed GM and head coach Darren Naylor during his four-game stint as an affiliate.
Icing…
Mark Epshtein has won the PJHL Most Improved Player Award. They 19-year-old finished with 21 goals in 44 games and led the Hawks in playoff scoring with 11 points.
