After deep playoff run, Spokane Chiefs hit training camp with renewed sense of enthusiasm

The Spokane Chiefs played a lot of hockey last season. After the conclusion of a grueling 68-game regular season, the Chiefs went on an extended run of another 20 postseason games, which ended in a five-game loss to Medicine Hat in the Western Hockey League championship series.

But there were no signs of a hangover at the Spokane Arena on Wednesday, as returning players and prospects alike were put through their paces at the team’s fitness assessment ahead of this week’s training camp.

The players will be divided into four teams – named after Chiefs legends Ray Whitney, Tyler Johnson, Travis Green and Kurt Sauer – which will compete in a round-robin tournament Thursday through Saturday, culminating with the annual “Red-White Game” on Sunday at 11 a.m.

“A short summer means you had a good year, right?” Chiefs coach Brad Lauer said, while players did shuttle runs, long jumps and grip tests on the covered ice at the Arena.

“It’s great to be back. It’s good to see the kids. And obviously it’s step one of where we want to go now.”

“Having that 20 games of experience in the playoffs I think will go a long way for the guys,” Chiefs general manager Matt Bardsley said. “It was a short summer, but that’s a good problem to have. That’s what we want.”

While the emphasis at start of training camp is to look forward to the upcoming season, it’s tough not to take a look back at what the Chiefs accomplished last season.

“We’re all talking about last season, and that’s great. Credit to our guys,” Lauer said. “But that’s yesterday’s news. We’ve got to go out and be ready again to have another good year. It’s going to take a lot of hard work. It’s going to be difficult.”

Roster turnover is just part of the nature of junior hockey. But the Chiefs were hit as hard as anyone by key departures over the summer.

Four of the team’s five leading scorers have definitely moved on, and the fifth – captain Berkley Catton – is in camp with the NHL’s Seattle Kraken with a legitimate chance to crack their opening lineup.

Since 19-year-olds are ineligible to play in the minor league American Hockey League – until a new rule takes effect next season – Catton would have to make the Kraken active roster or be returned to the Chiefs.

“We always wish the best for guys that can make that next step into the NHL. That means we’ve done our part,” Lauer said. “We’re excited for him to be where he is in his journey. Is there an opportunity for him to be back here? There is. But we always want what’s best for him. Hopefully he makes (the Kraken).

“But you don’t replace guys like him. There’s few guys like that. They don’t come around very often.”

The new-look Chiefs will have to find a way to replicate the production they got – on and off the ice – from Andrew Cristall, Shea Van Olm, Brayden Crampton and Rasmus Ekström.

“That’s junior hockey, right?” Lauer said. “They were all a big part of our team. But the kids that are here, they can take big steps and we have some pretty good pieces coming back to us.”

A few of those pieces returning had ever shorter summers than the rest. Forwards Mathis Preston and Brody Gillespie, and goalie Carter Esler, competed at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup in Brno, Czechia few weeks ago with Gillespie’s Team USA winning the gold medal over Sweden in the championship game, while Preston and Esler took home bronze with Canada.

The U.S. beat Canada 4-3 in a shootout in a semifinal.

“I’ve got bragging rights now since we won,” Gillespie said. “But it’s all fun and jokes now.”

“It’s a very prestigious tournament,” Bardsley said. “It was a lot of travel, having to go over to Europe, playing there, coming back and then basically 10 days later, they’re here at camp. But those guys are elite players and there’s a reason why they represented their country.”

The Chiefs had a tremendously successful campaign last season despite being one of the youngest teams in the league. That success provided the returning nucleus with a ton of experience – and confidence.

“Experience is big part of this league to have success. And you know, we were young last year. We carried six 16-year-olds, which is not common for teams to do,” Lauer said. “But we were fortunate that we had guys that were capable of playing in the league at that age, and hopefully it benefits us this year.”

“It’s a lot of confidence knowing that you can play against the best competition,” Preston said. “And then, going that far, everyone knows what it takes to go on a bit playoff run like that.”

Preston, who scored 23 goals with 22 assists in 54 regular season games, knows he will get more scrutiny in his draft season.

“I think any guy who is draft-eligible (thinks about it),” he said. “It’s hard not to. But you just have to try to enjoy it and play for the love of the game, not for the draft or whatever.”

“He had a good rookie year,” Lauer said. “He’s one of those guys that people talk about. … You need a lot of pieces to build this puzzle, and he’s obviously one piece of it.”