There’s a big pre-season gap between pre-season games but that does not seem to bother Battalion Head Coach Stan Butler.
The Troops, who are carrying 27 players on the roster, are fresh off an impressive 2-0-1 record at the OHL Pre-Season Showcase in Buffalo on the weekend.
“It was a good way to start off the year, and for the most part I was pretty happy with our guys playing teams from the Western Conference, which is nice to play teams we don’t see too often in the regular season,” said Butler during his midweek press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
The Battalion next action won’t be until next Wednesday when the Troops visit the Sudbury Wolves and the Owen Sound Attack on the following Saturday before hosting Owen Sound the next day on Sunday, September 17th.
That gap between games will also allow Butler and hockey operations to assess the squad while five regulars head off to NHL camps.
Centre Brett McKenzie is with the Vancouver Canucks at Penticton, B.C., while defencemen Cam Dineen and Brady Lyle are with the Arizona Coyotes and Anaheim Ducks respectively at San Jose, Calif. Right winger Justin Brazeau is with the Columbus Blue Jackets at Traverse City, Mich., where Swedish rearguard Adam Thilander has joined the Carolina Hurricanes. McKenzie and Dineen were drafted, while the others received free-agent invitations.
Czech star centre Filip Chytil, whom the Battalion selected sixth overall in the Canadian Hockey League Import Draft on June 28, was a first-round pick by the New York Rangers days earlier and is with their rookie prospects in Traverse City.
“We have, I call it, five-plus-one in camp,” said Butler making sure to highlight the plus one being Chytil.
“We have our five guys and then obviously Chytil’s gone to the Rangers in Traverse City, and he’s signed with them, and we’ll wait. We are having a constant dialogue with them on that, and we’ll wait and see where that one goes as well.”
