Blades already getting sharp

Blades hopefuls battle for the puck during their final ice session on Sunday during the club's spring tryouts. Photo by Chris Dawson.

The fine dinner last week at the Blades year-end banquet at the North Bay Golf & Country Club had barely settled before the coaching staff was looking at next year’s version of the Blades.

The Blades held four ice sessions on the weekend looking at close to 50 players from around the region competing for a spot on the 2007-2008 Northern Ontario Bantam ‘AAA’ finalists roster.

“Actually I was surprised the amount of kids that came out,” said Blades head coach Rob Ladouceur.

“I think we were well over 46 or 47 kids so it was a good surprise for us and it gave us a quick glimpse of what we got there, now we will take a little breather and get the summer program rolling in probably another 3 or 4 weeks.”

Once again the Blades will have a roster overhaul but they do have the bonus of getting Kris Faucon back for another year. The forward was named the co-winner of the Outstanding Minor Bantam Player in the Major Bantam League award.

More good news comes from a solid crop of Minor Bantams. The North Bay Minor Bantam ‘AA’ Thunder won 6 tournaments and finished with an impressive record of 31 wins, 3 losses and 1 tie.

“There’s definitely some strong kids from the minor bantam program as well as a few from the major bantam team last year and there’s always a couple of surprises from outside the territory, a couple kids from the Sturgeon Falls-Verner area so it looks like a strong crop of kids again this year,” said Ladouceur.