THUNDER BAY – Last season, the Lakehead Thunderwolves were the surprise of OUA men’s hockey.
The team, which had struggled to make the playoffs in recent seasons, even sitting out the postseason on more than one occasion, broke out in 2022-23, climbing to within a single win of a national championship berth.
The Thunderwolves have largely returned the same roster to the ice in 2023-24, the lone guaranteed addition at this point being high-scoring Tier II defenceman Ed McNeill, named the Canadian Junior Hockey League defenceman of the year after tearing up the Maritime Junior Hockey League last season.
While coach Andrew Wilkins likely has a little more tinkering to do, last season’s success has the returnees champing at the bit to start the regular season to see what the team can do for an encore.
Captain Tyler Jette, who scored career four goals and added seven assists in 27 appearances, said the Thunderwolves saw what they could do last year and are eager to take things another level or two when the regular season kicks off on Oct. 6.
“I think mentally and physically each guy did some stuff over the summer because the ending wasn’t what we wanted last year … We’ve got basically everybody coming back, with two new guys, three new guys, whatever. We’re excited. We’ve got the fan base behind us, so we just want to get going,” the 6-foot-3 blue-liner said.
The most prominent departures include forwards Stephen Fox and Geoff Dempster, who combined for seven goals last season, and Thunder Bay-born defenceman Kyle Auger.
Forward Kishaun Gervais is also among the departed.
Griffin Fox, who led the team with 27 points in 2022-23, said the holes, large or small, offer an opportunity for returning players to step up their roles with the club, adding it’s up to them to make the most of any increased playing time they might find under coach Andrew Wilkins and his staff this time around.
“Yeah, there are definitely a couple of big contributors gone out the lineup, character guys. But I think by the same token, we’ve added a couple new faces that are really going to help us out,” the third-year forward said.
“I think that extra year of added experience for everyone, as a roster, will help us get to where we want to go.”
Fox admitted it won’t be quite as easy this season, the Thunderwolves not likely to surprise the opposition nearly as much as they did in going 18-6-3 to capture the OUA West, their first division championship in 15 years.
“That’s going to be the tricky part,” he said. “Maybe last year we didn’t have those expectations from the league. Maybe they thought it was going to be easy playing us, but now it’s going to be everyone’s toughest test.”
Wilkins, the former Thunderwolves captain who enters his sixth season behind the bench at LU, is OK with that.
“It’s going to be harder this year,” he acknowledged. “The league always gets better and I think our schedule is a little more challenging.”
The bottom line, to win, the team will have to play well game in and game out, he added.
It starts in camp, which opened unofficially this week at the Tournament Centre with a number of captain’s practices.
“I think we’re just going to review everything, rebuild our style of play. It’s good that we’ve got returning guys who know what we expect and know the way we want to play,” Wilkins said. “It’s a long month here and I know the guys were dialed in last year and that’s the expectation for us to try to and improve.”
Claw marks: The Wolves open OUA play on Oct. 6 on the road against Brock and return home on Oct. 13 for the first of two against the Waterloo Warriors.
