This was supposed to be a rebuilding year. A year where the Cochrane Generals found themselves near the league's basement in order to restock the cupboards with fresh faces and less experienced players to make a run at the league championship a few seasons from now.
While the Generals didn't win the Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) championship due to losing Game 5 of their third-round series by a score of 4-2 to the Coaldale Copperheads on March 13, ultimately ousting them from the playoffs - this season was a success. They lost leading point scorers Talus Hume, Slater Ransom and Austin Keller while also losing stalwarts Colton Wong and Will Gretton due to graduation and other commitments. This year's version of the Generals epitomized the concept teamwork and they used the team-first mentality to will themselves to win, after win, after win.
"Taking a look at what we had leaving our system at the end of playoffs last year when we lost to Okotoks, if you put it together, guys like Talus Hume and Slater Ransom – guys who can put up 70 points in a season, that obviously hurts us and we didn't know if we were going to have any 70-plus point guys coming into this season," said Generals head coach Travis McMillan.
"On top of that, we lost Will Gretton and Austin Keller, defencemen who can put points up on the board ... you kind of put all of those parts together, how do we fill all of the holes? Going into our first ever summer development camp in June, it turned out to be a little more promising than I had anticipated but we were still missing some pieces and as soon as the season rolled around, I didn't know if we'd have guys who'd put up a lot of points on the board but there were a lot of guys that really did step up and we had a lot of depth from line one to line four."
"Keenan McElroy coming from the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL) and Jordan Marks coming from the Humboldt Broncos to play for us, those are depth guys that really helped as well as affiliate players such as Jonah Desrosiers who helped solidify our blue line. I thought we were going to have a rebuilding year but it turns out that it was the exact opposite. All four lines contributed, we got solid goaltending and built good chemistry so I was overall happy with how this year went."
Leading scorer Braden Bain will be the only Generals player gone from their roster due to graduation next year. The 21-year-old forward scored 25 goals and added 31 assists for 56 points in 36 games, leading the team in all three statistical categories. McMillan said losing a player of his calibre will be tough but the team should be able to make up for the loss the same way they did with their graduating players last year .
"Last year, when Braden was on our team, he was a secondary scorer obviously behind guys like Talus and Slater and he was one you could mix and match with any line and still find success. We had a lot of weapons last year and Braden was one of those guys ... This year, he came in knowing he needed to make a bigger impact not only on the team but for himself as well," McMillan said. "We had spoken throughout the year in regards to trying to find him a school to go to and making sure people were aware of him as a player. He brought a lot of fire power to our line up, a lot of speed and was a threat every time he was on the ice ... he will be sorely missed but he's also the only player we'll potentially be losing from this years roster so we should be able to fill that role."
With almost all the team able to potentially return, would the expectations be higher going into next season?
"I don't necessarily set the bar per se, but there is the anticipation to finish to close to where we were at this season. There were a lot of things our athletes did overcome in terms of obstacles like Brandon Aab missing a month with mono and needing someone to fill that role," McMillan said.
"There is a continual idea that the Cochrane Generals should be near the top every year because we have good depth, good goaltending, good leadership and because that's where people expect us to be."
