Blackhawks feature depth, new goaltending duo
The Thorold Blackhawks head into the 2022/23 Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League with a solid mix of returning players along with some promising newcomers.
“We’ve got quite a few returning guys but also 12 news guys,” coach/owner Scott Barnes said. “It’s a nice mix where we have half returning guys and half new guys. That’s something that we haven’t had in recent years. It’s more returning guys than we’ve had lately.”
Back from last year are forwards Wyatt Gisbon, Nathan Kelly, Dylan Pergentile, Grayson Gare, Aiden Cupelli and Liam Loftus while the back end appears in good shape with Jack Sykes, Coers, Owen Caldwell and Blake Hudson returning.
The big change comes between the pipes where newcomers Christian Lynch (2004) of Ajax and Bradley Boville (2003) of Mitchell will attempt to fill the huge skates of graduating netminder Noah Fortuna.
“They’re not experienced so it will take a little bit of time to get some time in the league but they both can play,” Barnes said.
Perhaps the most noteworthy newcomer is forward Daniel Vasic, a 16-year-old native of Newmarket who was a sixth-round selection of the Hamilton Bulldogs. The 5-foot-11, 181-pound forward collected 14 goals and 33 points in 27 games for the York Simcoe U16 AAA squad last season.
Barnes is curious to see how his squad stacks up against other teams once the regular season begins.
“It’s going to take some time but hopefully we’re going to be a puck possession-type of team. I don’t know if we’ll be a super high-scoring team but I think we’ll be able to control a lot of the games,” he said.
“We have a lot of depth on our team. We’re going to have four solid lines and three solid pairings. I don’t know if there are going to be any super-high scoring players at the top of the lineup but everyone is going to be able to play.”
Barnes feels the Golden Horseshoe Conference will feature quite a bit of parity this season.
“I just think it’s going to be a real competitive league this year,” he said. “It’s going to really even throughout. I don’t think anyone is going to be really bad or super, super good. Hopefully everyone can beat everyone on any night.”
The Blackhawks open the regular season Friday at 7:30 p.m. when they host the Caledonia Corvairs at the Vale Centre in Port Colborne before travelling to Welland Sunday.
Assisting Barnes this season will be assistant coaches Chris Goulet, Doug Grant and Mason Howard.
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