The players are all in town. It's time for Tri-City Americans camp to begin Monday.
The biggest question mark for this veteran team as it looks to defend its U.S. Division and Western Conference titles -- the blue line.
"Our defense is a little younger than last year," said Ams GM Bob Tory. "But everyone questioned our goaltending last year, and we were fine there."
Four defensemen from a year ago are back, but only 20-year-old Tyler Schmidt saw significant playing time, missing only one game.
Brock Sutherland, 19, missed 20 games; Drydn Dow, 18, played in only 30 games; and Zach Yuen, playing as a 16-year-old a year ago, played in 42.
Yuen is a player whom Tory believes will make a big leap this season.
"I think he will really surprise people with how good he is in his second season," Tory said.
Two others to watch early on are 18-year-old Spencer Humphreys (6-2, 213) and 17-year-old Sam Grist (6-4, 200), whom the team will rely upon to provide size and physicality on the blue line.
"We'll use the first 20 games of the season to evaluate (the defensemen) and go from there," Tory said. "We want to give these guys an opportunity. Just because they're young doesn't mean they can't do the job."
However, the Ams have plenty of depth at both forward and in net if Tory has to make a move to shore up the blue line.
The team returns 10 forwards, including top point man C Brendan Shinnimin (27 goals, 55 assists) and its second-leading goal scorer of a year ago, LW Justin Feser (36 goals, 37 assists).
In addition, 2009 first-round pick Connor Rankin, who had an excellent rookie camp, hopes to make an impression as a 16-year-old this season.
"We should be pretty exciting from the get-go," Tory said. "We return an awful lot of forwards, and they know each other. They know the system. We should be able to get going without missing a beat."
The Ams also have a pair of solid returners in net, led by No. 1 Drew Owsley, who had a breakout season at age 18 by going 33-11-1-1 with a 2.51 goals against average and a .918 save percentage.
For now, the No. 2 is 20-year-old Russian import Alex Pechurskiy, but he won't make it to camp until next week because of visa issues.
The Pittsburgh Penguins prospect is part of two logjams -- the Ams have four overage players on the roster (Schmidt, captain Kruise Reddick and Mike Brown, a late-season acquisition last winter), and they have three import players (D Nikita Kardashev and D Nikita Nesterov were selected in the 2010 CHL Import Draft) -- and with 16-year-old Chris Driedger having a solid rookie camp, Pechurskiy could make enticing trade bait.
"I'd like to see a younger goalie in the backup position," Tory said, looking ahead to next fall when both Owsley (who'd be 20 and a pro prospect) and Pechurskiy (too old for the WHL) could be gone.
While 2010 first-round pick Eric Comrie is the goalie of the future, he is ineligible for the WHL this season as a 15-year-old. Driedger would fit the "younger goalie" bill this season.
"Driedger gives us flexibility," Tory said.
All the sorting out of the roster puzzle begins bright and early Monday.
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