Off-Season Needs and Future Considerations.

Heading into the off-season it's no secret that the Battlefords North Stars are looking to add some more character and grit. Last night on the CO-OP Leisure Time Sports Fix, Star's Coach and GM Ken Pearson confirmed that the club has made a deep commitment to bring in some character kids to compete for jobs in the fall. Last season the Stars had an abundance of skill, but at times seemed to lack the necessary tenacity to win close games and protect leads.

If you think back to the 2009-2010 team, Troy Watt, Mitch Wall and Coleman Brodbin were three 20-year-olds that left it all on the ice every game and were solid contributors in their own unique ways. In my opinion there weren't enough of those types of role players on last year's club.

I'm not suggesting that the Stars don't have some of these ingredients already. Boyd Wakelin, Robbie Newton, Travis Sparrow, and Luke Hannas are all players who play with an edge, and possess those types of qualities. But clearly it wasn't enough last year, and those players will need to prove early in 2011-2012 that they're willing to bring the same 'lunch-bucket' approach to the game.

As it stands right now, here are the players eligible to return up front:

91 - Blake Tatchell
91 - Brett Miller
91 - Luke Hannas
91 - Boyd Wakelin
91 - Samuel Fortier
92 - Kyle Hall
92 - Tim Rollins
92 - Braedon Johnson
92 - Tanner Schwab
93 - Robbie Newton

On the back-end:

91 - Woody Klassen
91 - Travis Sparrow
92 - Brody Luhning
92 - Zach Maclellan
93 - Dillon Forbes

In goal:

91 - Graham Hildebrand

Keep in mind that this list does not include WHL possibilities, the future considerations coming from Vernon, and recruits from within and outside the organization. All-in-all I like the list of eligible returnees, but you and I both know that things could look a lot different come the start of training camp.

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It didn't take long for some big trading dominos to fall in the SJ. The Humboldt Broncos have acquired forwards Clark Breitkreuz (Bright-CRYTES) and Robbi Ciolfi (CHOAL-FEE) from the Yorkton Terriers.

Both players head to Humboldt as future considerations from a trade in January that sent Jeremy Boyer and Justin Buzzeo to Yorkton. More trades are expected to be announced later this week as the Melville Millionaires and Melfort Mustangs have two different 'futures' deals to finalize.

As for the Stars, they are owned 'future considerations' from the Vernon Vipers. But Coach Pearson wants to give the Vipers time to unwind after their run to the Royal Bank Cup. He wants to wait until after their team banquet and farewell before announcing the end-part of the deal that sent Dane Muench to Vernon in January.

That's all I have for you today. Enjoy the sun!