Golden Bears Hockey embrace heavy rookie lineup

The University of Alberta’s Golden Bears Hockey team has welcomed the start of the 2024-25 season with 11 impressive rookies on its lineup. The large influx of rookies has brought diversity in size and skill to the roster. 

According to head coach Ian Herbers, there are a lot of great players making it difficult to decide where to place them.

“[It] makes it challenging for the coaches, which is a good situation,” Herbers said in an interview with The Gateway.

The team’s exhibition series in Ireland at the beginning of the season helped the rookies adapt quickly, Herbers said. As well, the exhibition games assisted with team unity. As a result, the team has “started [the season] the right way.”

Notably absent from the exhibition series was Bears forward Brett Hyland, who joined the team after coming off the Washington Capitals’ training camp. Hyland still attended the Bears camp and played all regular season games with the team.

“[Hyland is] going to be a dynamic player to watch this year. We’ve got a few guys like that,” Herbers said.

“Now it’s up to the players and the amount of work they do” Herbers says

According to Herbers, the coaching staff want to maintain rookie development. To do this, they tell every player to play as if they were “fighting for the top center spot [or] top defencemen spot.” 

Many of these players are coming out of the Western Hockey League and are unfamiliar with USports. They shift from playing 68 regular season games to playing around 25 regular season games with much older players, Herbers said. 

Herbers expects all players to understand “that every game is a play-off game,” and they “can’t give a single goal away.”

Hebers discusses the veteran lineup’s leadership

Herbers stated that the veteran lineup cannot not be overlooked. He said they attended training camp in great shape and have proved to be real leaders for the team.

Captain Josh Prokop, assistant captains Erik Florchuk and Jakin Smallwood, and forward Tyler Priezuiso are “four key” players. They have helped the team come together as a whole, while demonstrating how the senior players dominate the ice. Herbers mentioned that they’ve helped the rookies to adjust and built a strong unified team heading into the regular season.

Fans are likely to have noticed the break up of leadership “over all four lines.” This distributes a consistent skill level.

Herbers wants all the rookies paired with a veteran player, in order to evenly develop all players. Additionally, he rotates goalies throughout weekend games to develop both players. This ensures that no opposing team ever gets used to one goaltender, especially during play-off series games.

“We’ve been successful about [rotating them] in the past. We’ve won … back-to-back nationals” Herbers said. 

The new team is “just touching the tip of the iceberg”

The Bears’ overall style of play “is a very intense, high energy game” meant to wear down the opposing team. Herbers plans to advance this play style moving forward.

Throughout the first month of the season, the team has focused on the big picture and bringing together all components. With the season underway, Herbers plans to focus on specialty teams off the short-hand, face-off, and power play. There’s currently three power play units but Herbers feels adjusting them and other units can keep the players engaged.

Herbers noted that it is the fans that really excite the Bears and create the energy they thrive of off. He noted that it can be difficult to create that energy within the team when visiting other arenas, as they see a fraction of the turnout the Bears do.

Herbers is excited to see how far this new team will go as “there’s huge potential, and [they’re] just touching the tip of the iceberg.”

Moving forward they’ll continue to play “a high intensity, high skilled game.”

“We’ve still got a long way to go. But [we have a] very good group with lots of potential,” Herbers said.