The Estevan Peewee AA Bruins are embarking on a new season with a new coach at the helm, and a lot of new faces on the roster.

Aren Miller, also Assistant Coach to the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins, has taken over the role of Head Coach from Kris Hollingshead.

"I think it's a real important year for a lot of those kids moving into bantam, bantam hockey's pretty much your most important two years in hockey, so think it was important for myself to step up," he said, adding his son Ryder is in his first year in Peewee as well, "So I'll be coaching for two years, get a good grasp on those kids moving into bantam and hopefully show them the proper way and what it takes to play the game at that level, to let them have some success at the bantam level."

He noted that there were some differences to adjust to between being an assistant coach, then head coach, such as the role and relationship with the players and organizational duties. In addition, adjusting between coaching Junior A and Peewee is a unique challenge.

"With peewee, it's usually the first year coming in where you have a whole southeast corner that's competing for roster spots, it's not just Estevan kids. You've got kids from Carlyle, Redvers, Storthoaks, Carnduff, everywhere."

The coach also pointed out that it's the kids' first experience playing in a provincial league, adding to the challenge of bringing young players to the next level of their game.

Filling the role of Assistant Coach for the season will be Junior A Bruins forward Tyson Manz, when he's not otherwise occupied with his own game.

"I don't know if we'll be able to keep the whiteboards in stock," Miller added with a chuckle,"But he's going to be helping us out this year. That's great for the kids, because we don't always want parents around and they can go to him and talk. Tyson sees things from a different level, so it's perfect for us to have him helping us out when he can. Obviously he's not going to be around as much as we'd like, but he's got other fish to fry first."

Now a couple games into their exhibition season, they still have some tough decisions in the way of cuts to make. However, a couple more games over the weekend will give them more of a perspective.