Hockey teams often spend the offseason making new additions to their on-ice roster, but the Estevan Bruins made a big addition to their staff as well, adding Carter Duffin as an assistant coach and director of marketing.
Duffin spent last season working in the MJHL with the Virden Oil Capitals. He has experience working at the midget and bantam AAA levels in Red Deer as well, so Duffin could have taken his impressive resume to any number of teams. He chose Estevan.
"After a lot of talks with Chris about his directions for the club both hockey and operations wise it really got me excited about the organization," Duffin said. "Once I started doing some looking into the city of Estevan it really started to excite me about getting out here and calling Estevan home."
Duffin also has an oil and gas background, and experience in business development, meaning he'll fit right into the Energy City.
"It fits right in my wheelhouse," he said with a smile. "I know a lot of company names already."
Duffin has already made a good first impression on Bruins head coach Chris Lewgood.
"I can tell already he's going to be an excellent fit in the community," Lewgood said. "Our team culture is a pretty welcoming place and he's someone who's going to have a lot of value as a coach, and in our office it's already shown in one week here he's going to bring a lot of value that way."
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Duffin will have a lot on his plate in his first season with the team. On the ice, the Bruins are expected to build off a strong showing last year, where they finished third in the league and made it to the second round of the playoffs before bowing out to a dominant Battlefords North Stars squad. Off the ice, the team is due to celebrate a huge milestone with their 60th anniversary.
As busy as Duffin will surely be, he's not here to reinvent the wheel.
"I'm not going to come in and try to turn everything around," he said. "The Bruins are very established and have a good tradition with what they're doing and a really good direction. I'm looking to add my pieces in addition to what they've already established, and continue moving forward and continue the relationships with the community and the support we get from a lot of businesses as well."
The Bruins come into their 60th season with big expectations, and so far the team is on the right track according to their coach.
"With the help of a lot of volunteers and corporate support our team is good shape right now, financially, and things are looking up on the ice as well," Lewgood said. "We're in a real good place."
As for the big plans revolving around their 60th year, Lewgood kept his cards close to the chest for the time being.
"We do have some plans to mark some legacies that we think are long overdue in the community," he revealed. "We've got some plans for new fundraising ideas that I think will be exciting. More importantly we want to honour some teams and some people that have made the Estevan Bruins franchises so successful over the years."
And for the summer, the Bruins have one more big event before the season starts: a kids hockey camp.
"It's going to be a fun camp," Lewgood said. "Of course we're still focused on skill development and training but the centerpiece is that it's a lot of fun for the kids. They're going to enjoy playing hockey and coming to the camp. We're excited about that. It's our first in a long time here. It's going to be an annual thing."
The kids camp will begin on August 14. As for the Bruins main camp, that will kick off on September 1, ahead of the September 15 season opener on home ice.
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