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North Stars make moves to accommodate new additions

Oct 12, 2016 | 2:00 PM

The trickle-down effect head coach Nate Bedford talked about after yesterday’s practice has now begun, as the additions of Coby Downs and Ben Allen forced the team to make some roster changes.

Three moves in total were made, as defencemen Karstin McDonald and Austin Shumanski were reassigned, while forward Tysen Smith was released from the team.

McDonald will now play full time with the Saskatoon Quakers in the junior B league, where he has already played three games this season. Shumanski will spend the rest of the season with the AAA Yorkton Maulers, where he spent last season.

“It’s always tough to see guys go but hopefully it betters them,” Bedford said after practice on Wednesday. “I’d like to see both of them play next year. I think they’re both capable of playing. We just have an influx of ‘D’ this year. They weren’t playing enough games and I wanted to see them play games. I’m sure they wanted to play.”

The moves leave the team with just seven defencemen, including Connor Jensen, who played forward this year when healthy.

But Bedford said it’s absolutely nothing to worry about.

“We’ve got multiple guys that can play forward and ‘D’, and probably more than people know,” Bedford said. “A good sign of a good hockey player is someone that can play all positions and doesn’t care where he plays and we’ve got a bunch of those guys on our team.”

Meanwhile, Downs and Allen practiced with the team for the first time today.

“I’m excited to get the season going. I’m excited to play already,” Downs said after his first practice. “It was good [playing with Layne Young and Reed Delainey]. They’re all skilled guys and I like playing with them. I played with them last year, especially Younger, so the pace is back [and] the chemistry is still there.”

“The thing with Downs is he reacts really quickly offensively,” Bedford said. “He can see things that other people can’t. He’s pretty creative. He skates well, he shoots well. He’s going to be a fairly offensive player for us.”

Allen comes over from the Fort McMurray Oil Barons of the AJHL, after growing up in Allen, Texas, where he played hockey with the U-18 Dallas Stars team.

He said his game is about defence first.

“I like to be a 200-foot player,” Allen said after practice. “I like to do defence first and play that game great and then in the offensive zone try to make nice plays and make everyone around me better.”

Bedford said that’s exactly the kind of player teams need.

“It looks like [Allen] can do a little bit offensively and a little bit defensively and we like that. The more two-way guys you can have on your team that are capable of putting pucks in the net and of keeping them out, the better you’re going to be,” Bedford said. “He’s got a good attitude and works hard.”

Today the team worked on special teams and open ice stuff, mostly focusing on getting familiar with one another because of new line combinations and defensive pairings.

Tomorrow the team heads to Wilcox for the first of three games in three nights. Taryn Kotchorek will start in goal.

Then the team travels to Weyburn on Friday, where Joel Gryzbowski will get the nod.

On Saturday, the team finishes their three-game swing in Estevan. It’s unclear who will start that game.

NorSask North Stars radio hits the airwaves at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday night with the Ultra Print pre-game show on CJNB/CJNS. The North Stars will look to extend their current four-game win streak.

 

Nathan Kanter is battlefordsNOW’s sports reporter and voice of the Battlefords North Stars. He can be reached at Nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca or tweet him @NathanKanter11