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11 North Stars prospects to attend WHL camps

Aug 24, 2017 | 2:00 PM

It’s not exactly proper to label North Stars goaltender Joel Grzybowski a ‘prospect’ anymore, not after the year he had, but he is one of 11 North Stars ‘protected players’ attending a Western Hockey League training camp or rookie camp this summer.

Some camps have already begun, while others are merely on the horizon, and Grzybowski is by far the player with the best chance to stick with his team, the Saskatoon Blades (which, ironically, would not be great news for Battlefords, but great news for the player).

But the North Stars have plenty of other younger players also attending camps, many of them getting their first taste of what a WHL rookie camp is like.

Newly drafted players Steven Kesserling, Carter Serhyenko and Walter Somers are the youngest players on the list.

Kesserling, taken in the third round of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League bantam draft, is at camp with the Kelowna Rockets, as the 15-year-old was chosen by them in the ninth round of the WHL bantam draft this past spring. Fifteen-year-old Serhyenko will attend Red Deer Rebels rookie camp, which begins Sunday, and 15-year-old Somers is attending the Prince George Cougars camp.

Two other North Stars prospects are at Prince George Cougars camp: 17-year-old Chance Adrian and goaltender Cale Elder. Adrian was originally drafted by Red Deer, but signed a standard player agreement with the Cougars this past March, after two solid seasons with the Saskatoon Contacts in midget AAA. Elder was originally chosen by the Kindersley Klippers in the SJHL bantam draft but was traded to the North Stars this summer for a fourth round pick in 2018.

Attending Rockets camp alongside Kesslering is 2016 SJHL bantam draft pick Dylan Esau, from Meadow Lake. He is entering his second season on the AAA Stars.

A pair of prospects are at Kootenay Ice camp: 17-year-old defenceman Noah Form and 16-year-old forward Blake Allan. 

The final two players on the list are 18-year-old forward Carter Jones, who will be at camp with the Spokane Chiefs (alongside AAA Stars Adam Beckman and Joseph Young) and 16-year-old AAA Stars forward Tye Scherger, who is at Edmonton Oil Kings rookie camp, and hits the ice tomorrow.

North Stars training camp begins on Aug. 30 with fitness testing. The team will have practices and scrimmages on Sept. 1 and 2, and then open the pre-season in Bonnyville on Sept. 3.

 

cjnbsports@jpbg.ca

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