Youngsters impress at AAA camp

The Moose Jaw Midget AAA Warriors saw their top five scorers, as well as three defencemen and their number one goaltender, graduate last season.
Clearly, there are going to be a lot of new faces for coach Ray Wareham on the bench, and the first real on-ice battle for spots took place this weekend at the Civic Centre. There were 39 players on the ice vying for positions on the team this season and in the future.
"I was really happy with how the weekend went," said Wareham. "I thought all the guys competed hard and things went pretty good."
At camp this year, Wareham added a handful of top WHL prospects in with some local veterans eyeing a spot on the team for the first time. Among those are defencemen Ryan Murray, the ninth overall draft pick by Everett in this spring's Bantam draft, and 54th overall pick by Kelowna, Tanner Clark. Forwards Dyson Stevenson (105th pick by Regina) and Austin Daae (217th pick by Calgary) round out the new WHL selections.
Wareham said he thought Clark, Murray, Murray's brother Nathan, and Stevenson looked good.
"We were pretty happy with all the guys that we made commitments to, and I thought all the 1994s showed well," he said. "It was a good weekend and there are going to be some tough decisions."
For the next couple of weeks, players will be able to access ice with the team as they go back and forth from WHL camps, but the more serious ice time for the Warriors starts Sept. 2. The exhibition season starts with a home game Sept. 6 against Swift Current.

See Monday's Times-Herald for more on the story.