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In the weeks leading up to the start of the 2024-25 season, we will speak with the coach/GM of each team to get their thoughts on their new crop of players.
Last up are the Surrey Eagles
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The Surrey Eagles won their first Fred Page Cup championship since 2013 last year. They finished first overall in regular-season standings with a record of 44-8-2-0 to win the Ron Boileau Memorial Trophy. They defeated the Cowichan Valley Capitals in five games in round one, topped the Victoria Grizzlies in six games of the second round, outlasted the Alberni Valley Bulldogs in seven in the Coastal Final before defeating the two-time defending champion Penticton Vees in six games in the final.
Despite the success of last year, there has been a lot of change in the Eagles organization, most notably former NHLer and last year’s assistant coach Scott Gomez was promoted to head coach and general manager. The team also appointed former NHL player Mike Mottau as his assistant coach.
With so many players graduating from the program and most spots still up for grabs heading into training camp, Gomez and Mottau went through each position to detail the approach of the new Eagles regime.
Forwards
Gomez: We’ll have a bit of a different offensive system this year. My philosophy is more down low with the cycle game. We’ll always have a net presence and be attacking the net. It’s not much of a change, but just focusing more on puck possession. It will also depend a bit on us finding out what we have in some of our new players. We had horses last year in [Aaron] Schwartz and [Caden] Cranston and those guys. It might take these new guys a little more time.
We want more puck control coming into the zone as well. Our guys should be looking to make plays and to make the right reads with the puck on their stick. If you hold the puck a couple seconds longer, usually guys will get open. We want to teach our guys to give their teammates an extra second to get open.
Defencemen
Mottau: We’ll start with having a game plan on retrievals and using your partner effectively on goalie touches. We want to exit the zone with possession effectively and have a plan in place to get the puck cleanly up to the forwards in the neutral zone. We want to play fast and take calculated risks when necessary to produce offence from the back end. It’s about skating, angles and defending. There’s no creativity when we’re defending. There’s going to be a structure in place with layers of defensive support and everyone will be on the same page. Scott and I have played in systems that work well. We’re going to implement systems in practice and be prepared for any situation.
Goaltenders
Gomez: We have two returning goalies in Jaiden Sharma and Colton Jugnauth, so we’ll see where they are at early in the year.
Mottau: From the defensive side, we’re going to work closely with the goaltending coaches to make sure they’re getting out of the net and stop pucks when they’re rimmed around to make it easier for the defencemen to transition the puck out of our zone. We also want to limit quality scoring chances. If the goalie isn’t getting a ton of shots and he’s seeing them, that will work to our advantage. The defensive group, including the goalies, will all be on the same page.
