Clayton Bertrand may be in his first year with the Sudbury U16 AAA Wolves, but give the long-time local hockey man credit: he made a very quick read on his new team.
Chatting just before practice a few weeks back, a couple of days ahead of their season opening tournament down south, Bertrand noted where he thought the strengths and weaknesses of this crew might lie – even though he had but a few weeks of practices and a couple of pre-season games to assess his collection of talent.
“We’re strong in net; we’re strong on the back end – but we need to find a way to finish,” he said.
His words were almost prophetic.
Kicking off the Toronto Titans Tournament with a 5-3 win over the Central Ontario Wolves, the northerners who share the same mascot then proceeded to run dry in the goal scoring department over their final three games, though losses to both the Windsor Jr Spitfires (3-0) and Mississauga Rebels (2-0) were contests that were still there for the taking well into period three.
An assistant coach with former Sudbury U18 AAA bench boss Brian Dickinson for a few years prior, Bertrand has a sense of what needs to be done to turn the offense around – even if it ain’t very pretty.
“These guys need to find the dirty areas of the ice and get there more often,” he stated. “A lot of them are skilled, but they are skilled on the perimeter. We need to find those dirty areas, we need to go there and we need to be there aggressively. That’s probably the one missing component to this group, is that they are not aggressive enough.”
Unfortunately, some of that feistiness in this age group is now 90 minutes to the east, the 2024-2025 SMHA U16 AAA entry again falling victim to an exodus of a small handful of players, with the North Bay U16 AAA Trappers serving as the landing spot this time around.
Not much Bertrand can do about that but to put the best possible spin for the young lads under his watch. “There are players who are going to get opportunities that they didn’t get before,” he noted.
Gillis O’Daiskey has certainly been a familiar face within the 2009-born local AAA lineups, though donning the captaincy is uncharted territory for the thoughtful 15 year-old. “I’ve never had a leadership role before,” suggested O’Daiskey. “But I have relationships with everyone on the team and I think I bond well and connect with everyone.”
“On the ice, I am able to speak to everyone and boost them when they’re down. I am able to pick them up.”
For this particular age group, the arrival of Covid-19 was exponentially bad, synchronized directly with their first year of “AAA” action, that initial chance to test themselves against the best in the province. Still, with every passing year, the impact of lost competitive chances are lessened.
“I feel like we have picked up our game a lot since Covid,” said O’Daiskey. “I think there was a setback, that first year, our first AAA year. But since then, we’ve really picked it up an become a lot better as a team.”
For as much as team success tops the charts when it comes to the priorities of these young prospects, there is an individual component that likely weighs a little heavier in the mix during their OHL draft year as one and all look to get seen.
“I have to carry the puck more and bury more pucks this year,” acknowledged O’Daiskey. “Last year, I scored a little more but not where I want to be this year. But I’m not going to play a selfish game. I move the puck fairly well; I would call myself a playmaker.”
This year and last, teammate Tanner Morris calls/called himself a defenceman. That wasn’t always the case for the rugged competitor who lined up at forward until 2023-2024 head coach Trevor Blanchard had other ideas.
“I like to hit, I like to get pucks out, I have a decent shot,” noted Morris. “I think he wanted me back there for my physicality and my shot.”
Still, making changes at this point in his hockey career is not necessarily the easiest ask of the young man who can tap in to multiple generations of Morris-family hockey involvement in Greater Sudbury.
“The transition can be tough, going from always trying to score goals to now trying to stop them,” said Tanner. “I have to control my gap and keep them to the outside – and if I get a chance to put one on net, put one on net hard.”
“I am a more physical player, like my relatives were,” added Morris. “You can be flashy, but you still have to be physical.”
At this point, the multi-sport talent is still torn between hockey and baseball – though given the way he describes his on-ice persona, it’s small wonder that he serves as a catcher on the diamond, that warrior position where you will inevitably get bruised and banged.
“You have to think fast on defense, just like in baseball,” said Morris. “When I get the ball, I need to know right away what to do with it. Same thing in hockey.”
That kind of thinking approach can only help coach Bertrand implement the type of game plan that he feels will allow this group to be competitive, especially at those events when the stands are filled with scouts.
“I think the approach is to try and be as good as the sum of our parts,” said Bertrand. “Everybody is going to have a role and a purpose – and I think that’s big. Everyone is going to own something and as you grow that ownership, I think you grow the team.”
“If you look at the stats from last year, there was an overwhelming balance throughout the lineup,” he continued. “We’re trying to get those guys to elevate their game and finish better.”
At least that’s what Clayton Bertrand and his staff have seen with this team – and nothing that he has seen to date would change his mind.
Rounding out the Sudbury 2024-2025 roster are goaltenders Tyson McMahon and Owen Lamothe as well as skaters Brady Carrière, Emmett Croome, Hunter Currie, Mikael Guerin, Carson Jewitt, Landon Lake-Rego, Robert Landry, Keiran McCoy, Logan Moran, Carter Mullen, Leighton Pelletier, Sam Piette, Adrien Potvin, Owen Robinson and Harry Yeamans.
Joining Bertrand as members of the team staff are assistant coaches Marc Tardif, Derek Chartier and Ron Duguay, trainer Jason Allen and manager Dave Cormier.
