The Prince George Spruce Kings along with the rest of the BCHL remain in a holding pattern after the current restrictions on sports activities were extended until February 5th.
General Manager, Mike Hawes told MyPGNow.com while the news was expected, they are still upbeat they can start playing at some point.
“We still feel positive that we are going to have a season at some point as I think there is some light at the end of the tunnel but I would anticipate at some point in the next few days the league will announce a new proposed start date for our league.”
“There are a couple in February that will work for us to still be able to have a season of note.”
While getting the 2020-21 regular season off the ground isn’t a possibility at this time, Hawes noted practices are slated to resume in the not too distant future as their players slowly re-enter the city following an extended Christmas break.
“All of our players are filtering back into town at the tail end of this week and through the weekend and we will be fully back into practice next week as a group so that is certainly good for us.”
“You know, these players are going to take all the ice time they can get as they continue to develop in a very tough time and obviously not being able to play games during the pandemic but there is still a lot on the line for these players, they need to continue on with their development the best that they can,” added Hawes.
As for the recruiting side of things, the entire roster of this year’s team remains intact while plans are already underway for next season (2021-22) to remain competitive on the ice.
“Fortunately, we haven’t lost any guys (for this season) up to this point to some of the leagues in the United States as some other teams have, our roster is set and we are ready to go whenever the league is ready to fire up. The recruiting and all of that stuff building next year’s team and all of that is status quo for us moving ahead as it normally would,” said Hawes.
The BCHL announced it has pushed back the start date of its season to the week of February 8th.