The Stealth had a busy and productive off season while transitioning up the west coast to British Columbia, Canada. As well as making several key signings Vancouver acquired some great talent though the draft and a trade.
While the franchise moved to Vancouver, itʼs keeping the same winning personnel that brought the team to within one goal of a championship last season. Signing established talent such as goalie Tyler Richards, defender Chris OʼDougherty , captain Kyle Sorensen and all pro Mike Grimes.
“Our players have been great during the contract process and frankly we are thrilled with the way things are panning out.” Stealth general manager Doug Locker told us. “Everyone will be back and we will have the luxury of looking at some very talented free agents over the next few weeks of camp.”
The Stealth solidified the hometown look with the acquisition of Ilija Gajic, and contract extensions of Curtis Hodgson, Cliff Smith, Matt Roik and Matt Beers who will start his 5th season with the club. Add the recent signing of 12 high profile free agents, the extension of veteran scorer Dean Hill, a strong cast of NLL draft picks, and the hometown support of the crowd at the LEC. You get the sense that management is doing everything possible to get back to the Champions cup final in 2014.
“We’re very happy with the free agents we have asked to our main camp and feel each of them has an opportunity to make our club.” said Locker. The first training camp will see several faces from the free agent camp. “We moved all of our draft selections along with Aaron Pascas, Jamie Shewchuk, Alex Gajic, Scott Rouse, Sean Lundstrom, Neil Arbogast, Richard Lachlan, Brandan Smith and Matt Flindell” said Locker.
The Stealth start the campaign on January 4th vs the Colorado Mammoth in Colorado. The following week brings the Minnesota Swarm into town for the home opener. The Vancouver squad will be holding itʼs second training camp session this upcoming weekend in Langley, BC.
