The Rosetown Junior A Redwings of the GMHL West, have had to push their season opening weekend back due to a lack of local ice time.

Although the three other teams that comprise the GMHL West will be hitting the ice to kick off the 2019-2020 season, the Redwings will have to wait a little bit longer. Derek Prue, GMHL West expansion director, said they are currently waiting on word from the Town as to when ice will be put in the rink.

“We tried to work around having local ice but it just proved to be too challenging and almost impossible to get the team in one place to get some ice time together,” said Prue.

The Redwings said they have been in constant contact with the Town of Rosetown, with Prue stating they have been great at understanding the teams needs and said they would have the ice in as soon as possible, however, no time frame or specific date has been set.

While the wait for ice continues, Prue said the players have been lacing up and skating on their own, however, it doesn’t compare to playing with the team and practising as a whole.

Prue confirmed that although many players are not yet in Rosetown, they do have a team roster comprised of 15 players who are all ready to make the move when the team is ready to get going with the season. The roster will include players from all across Canada, as well as, four to five players from Europe.

The Redwings recently brought in Alan Jacob from France as the head coach for the Junior A academy team and Prue said Jacob is lending his talents to other areas of the league while they wait for the green light in Rosetown.

“He’s been back and forth between Rosetown and Edmonton, the YEG Academy Wings have their opening weekend starting today, so he’s not coaching or anything like that but he has a lot of experience and is helping things get organized.”

The YEG Academy Wings is not a team name that was originally on the GMHL West season schedule, however, they will be replacing the Cold Lake Wings, who were originally on the schedule.

In recent developments, the GMHL West decided to forego the Cold Lake team as it was too crowded as another Junior A team, the Cold Lake Hornets of the Western States Hockey League (WSHL), were also occupying the town.

“We have our same guys that were on the Cold Lake Wings and we’ve simply gone over to be the YEG Academy Wings, their season is still the same and where it says Cold Lake on the schedule, that will be changed to YEG,” explained Prue.

Not only is the academy style hockey program new to Rosetown, they are also going through somewhat of a transition as they move away from the WSHL and create the west division in the GMHL.

Although they may be experiencing intermittent growing pains in other franchise locations, Prue assures that the Redwings Junior A team will be coming together as soon as they are able to hit the ice, at home, in Rosetown.