The General manager of the Stompers organization, Joe Mantell, has been busy this offseason. A relocation of the team to the Pacific Northwest, a change in coaching staff, fresh faces on the roster and a promising 2020 entry draft have left the new man in charge feeling optimistic about the status of the franchise.
“We felt that a move to the west coast was an astute one for our club – the city of Vancouver is extremely enthusiastic about having a UHL franchise here [merchandizing opportunities are virtually endless] hopefully the players will respond well to being in the spotlight.”
Moving the farm team to nearby Burnaby should also facilitate the development of the team’s deep prospect pool under the watchful eye of new Raven’s coach, Jay Leach.
As for the Stompers, coach Lindy Ruff was not offered a new contract, making room for new head coach Rod Brind’Amour who should have no problem acquiring the respect of the roster.
“I’m looking forward to seeing what Rod can do with the team”, Mantell said, speaking from Stompers HQ in the hip heart of East Vancouver, “I think we’ll be a more difficult team to play against then in recent years. We all know that Rod has a great reputation for bringing his players into line. I mean, Rod could probably still play today and put up points…he commands respect.”
At the heart of the new-look Stompers franchise are young star Jack Eichel and freshly signed all-star goalie Carey Price. For the 32-year-old Price, he moves back to his home province after spending the majority of his career on the other side of the continent. He will be joined by new additions Jaden Schwartz, Tyler Bertuzzi and Jakob Silfverberg, brought in to provide more scoring for a club that struggled in this regard for much of last season. GM Mantell made a considerable number of signings in free agency but was fairly restrained in handing out large contracts.
“We knew going into free agency that we had a number of gaps in our roster that we needed to fill – I think we addressed those”, said Mantell, “We had an opportunity to sign Carey which became a priority for us - a goalie of his calibre becomes a cornerstone for a franchise like ours. We’ve added some offensive support for Jack and surrounded him with some solid veterans while our young players and prospects develop. It was important for us to maintain cap flexibility as we look to signing our youth moving forward. We are anticipating being much more competitive in the near future”.