By Troy Gillard

Game on!

Young Rebels team looks to surprise in 2019-20 WHL season

Sep 20, 2019 | 7:00 PM

When it comes to the 2019-2020 Red Deer Rebels, we’re all about to find out whether The Who were correct with their declaration that ‘The Kids Are Alright.’

Hopefully, contrarily, it’s not The Offspring who are proven right with their proclamation that ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright.’

Youth is definitely the theme for the Rebels this season as nearly half of their roster (11 players) is made up of 17-year-olds. And, as Allan Caldwell (@smallatlarge) noted on Twitter, only nine current Rebels have played 50 or more WHL games.

The exodus of talent from last year’s team that made the WHL playoffs before being swept by the eventual league champion Prince Albert Raiders is evident. Brandon Hagel, Reese Johnson, Jeff de Wit, Alexander Alexeyev – all key players, all of them gone.

So it goes without saying, but we’ll say it anyway, it’ll be baptism by fire for a young Rebels team this year.

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“We have our veterans that we need them to be really good players for us, and we’ve got our kids that need to learn the league… there’s a lot of young players on our team,” GM/head coach Brent Sutter acknowledged.

“We just have to be patient with it and work with them and yet, at some point, we’ll get over that hump and we’ll be on our way. We like to think that down the road we’re going to have a heck of a hockey team, but only time will tell.”

The veterans Sutter refers to include forwards Brett Davis, Cameron Hausinger, Josh Tarzwell and Chris Douglas, defenceman Dawson Barteaux and Ethan Sakowich, and, perhaps most importantly, goaltender Ethan Anders.

Hausinger (37 points in 40 games) and Davis (31 points in 41 contests), both now 20-years-old, each averaged just under a point per game for the Rebels after arriving via trade from Kootenay last November. Each will need to be as good, if not better, if the Rebels are to be competitive this season.

Chris Douglas and Red Deer native Tarzwell are each entering their fourth WHL season. They’ve yet to establish offensive consistency but hope to become regular contributors. Again, if the Rebels plan to win games this season, they’ll need to do just that.

Jayden Grubbe, the 16-year-old forward who played for Alberta at the 2019 Canada Winter Games and at the Telus Cup with the Calgary Buffaloes, will be intriguing to watch as he navigates his way through his first WHL campaign.

The other 16-year-old on the roster is Kyle Masters, who just like Grubbe was selected in the first round of the bantam draft and played for Alberta at the Canada Winter Games.

The Rebels host the Edmonton Oil Kings for their home opener at the Westerner Park Centrium Saturday night at 7 p.m. The Rebels and Oil King meet again Sunday at 4 p.m. in Edmonton.