Mavericks, Monarchs come to Lakewood Looking for Talent
30 players take opportunity to make impression on Tier II team
The Columbus Mavericks of the United States Premier Hockey League’s Premier Division and the New Hampshire Jr. Monarchs of the National Collegiate Development Conference held a joint tryout camp at Lakewood’s Winterhurst Arena Thursday and Friday, June 18-19. The Mavericks are an affiliate of the Monarchs, who are located in Hooksett, NH and compete in the NCDC, a 13-team tuition-free Tier II circuit on the east coast under the USPHL umbrella.
Among the 30 players at the camp there were 20 from Ohio, including nine that played for schools in the Ohio High School Athletic Association last year.
Goaltender Alex Toth, who backstopped Mentor to an impressive season which included a run to the Kent District Final, was among them. Toth, who graduated from Mentor High School earlier this month, has already signed with Columbus for the 2020-21 season. There, he will join returning netminder and Pickerington native Tyler Dorion.
The Mavericks' new general manager and head coach Nate Handrahan says a third goaltender is among the openings he would still like to fill. Columbus has already signed 18 players, almost all of them Central Ohio natives, including three members of the Newark Generals: Forward Jack Bortle and defensemen Tyler Dickerson and Tyler Hall. Handrahan ran the Generals for the past two seasons.
The Mavericks took the tryout north to the Cleveland area to expand the team’s recruiting reach.
“I think it’s important for us to maximize our exposure throughout the state of Ohio,” Handrahan said. “Cleveland is a hockey-rich market and has been for some time.”
Handrahan, who would also like to make inroads into the Detroit and the Erie, PA markets, arrived in town with blank contracts in hand. He does not feel a need to wait for the team’s main camp to sign a player if he found one that he felt could help the Mavs.
“In this day and age, you have to be decisive,” he said. “You need to strike while the iron is hot. Some of the kids are here because they want exposure to our affiliate the New Hampshire Monarchs, but they want to show their stuff to us as well.”
Ohio Hockey Digest’s Scott Harrington caught up with Mavericks general manager and head coach Nate Handrahan between sessions
The Mavericks were established prior to the 2019-20 season with the intention of complimenting the hockey ecosystem in Central Ohio and providing a local option for high school players to get additional seasoning before moving up the ladder.
“It is not our intention to raid high school rosters,” Handrahan said.
The players had an opportunity to make an impression on both the Mavericks and the Monarchs as coaches from both clubs were present to run two days of practices with scrimmages in the afternoon.
“I always like to have a practice component to a camp like this,” Handrahan said. “You get to see guys’ habits and how they react to making a mistake before you turn them loose in a scrimmage where you can gauge their hockey IQ.”
In their first season, Columbus posted a 7-35-2 mark in the Great Lakes Division of the USPHL Premier Division, which also included the Toledo Cherokee, Lake Erie Bighorns (PA) and Fort Wayne Spacemen. The Wooster Oilers re-boot this season and join the division as well.
--- Scott Harrington for Ohio Hockey Digest
