VIDEO: Hawks hope to improve on disappointing season

"When we took the team over, we had a three-year rebuilding program. Looking ahead to year two, things are looking up for our team."

These are the words of Martin Dagenais, head coach of the Hawkesbury Hawks, who was busy judging talent at the Hawks main training camp which got underway on Thursday, August 26.

With more than 50 players taking to the ice at the Robert Hartley Sports Complex on Thursday, the job of Dagenais and his assistants was to narrow the field down to about 40 players, who would fight for their spot on the team during a handful of exhibition games.

"We're still a pretty young team, but we have a lot more talent this year and I think that everyone will be able to see that when the season starts," he pointed out following a scrimmage between two of the three inter-squad teams at this year's tryouts.

The training camp featured countless new faces as well as returning players from last year's team, including goaltender Phillipe Magnan, defenceman Eric David, forwards Yanik Laliberte and Christopher McPeak and their top scorer from last season, Joey House.

"We have a lot of new players and the biggest challenge will be trying to find chemistry right away," said Dagenais. "It's not going to be easy at the beginning but we still have the nucleus of our team from last year and with their leadership, we're hoping to be a much more competitive team this season."

In the off-season, the Hawks added some offensive fire power to their blue line with the acquisition of Sebastien Poirier from Pembroke, who they believe to be one of the best offensive defencemen in the entire league.

According to the coaching staff, one of the major problems with the Hawks team is not their lack of heart or dedication, but rather their lack of size.

"We're not a big team, we need to add some size to our lineup this year," Dagenais said. "We've got lots of talent but our lack of size really hurts us against some of the bigger teams in our league."

"Realistically, we are not going to be a first-place team," he admitted, "but with all of the changes that we have made since last season, our goal is to make the playoffs this year and I believe that with what I have seen at the training camp so far, we will accomplish our goal and hopefully exceed everyone's expectations."