Jay Moser begins his 17th season coaching Park hockey with several veterans in this year’s roster, but also some holes to fill from last season’s successful team.

“We’re hopeful,” said Moser. “We tend to have the same sort of enthusiasm going into the start of the season. We tend to focus on the good things that we see and kind of ignore maybe some of the things we choose not to see. In all seriousness I think we’re going to have a higher skill level than we generally have.”

Park lost 13 seniors off last year’s team. The Wolfpack will be younger this season, but may be better balanced offensively, and quicker.

“In terms of offensively we’ll have the ability to score some goals,” Moser continued. “We lost two of our top three scorers last year, but I think we’ll be a little more balanced this year. That one line last year accounted for probably 70 percent of our forward line scoring. Our overall team speed is better so we’re going to be able to play faster than what we normally have been able to play. We have solid goaltending. We have a competitive situation back there so guys are going to have to play well to hold the job. And we have a couple of returning defensemen with some guys that will have to pick up their game and fill a spot that the seniors left last year on the blue line.”

Park was 13-11-1 on the season last winter, and 5-71 in the Suburban East Conference, finishing fifth. Generally speaking, Park beats the teams it was expected to, while losing to the teams with more hockey skills. Highlighting the season was a sweep of rival East Ridge, winning 3-1 and 6-3.

The Wolfpack fell to Rosemount 6-0 in the Section 3AA quarterfinals.

Park graduated three of its top four scorers in Brady Strand (20 goals, 21 assists), Sam Janski (19 goals, 18 assists) and Vincent Lucio (6 goals, 8 assists). That leaves returning sophomore and top assist man Jack Rudh (6 goals, 37 assists) looking for some help putting the puck in the net.

“I think we’ll be a little quicker, we’ll be young, but we should be quicker,” said Rudh, a sophomore, led the conference in assists last season. “I think we’ll be able to score goals. We’ve got a couple of good lines now. We balanced out the liens a little more this year.

Two other sophomores, Owen Corkish and Gavin Moss, are going to make a significant impact on the varsity this season, Moser said.

“They’re going to be able to add offensively to our team play,” Moser said. “We’ll be able to have some options on the power play with guys that not only have the physical skill set but also the hockey IQ to be able to execute at an elevated level.

Other key athletes returning include senior forward Mac Wohnoutka, junior defender Wyatt Beaurline and senior defender Brenan Bloedel.

“And then we have some returning forwards that are going to contribute as well,” Moser continued. “Mac Wohnoutka will be a contributor this year and then we have a really good mix of grinders we call them. The guys who are going to work hard and play defensive hockey and take pride in that role – penalty killing and blocking shots and getting pucks out of the zone.

“I think we have a very good mix up front with those incoming guys and returning guys together,” Moser said.

“Last year we had a more senior based team, this year we lost a lot,” said senior forward Wohnoutka. “We still have a lot of very skilled players, they’re younger but we still have the ability to produce offense. … I think we’ve got a lot of guys that can move the puck together really well. We’ve got chemistry. A lot of these guys have been playing together for a long time.”

Senior Alex Harden returns in the net. He logged more than 824 minutes last season in 24 games, allowing an average of 3.55 goals a game.

“We have a young goaltender (Aidan Miller) that’s going to push our No. 1 I think, and that’s always a good situation,” Moser said. “Defensively we’ve got returners that we’re going to count on quite a bit, Brenden Bloedel and Wyatt Beaurline and then it’s a competitive situation to see who are going to be our three, four, five defensemen.”

“I think we’re going to have a successful season, I’m excited to get going,” said senior defenseman Camden Forys. “I think we should be pretty good if not even better than last year’s team so it should be fun.”

Team strengths should be the players’ strong work ethic and competitiveness, Moser said.

Areas which need improvement, Moser said, start with overall team toughness.

Asked what would make for a successful fall season, Moser said, “(a) well bonded team that plays for each other.”

Park opens the 2022-23 season with games at Vets Arena. In the four-team tournament are Park, Simley, Dodge County and Northern Edge. Park’s home opener will be against Tartan on Thursday, Dec. 1.