Mike Hawes on the Eve of his Rookie General Manager Season

Spruce Kings General Manager,
Mike Hawes

Day two of the pre-camp skates and a few more bodies on the ice as more players have been arriving in Prince George for the start of the Spruce Kings main camp this weekend. Surveying the landscape at the Coliseum, I can see a few interested onlookers, a few anxious parents and family members and sitting above the Spruce Kings tunnel to the ice is where the decision makers have set up camp.

Along with the head coach - Dave Dupas, assistant coaches - Kurt Walsten and Tom Bohmer, the Vancouver Island regional scouts - Randy and Colten Buffie, the Spruce Kings president - Darcy Buryn and occasionally the trainer - Bill Baldridge, sits the Spruce Kings General Manager, Mike Hawes. For Hawzy, this is the beginning of the realization of months of hard work to shape a team for the Spruce Kings 40th Anniversary season that will bring back the glory days those 40 years have held in Prince George.

Mike has been around the game of hockey almost all his life and has seen his fair share of successful teams. His experience has seen him play through the hockey system in Prince George, gone on to play Junior A and Major Junior alongside a number of elite names in the game. He has spent almost a decade now in the hockey operations side of the game, learning the finer details of putting together a roster. All that experience and a dash of courage has led him to create his own recipe for a roster.

And now, sitting in the Coliseum bleachers calm and composed, he watches as the players he has hand picked, with input from other members of the hockey operations staff, skate in front of him. While the Zamboni made its way around the ice and we find ourselves sitting on the eve of the team's 40th Anniversary season with the start of training camp, I had a chance to ask Mike a few questions about the team, the players and the process it took to get here starting with the two pre-camp skates.

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