Trappers upgrade scouting department, Huge boost for scouting department

[TrappersGM]

It has been a rocky road for lifelong Tilburg Trappers fans in the UHL.

After a long spell of below-par performances, for years, the team knew they could book their golf vacations after just 10 games into the season.

However the number of coaches behind the Trappers' bench have been relatively low given these performances. At least lower than you'd expect. Behind the scenes, the Tilburg management has made it clear their team was rebuilding and they would be patient with their coaching staff.

With Season 14 being circled in red in the team's agenda for years, the time has now arrived for the organization to harvest from their rebuilding work.

"As of season 14 we planned to make the playoffs 2 out of every three seasons, with a squad mainly build up from drafted talent," GM Loonen explains.

"The past few years we've been working hard on improving our talent pool and it has been fairly successful I must say," Loonen continues.

Despite an impressive blueprint in the GM's office, of how the team should progress, the Trappers fans were caught by surprise when the team not only reached the playoffs in season 12 [two years ahead of schedule], but also made it to the UHL finals after some nailbiting series that went all the way to the wire.

It comes to no suprise that expectations were running high when the team entered season 13. Season ticket sales reached an all-time high and plans for a new arena were unveiled. But the cinderella story came to an abrupt end as the team did not manage to advance to the playoffs.

Yet GM Loonen was not as disappointed as many fans would think.

"We knew it would be hard to repeat the success we had," he knows. "I had good hopes we could make it to the playoffs, but we lacked the luck we had back then. Furthermore we did not want to step off our blueprint plan which has us scheduled for season 14. We hope the fans won't turn their backs on us after last season."

There wasn't just uproar from the outside. Also within the organization it was anything but a nice ride in the park. An inside source, who wants to remain anonymous, stated last year that the scouting staff felt heavily undervalued.

"For years we've been told to ensure there will be UHL players available as of season 14, but only a handful of players have really been given a chance to display their skills."

And it was not just the lack of ice time given to younger players that frustrated the scouting staff. "At the start of season 12, just 2 years before D-day, the team management suddenly pulled a rabbit out of its had and stormed through the UFA period signing several big names. This caused even less roster spots available and gave the youngsters, as well as the scouting staff a huge blow. What are we doing our work for?"

GM Loonen plays down these signals.

"Of course not everything has been shiny within our organization, but can you name me one organization where everything goes crescendo for many years in a row? We felt we had some needs back then and we had the room to fill those needs. I think our success in season 12 speaks volumes as to say whether our strategy was good or bad."

The Trappers GM insists he has not forgotten about his promise to the scouting staff and understands they might have felt a little betrayed.

Loonen: "Of course it might look strange to them, but on the other hand. At that time we did not have enough ready talent available to build a squad around. We carefully selected a handufl of players that will still be of great value for the upcoming youngsters. Together they will mix perfectly."

As season 14 is about to get underway, Loonen proves that his words, when he was installed as the team's GM, are still valid.

The Trappers decided not to resign no less than 4 key players this off season and did not involve itself in the UFA bidding wars.

"This shows we're now trusting on our development program. We will replace the likes of Straka, Sillinger, Timonen and Cullimore, with our own talent. I am convinced we won't regret it. These players might be less talented but given their age and enthousiasm they will make up for that bit."

The GM went even further, increasing the team's scouting budget.

"As of upcoming season we're striving for replacing any players lost in Free Agency with own talent. I am not afraid of setting the high targets. I would like to average 3-4 out of 8 players drafted to make the UHL every year. To underline this we've increased the scouting budget, so they can continue their excellent job which they've been doing for years now."

The Trappers team will see a lot of new faces next season though.

Straka and Sillinger will be replaced by Boyes and Plekanec, while Milan Michalek can also help out on the left wing position and Marek Svatos on the right wing.
On defence Zbynek Michalek and Streit will fill in for Cullimore and Timonen whilst James Wisniewski might make a surprise debut in the UHL this season as well.

With the team's average age dropping immensely, the youth brigade riot is not coming to and end.

The list of players who might see ice time next season continues to grow as the scouting staff has been pumping players into the oganization in the past few years. For GM Loonen it's just making his job a bit easier.

"We only have make deeper selections now. The younger will pick up from their colleagues who are 1-2 years older. Those who do not manage to manage to link up and rise on our depth chart can be traded. This puts us in a perfect position in which we can always rely on having players stand-by when we lose players", says Loonen. "Naturally it will be tough seeing a player develop nicely elsewhere after we've traded him, but that's life. Sometimes a change of scenery does the trick. Nevertheless, it always fulls me with delight when I see a player, which has made it through our scouting ranks, make it to the UHL. As long as he doesn't score against us."[B][/B]

This post has been edited by TrappersGM on Jul 28 2006, 06:16 PM

[Rink RatsGM]

With the increased budget, does this mean the Trappers scouting department will be allowed to leave Europe?