Newfoundland is at a nexus heading into the next season. Key players both departing and returning, so experience won't be the question. No, for Newfoundland the questionmark will be their young bucks entering leading roles on the ice and in the locker room. There's always an air of uncertainty when the "middle guard" as it were, is rotated out. The sub-leadership roles that rookies look to fill as they lose a shade of green. This important middle class within the team dynamic makes or breaks a squad's maintained development. If the middle falls out, the entire squad goes with it. Newfoundland has up until this point had a solid, even excellent middle guard to this point and it's up to us, the rookies and returning second years to pick up where we leave off. We can't slow down, we can't lose sight.

As for myself, I've got the most growing to be done. There's a lot riding on the back of a 'tender, and I've got big pads to fill. If Newfoundland are to continue without much hitch, I've got to step it up. A bigger role awaits me, and I've got to show I'm ready for it.