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Tylar · 09-20-2020, 11:22 AM

Liam Slate and the Offseason

Liam Slate is heading into this offseason and Season 56 with a new attitude and a hunger for more winning. Slate is coming off a Four Star Cup championship with the Newfoundland Berserkers and is currently looking to add a World Junior Championship Gold medal to add to his collection of silver and bronze from previous seasons. The British winger has been celebrating with friends and family in their new home town of Sudbury, Ontario. Slate has not had his day with the cup yet but the plans are currently being made. So far Slate has planned to have a family barbeque at his grandparent's home in the Sudbury, Ontario suburbs. Next, he plans to take it to his father's old community center for a day of festivities and fun. This day with the cup is a special one for the Slate family as they watched Liam play both on live stream and in person throughout the season. The Slate family traveled a lot this season to watch Liam play because they are a close and crazy family who support Liam’s professional hockey dreams.

“It was amazing to see my family in the stands at both home and away games. It was kind of weird too because we would be in like Kelowna on a road trip in western Canada and they would be there. Some of the guys would ask me, why are they here? It was kind of hard to explain at first, but the guys understood after a while. It shows that they love and support me and I really appreciated them being at every game. It kind of gives me peace of mind and that motivation, not that I needed more motivation.”

This offseason, other than having a party, Liam Slate was heading back to training pretty quickly as he had a World Junior Championship to compete in as well. Liam’s offseason training included mostly on-ice training with some of the Newfoundland players. Slate has traveled back and forth from home to Newfoundland for workouts. He has put a lot more focus on skill development and is hoping this will help boost his offensive numbers and impact this upcoming season. In particular, he has been doing intensive puck handling and shooting drills on and off the ice. Slate is trying to boost up his skills rather than his physical traits. Last season Slate worked mostly on his physical attributes which is why this season he is focusing more on his skills. He is doing some work with his cardio and some footwork but it is only about once a week.

“I have tried to be a bit more focused this offseason on improving my skills. I know I have the skills to be one of the best in the league but it is important for me to keep getting better. I can not get better by just continuing to sit around and be physically better. Physicality only gets me so far, I need to be faster, stronger, and especially more skilled than everyone else to make a huge impact. I feel like I am off to a great start with my training, and hopefully, it pays off with me being a top player this upcoming season. I have a pretty good feeling about it honestly.”

Another big thing for Liam Slate this offseason was the Newfoundland Berserkers naming their new leadership group. The Berserker's old leadership group has all been called up to the Simulation Hockey League leaving the Berserkers needing a new leadership group. The Berserkers named center Lassi Suhonen captain with Mats Marner and Liam Slate as the assistant captains. This naming for Slate was big as he has been a pretty big part of the Berserkers locker room as well as now a big player for the team. Slate will likely see a massive rise in playing time and also likely play on the team's first line and power play unit. Slate has mostly seen an average of 13 minutes of ice time thus far into his career and now he will see a lot more. This season will be Slate’s first as one of the Berserkers main players and he has the potential to be the best Berserker player this season. Slate is one to watch this season for sure.

“It was a huge honor to be named an assistant captain alongside Mats and our new captain Lassi. I feel like Lassi, Mats and I will do a good job. I mean we have a hard group to follow since they led us to a Four Star Championship, but now it is our turn. I feel like we can do the same this upcoming season as we have a pretty good group still.”

This past weekend the Newfoundland Berserkers added some new faces via the S56 Simulation Major Junior Hockey League Entry Draft. The Newfoundland Berserkers made a few trades up and player trades during the draft. At the end of the day, the Newfoundland Land Berserkers got the players they wanted out of the draft. They drafted defenseman Matty Sandeen fourth overall, winger Bas O'Bigbers 9th overall, and winger Dwanye Gretzky 17th overall notably. They drafted a few other players as well.

“The new guys have fit right into the locker room thus far. They are good guys and I am pretty pumped to have them on the team. I feel like they are going to be the next stars for us when I am eventually gone. It is exciting to have some fresh blood after we have only drafted like two or three guys in the last few seasons.”

The Newfoundland Berserkers are in an interesting situation this upcoming season. The Newfoundland Berserkers have lost their “golden” generation of the Season 53 draft class who are now Simulation Hockey League players. Minamino is now on the Chicago Syndicate, Steve Harrington is on the Buffalo Stampede, Patric Twist is on the new expansion team the Atlanta Inferno and Andre “Clean” Kostitsyn on the New England Wolfpack. The Berserkers are also losing two of their Season 54 draft class in Jack Klompus to the Minnesota Chiefs and Steve LeGrande to the Edmonton Blizzard. The Newfoundland Berserkers still have a relatively strong team but it will be a challenge to repeat as Four Star Champions. The Berserkers will be heavily reliant on its new leadership group as they look to repeat as Four Star Cup challenges.

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JNH · 09-20-2020, 12:50 PM

This Slate, so impressive <3

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