The 2026-27 Ontario Junior Hockey Legaue season gets underway Friday evening for the Wellington Dukes.
The County club welcomes the Lindsay Muskies at 7:30 p.m..
Head Coach and General Manager Jacob Panetta spoke to Quinte News about the focus for he and Director of Scouting Darcy Murphy did this past off-season.
“A lot of the work is done throughout the summer, the whole recruiting process, all that stuff. Darcy and I did a good job. I really like our D-corps where it’s at, our goaltending tandem’s going to be rock solid all year, and then pretty happy with our forwards right now. There’s still some work to do. You know, it’s been nice to get the guys in the area for the last couple weeks now, go through training camp, and a few exhibition games.”
He says the year is both a spring and a marathon.
“It’s a long season, it seems like a marathon, but there are times during the marathon that we need to sprint. I think the beginning of the season is always important to start off with a little bit of a sprint, get out to a good start, establish ourselves within the league. There’s other kind of seasons within the season that we’re looking to just maintain everything.”
We asked if he is looking to make any major changes early on.
“To maybe nitpick a little bit to shore up some things structurally line wise. In terms of beginning of the season and the first initial sprint, I like where we’re at and we’re prepared.”
(l-r) Director of Scouting Darcy Murphy, Head Coach Jacob Panetta, Owner Andrew Gunning (Photo: Tim Durkin/ Quinte News)
