WHEELING — Two days after President Donald J. Trump was the feature attraction at the same facility, new coach Mike Bavis and company were on the WesBanco Arena ice Monday for the first time in what the believe will be an effort to Make Wheeling Hockey Great Again.

Devoid of any advertisements or even the team logo, the ice perhaps only coincidentally represented a clean slate for the Wheeling Nailers, who despite 10 straight winning seasons have missed the ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs each of the last two years. Twenty hopefuls took part in the workout, but before it wrapped up word came that nine more players will be joining camp as soon as today.

”It was fun to be out there. There were a lot of good touches and it was a quick pace,” said Bavis, who was hired last month to replace Mark Dennehy who abruptly left to take a job in the American Hockey League. ”I think the guys got a lot of the nervous energy out.

”We’ve got to balance the idea of getting some pace and getting our mindset in terms of playing fast. At times we’re going to have four goalies out there, so we’ve got to kind of manage the practice so that they get what they need.

”It’s a little bit of a balancing act.”

Before practice wrapped up, it was announced that some familiar names would be arriving from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton camp. Forwards Tyler Bird, Yushiro Hirano, Cedric Lacroix, Zac Lynch and Nick Saracino, as well as defensemen Dan Fick and Craig Skudalski and goaltenders Matt O’Connor and Danny Tirone, will all be in town today.

”(It’s) going to be an optional day for a lot of those guys so that they can kind of get their legs under them a little bit,” Bavis said. ”We will be ready to go as a full group Wednesday.

”I’ve been lucky to work with a lot of great coaches and learn so much from a lot of great coaches, so hopefully it’s prepared me for this opportunity.

”I enjoyed being out there and hopefully the players enjoyed being out there with the pace and the energy.”

With such a short turnaround between the opening of camp and the first preseason game — Friday night — Bavis said it will be a juggling act in some ways. Fans can likely expect to see less of the more established names and more of the players fighting for jobs.

”That’s going to probably be a little bit of a learning experience, even for me,” Bavis said. ”Some of these players coming from the American League camp, they’ve been going already for about a month now.

”So we’ve got to balance how fresh they are mentally. People think, ‘well, the season hasn’t even started yet.’

”We’ve got to be smart about that and give an opportunity to guys who are trying to earn a spot, and put them in a position to have success and get a true evaluation.”

One major difference on the ice Monday from previous years, is the amount of instruction that took place. Bavis isn’t afraid to stop the action and physically show players the way he would like things to be done.

”There’s a balance there. I think sometimes coaches can like to hear their own voices too much and you’ve got to be careful with that,” Bavis said. ”Fundamentally or foundationally if there’s things like technique defensively or puck support that are so crucial, you want to make sure that players understand it and that it’s clear.

”There’s times in practice where you’re going to let them figure it out and there’s times you’re going to let it play out. It’s part of a learning process.”