Photo By Kim North Wheeling Nailers head coach Derek Army reviews information on his laptop.

WHEELING — The Wheeling Nailers begin their 33rd season in the Ohio Valley as players will report to training camp on Saturday. The first practice will run from 1-2 p.m. at WesBanco Arena.

The Nailers advanced to the second round of the Kelly Cup Playoffs in 2022-23, defeating Indianapolis in the first round before falling to Toledo in the second.

Head coach Derek Army returns for his fourth season behind the bench, and his 11th as a member of the organization.

“It’s exciting to be a part of this organization for this long,” Army admitted. “If you would have told me when I came here out of college that I’d be here this long, I don’t know if I would have necessarily believed you, but I couldn’t be more happier and excited for the season.”

Wheeling needed a late-season push to qualify for last season’s Kelly Cup Playoffs.

“We’ve been fortunate. We won a playoff series three years ago, but we didn’t make the playoffs two years ago,” he recalled. “Last season I thought we were a real dynamic team. We won round 1 but, unfortunately, there are different things you run into in sports and we were not very healthy going into round 2. There were some bounces that didn’t go our way, but, overall, I would deem last year a success.

“The goal is to always give yourself a chance to win a championship, and I thought we did that. You get in the playoffs and try to win the championship,” he added. “We accomplished our goal and we were a young team, so now the guys have a chance to learn from that and grow.”

According to Army, the Nailers have a good nucleus of players to start training camp.

“We have seven real returners and a couple other players who played here some last year. At this level, and with the location we are in, we try and push some guys to the AHL or overseas to further their careers. It’s something, as an organization, that we take pride in. The thing I love is that our leadership group is back.”

He was referring to players such as forwards Matthew Quercia, Peter Laviolette III, Matt Koopman, David Jankowski and Jordan Martel, along with defensemen David Drake and Louie Roehl.

“Those guys are already under contract for this season, so we have a core of good players and our foundation is set.

“That was the goal. What it means to be a Nailer carries true. We want the players that want to be here,” Army said. “I’d rather have a guy that works hard and just wants to be here over a guy that just cares about himself and has a different philosophy. I don’t think that guy gets to the next level, but I think we have a lot of guys that can play at the next level, and I think we have a group that can do that.”

Laviolette III is attending AHL camp in Hartford, while Jankowski, forward Jared Westcott, defenseman Chris Ortiz, Quercia, forward Filip Forsmark, defenseman Zachary Massicotte, Koopman, goalie Jaxon Castor and Martel are in Wilkes-Barre’s camp.

What does he expect from training camp?

“I expect training camp to be highly competitive, not in terms of where the guys are competing for roster spots but are competing for a spot in the lineup. Is a certain player going to be on the top line or the fourth line? It’s going on right now in Wilkes-Barre. The guys up there are battling and I’m getting a creative opinion of where they are talent-wise. Are those guys going to be able to help us right away? That’s what this camp is all about. Where do we slot these guys?”

One thing is etched in stone.

“Jordan Martel will be on our first line at left wing, but there still are a lot of other openings,” he noted.

Army said there are approximately 10 players ready to begin camp, but that number will rise to 16 when guys come down from AHL camps.

“We’ll end up with somewhere between 24 and 30 in camp. We need to get down to 23 on the active roster by the opener.”

Castor returns for another season between the pipes. He came to the Nailers late last season and was very instrumental in the team’s late-season push to the playoffs.

“It is fantastic that he returns for us,” Army stressed. “We know we have a reliable goalie in Jaxon, but other than that, it all depends on what happens at Wilkes-Barre.

“Jaxon was crucial for us as we made our move late last season. He carried us when (David) Gauthier got hurt. He was the backbone in goal for us.”

In addition to those players already named, also attending training camp will be defensemen Owen Norton and Jamie Dorsey; forwards Dustin Manz, Nick Hutchison, Alex LaPlante and Jianing “Rex” Guo; and goaltenders Jake Zab and Kristian Hufsky.

As for the league this season, Army said it is still too early to get a good feel.

“It’s hard to gauge because we, basically, play in two divisions this season, the North and the Central. It’s the reality of being in the ECHL with the travel, budgets and such.

He said the Central will be similar to last year.

“It’s always a gauntlet. It’s a hard-nosed brand of hockey. In the North we only played Reading last year but it is a fast highly-skilled division.”

Wheeling will open the 2024-25 campaign on the road at expansion Main. The Mariners will play at Cross Insurance Arena in Portland.

“I’m really excited about that trip. We’ve got a lot of guys from New England,” Army assessed. “This is a trip we’ve been trying to get on the docket for three years now.

His message to the loyal Wheeling fan base.

“Keep that same Wheeling mentality that we’ve had for years. We play that blue-collar style of hockey because we represent the city of Wheeling and the Ohio Valley. We’re all in this together,” he said. “The beauty about playing in Wheeling is that the fans and players really interact in a lot of community events. We are always out in the community, which is nice. The players buy into it. It really means a lot to us when we have a huge crowd when we are home.”

Mitch Giguere will return as assistant coach.

“Having Mitch return is nice. We will add a goalie coach this season. It will be nice to have a full-time goalie coach so that Mitch and I can dedicate ourselves to helping the other players. We made our tweaks over the summer and feel we’re ready to go.”

Karel Popper is the new goaltender coach. Wheeling native Bill Higgins is back for his 22nd season as equipment manager and Lauren Rittle begins her third season as team trainer.

Training camp will continue daily until Saturday, Oct. 12 when Cincinnati visits for the preseason opener at 6:10 p.m. All practices are open and free to the public, as is the preseason game, but fans must remain in the seating bowl. No ice-level access is permitted.