Despite ending the year on a hot streak, officials with the Grande Prairie Storm are looking forward to the 2022-2023 regular season after coming up just short of the playoffs.
Team Business Manager Ryan Carter says while it’s a season they were hoping for more, officials remain pleased with a lot of things from this past season. He says it’s especially important to celebrate even getting back on the ice at all with the last couple of seasons either being cut short or interrupted.
“We really had big ambitions for the playoffs, but having the restrictions come in at the beginning of the season really impacted our ability to bring fans out and build on,” he says.
“The most recent reduction of restrictions, fans came back out, the team was on a hot streak to finish the season, so we took an eight-game winning streak until the last weekend of the year,” he adds.
Carter says the season that was also presented unique challenges off the ice, adding like nearly all non-profits and small businesses, the Grande Prairie Storm felt the sting of the COVID-19 pandemic. He says when the players and officials kick full gear into the planning stages for next year, they should have a much clearer roadmap to success.
“Hard to plan an event, we had reduced capacity and when food and beverage were removed it really hurt the business side, so we are really looking forward to next season where we can hopefully plan those events and extra entertainment value,” he says.
“It gives us a little more stability to plan for next season and build from there.”