The Wheatland Kings will be playing on home ice for the first time this season this Saturday at 8:00 pm! It will be the second of three pre-season games the team plays before the regular season starts on Sept. 16.

General Manager of the Wheatland Kings Lee Smith is looking forward to what he hopes will be a great season.

"This year we're very excited. We have a very young team full of some really good talent. We're expecting big things from this group, so we're very excited about the season coming up."

This is one of the younger teams in recent Kings' history, with 12 rookies on the roster.  All of these rookies are from the Wheatland area, so you may even recognize some of them while they're on the ice. Having so many new, young players can create some challenges early in the year, but Smith doesn't think this will be an issue.

"I think there's going to be a bit of an adjustment period, but this is a group of guys that have played at a very high level for a long time, so I don't think it will be that much of an adjustment for them."

Combining the group of rookies with the veterans should make the Kings a force to be reckoned with, and he thinks this team's identity will be centered around speed.

"They (fans) are going to see a very fast group, really good with moving the puck and you're going to see a lot of offense this year."

Great talent brings great expectations, and Smith thinks this team has what it takes to be a formidable foe in the playoffs.

"One of the goals is to definitely make the playoffs, first of all. Second, we'd like to make a deep run into the playoffs and we'd like to see our players succeed and meet their personal goals that they set for themselves."

Follow the team and catch them in action, check out their schedule here.

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