Minor hockey players had a chance to skate and learn from some of their favourite Kootenay ICE players.
On Sunday, Dec. 9, the ICE hosted a Cranbrook Minor Hockey Skills Day where there were three different sessions. One for goalies and two skills clinics ages four to seven and ages eight to 12.
“It’s fun,” Peyton Krebs said about the ICE hosting this day. “Anytime you can do this for the kids it’s good. It fuels some passion in them.”
The team went through multiple drills with the young hockey players, which included skating up and down the ice with the puck and different ways to skate with the puck.
Krebs said his favourite part about the day was the smiles on the kids’ faces.
“I think it’s the best. As a kid I wanted to do one of these things too, I look up to these kids, it’s pretty cool,” he said.
When Krebs was younger he took part in a similar clinic. When he was playing peewee hockey he won a chance to see the Calgary Hitmen.
Recently, Krebs was named the captain of the Kootenay ICE and since entering the league full-time last year he has been a player many kids look up to.
“You don’t really realize it, but looking back you think ‘wow I looked up to the kids in my place at this time,’ so it’s pretty cool and it’s a fun thing to do for sure,” he said.
Seven-year-old Lucas Wright was one of the players who took part in the skills clinic on Sunday as he was celebrating his birthday.
“It was good and fun,” he said about being able to play with the team.
His favourite part about the day was everything he learned from the ICE players. This is his first year playing hockey so he learned some neat tips.
Wright didn’t want to pick favourites on the team and said he was liked all of them, but Krebs might be getting into his good books. After the session, he gave Wright his hockey stick and signed it for the birthday boy.
After spending an hour with each group, Krebs said he hoped the young players took away to just have fun.