Whether you want to call it a rebuild or a reload... the Okotoks Oilers are in a good spot heading into the 2nd half of the AJHL season.

Currently sitting at 20-15-2 and 3rd in the South Division the Oilers are satisfied with the 23 skaters they have on their roster, 11 of them rookies.

Head Coach and General Manager says his young core of players have made leaps and bounds since their first practice in late August.

"Our young kids have done really well in terms of becoming more consistent in contributing to the line-up," he says. "What we really need going forward is just a consistent contribution through our line-up, I think with our team and its not just a young player problem its just all of our players we've shown a lot of inconsistencies and that's contributed to some off nights which we have to eliminate going forward."

The Oilers at one point early on this season were 1st in the division but a rough 4-6 October was tough on Poole's Oilers.

"We got off to a quicker start then we expected in the first ten or so games and I think a lot of that was attributted to our special teams really getting off to a really fast start, we were up around a 40% powerplay or 90% penalty kill and when you do that you're going to win some games."

One huge question hovering around the Oilers this off season was who would replace CJHL MVP Nic Renyard who graduated and moved on to play NCAA hockey, but the Oilers didn't have to look too far to find a player willing to step up in Renyard's apprentice Riley Morris, who Poole says has been a feel good story for the first half of the year.

"He came in with something to prove and he's done a great job with it," he says. "He seems to be a goalie that comes up against the Brooks and Camrose games he feels that he's got something to prove, he's been really strong in those games against those teams and the games that we lost against Brooks he's been really solid and given us a chance to win every night."

The Oilers open the 2016 portion of the AJHL season January 2nd with a home at home series with the Canmore Eagles.

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