With tight sports restrictions still in place and the change of the high school semester on the near horizon, the Swift Current Innovation Credit Union Wildcats will be sending their 14 out of town players back home.

The decision was made this week by the hockey club after an update by the provincial government confirming the current restrictions of just practicing with eight skaters will remain in place for the near future.

Wildcats Head Coach Terry Pavely said although the decision was a tough one, he feels they've made the right one.

"For us, we want the best for kids, one academically," he said Wednesday afternoon before practice. "With the very bleak possibility of any games happening, for us, it didn't make sense to keep kids here for February and March. Even if you were able to play, what if we get shut down again. So just academically, we think it's the best fit for our kids to get home."

Pavely applauded his team's resiliency given they've only played five games this season and haven't played since November 22 against the Notre Dame Hounds but have still been practicing regularly.

"Our kids have been awesome, they've worked really hard," he said. "If we have to keep going in groups of eight for two or three months, it does get old after awhile. The skill development has been very good, but at some point you know if we're going to keep going, we want to be able to practice as a team and still help our kids learn the game through some game situations."

The team won't be completely shutting down for the year however as there are a few players from Swift Current on the roster that will continue to use the Tuesday afternoon's ice block allotted to the Wildcats and some players within close proximity to the city that may join them as well.

"Then we're going to probably go Sunday's and try to get ice like a two-hour block," he said. "We're going to open it up to all our players. The Kindersley kids, and kids from Kincaid and Lafleche if they can make it. We'd like to keep going in some sort of way until at least the end of February."

Pavely did acknowledge the Saskatchewan Female U18 AAA Hockey League has some league meetings ahead still to see if the season is over or if there is a possibility to return to game action for April.

Looking past this season, the Wildcats don't have a ton of off-season heavy lifting to do as they will return 14 players for the 2021-22 season.

"We've got a very good basis to start with, and we've got a pretty good handle on the kids were really interested in," he said. "That will be our next step probably in a little bit, is to start to formulate our depth chart, which kids we think would be good fits."

It's been tough to evaluate players the Wildcats may look at adding to their squad next year according to Pavely given they haven't been able to make it out for any in-person scouting.