With 21 players back from last season's Swift Current Broncos roster the fight for any open roster spots is going to be intense.

The Broncos graduated three players, released two and traded another. Otherwise they are able to bring back most of the team they had together for the 2015-16 season.

They also have a new head coach in Manny Viveiros and lots of young talent they need to make room for.

"That was certainly our idea coming in," said Director of Hockey Operations Jamie Porter. "A new head coach also coming in is going to change our pattern a little bit. Manny is going to have some different thoughts than Mark (Lamb) did. That will be fun. We return a lot of guys but we've got a pretty good cycle of prospects coming through now too. That will be the challenging part to see who fits where properly. Who can hang on to their job and who can't."

"I think we'll have a lot of decisions we haven't had for a couple years."

There's as balance for the Broncos between having enough veteran experience in their lineup and also making sure there is a spot for young talent that is ready to contribute. That's not a distinction Viveiros can make until he sees the players in action.

"That's something I can't really comment on until I see everybody," he noted. "Mark and Jamie and their staff did a really good job of stockpiling with some really good young talent that is ready to challenge for positions. Anytime you have that I call it healthy competition it makes us a better team."

Viveiros comes to things with a bit of a blank slate and can view the players in a different way than the returning staff that has gotten to know them over the years.

"It's wide open for everybody," he added. "We want to put the best possible team on the ice and we want to develop too. Until I see everybody in game situations and practices it's too early to comment on what we'll go forward with for now."

It's a very short amount of time for the new coach to get to know enough about players to decide on their first cuts this weekend.

"You want to see skill level," Viveiros said. "What do they bring to our hockey team? You can't just have 25 players who are the same type of player. To me the game is all about skating and all about skill. Plus the physical side of the game too. I want to be a very aggressive hockey team. That's up to the players to show me, the coaching staff and the scouting staff that they want to be Broncos in a short period of time."

"We're going to monitor everything. It's not just on ice sessions it's how these kids are in the dressing room and how they interact with other players. We're going to looking at these kids in depth."

With three top six forwards graduating at the end of last season there are some holes to fill offensively. 

"We've got some returning guys that need to take a step," Porter said. "We've got some young guys we think are ready. (Aleksi) Heponiemi is going to bring some offence for us. We had some decent offence from the back end last year and we're going to be looking for more of that. We lost some significant punch up front but it's going to have to come from somewhere."

For a complete Decor Complete Training Camp schedule click here.