At the Innovation Credit Union iPlex Saturday and Sunday, six teams worth of Midget AAA prospects were taking part in Home Hardware Legionnaires spring camp.

The packed camp roster was a positive sign of the direction the team is trending, according to their head coach.

“It’s been a great weekend. We brought in just over 100 kids to try and make our team for next year," said Darren Evjen. "Really the start of next year starts this weekend. We were really excited about our camp and after we’ve gone through it we feel this is our best camp yet for good players. So we are real excited about where we are going next year."

The Legionnaires are coming off a breakout season, making the league semi-finals for the first time in over a decade, and finished fifth in the league during the regular season with a record of 26-13-1-4.

Swift graduated nine players from this past year's roster, but it was that veteran core's ability to buy into the rebuilding process that helped the Legionnaires get to the position they currently find themselves in.

"Absolutely - when you have success, players want to come and be a part of that," Evjen explained. "What our guys did this year definitely set up for next year. The players coming back, they're strong leaders. They really help the recruiting process when players come here because they want to be a part of this and they are treated very well - that’s real important."

As for the attributes Evjen and the organization's coaching staff are looking for in players that attended the spring camp, a combo of talent and character is understandably tough to top.

"I think one thing is we want good hockey players and good people - When you get that combination that’s when you start having real good success," the head coach noted. "When you have good players come to your camp, they attract other good players. We’ve already had a lot of good feedback about that, that there is a lot of good hockey players here. We hope that will transform into a good Legionnaires team next year."

The Legionnaires will trim down the roster of invites ahead of fall camp, although plenty of time still remains for any moves to become finalized.