Team's future is bright, banquet crowd told

It's tough not to have made the playoffs this season, but the future is bright, according to Olds Grizzlys president Darcy Dallas as well as former head coach and general manager Adam Redmond.Redmond and the club "parted ways" after a meeting with the team's board of directors late Thursday night. He was replaced by former associate coach Joe Murphy who was named interim head coach, effective immediately.Also, head scout and director of player personnel Doug Hergenhein was "removed" effective immediately.Dallas and Redmond made their remarks during the Grizzlys' annual awards banquet March 5 at the Evergreen Centre.The Grizzlys finished the regular season in last place in the eight-team Alberta Junior Hockey League's Viterra South Division with 18 wins, 37 losses, five overtime losses and two overtime wins for 41 points in 60 games.On the bright side, they ended the season with a win at home March 3, 7-6 over the Calgary Mustangs. That made up for a frustrating shootout loss to those same Mustangs March 1 in Calgary."You could say this year was a failure, but you've got to start somewhere," Redmond said."What you have to do is you have to understand, and take the good from every situation. We look at the trades that we made; there's a lot of positives there. There are some really good players and we have futures coming in as well," he added.

"I state truly I think we have the guys that we want in that dressing room. I believe that they're the right guys to turn this organization in the right direction."

Redmond said the season was a big learning curve for him because it was his first as a head coach and GM and his first season as a player or coach on a team that didn't make the playoffs.

"I've learned a lot; I've learned a lot from the players. It was something new to myself," he said.

"Next year we will be in the playoffs. And we will be better. The future is bright," Redmond added. "The positive is the guys in that room right now. They're the right guys; I truly believe that."

Dallas said he would have been much happier to be holding the awards banquet at the end of April after a playoff run.

He thanked the 20-year-olds on the team who have graduated out for all their hard work and dedication to the team.

"Everything that you've been taught, from tyke up to junior will pay off as you continue to move on in your careers," Dallas said. "You guys are all quality gentlemen, it'll be good for you."

Dallas said this season was "obviously not the year we wanted to have."

"It would have been nice to get a few more wins, but the chips always fall where they do. It wasn't from lack of effort. I was extremely proud of the gentlemen, coaches; they battled hard, right to the last game," he said.

"There was no quit in our guys, and that's great to see. You guys could have mailed it in a long time ago, but everyone battled hard and I was truly impressed with our talent.

"I don't think we got the bounces we needed during the year, but it's a learning curve for all of us and I was actually quite pleased with the work ethic and the tenacity of our players," he added.

Dallas said things went well, considering this was the first year for the team with a new ownership group, new staff and several new players.

Both Redmond and Dallas thanked the many coaches, volunteers and others who helped out during the season.