Stellarton’s Brent Turnbull and New Glasgow’s Garrett Holmes are members of the X-Men roster. Turnbull said he is slated as their no. 12 or 13 forward, while Holmes expects to be no. 14 or 15 up front, possibly no. 8 or 9 on the blue-line as that’s where he’s practising right now.
Turnbull joins the X-Men in his final year of junior eligibility after spending time in the QMJHL with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, Sherbrooke Phoenix, Quebec Remparts and Rimouski Océanic. In 241 QMJHL regular season games he had 26 goals and 30 assists.
“I’ll be in and out of the lineup, but that’s what I expected,” said Turnbull. “There will be lots of ups and downs, but I’m learning each day from the older guys every day. My expectation was to make the team, but being a junior age player with older guys it would’ve been an easy decision for the coach (Brad Peddle) to tell me to go back to junior and come back next year.
“I did everything I could to earn a spot with these guys and didn’t give the coach an option to send me back because of the way I worked in tryouts and exhibition games.”
A more familiar face to Pictou County is former Weeks Crushers forward Garrett Holmes. He finished his junior career last season with the Crushers, notching 16 goals and 38 assists in 52 regular season games.
In his time with Pictou County he had 54 goals and 98 assists in 212 MHL regular season games and five goals and 23 assists in 43 playoff appearances.
“I just took the summer and worked as hard as I could to get in great shape,” said Holmes. “I emailed Brad to ask if I could try out, which he said yes to. I wasn’t looking at other places, this is the one option I wanted, so I’m glad I got the result I went for.”
Although it would take an injury or two to get into the lineup, Holmes is just excited to be skating with the team on a regular basis and improving his game. His goal is to improve this season and turn that into a consistent role in their game day lineup next year.
“I understand I’m an extra player and I’m actually practising on defence right now,” he said. “Wherever they need me I’ll go. Right now I’m just practising with the team and even that is good. There’s no messing around. Everyone is working hard to get better every day.”
Both players have also experienced the flip from being the oldest to being the youngest.
“It’s different for sure,” said Holmes. “In junior I was one of the go-to guys in the dressing room and had an ‘A’ on my jersey. Guys looked up to me to make decisions or talk to guys when they needed to discuss things. Now I’m on the flip side asking all the questions.”
“It’s different for the first couple of weeks not being an older guy that young guys look up to,” said Turnbull. “I’ll be one of those older guys soon enough, so I need to make the most of it. All of these guys played major junior and some of them played pro hockey, so I want to learn from them and make the most of being one of the younger guys.”
Having lived in Quebec or New Brunswick for the past four years this is the first time Turnbull has lived in his home province of Nova Scotia since 2009-10. This weekend will be the first Thanksgiving weekend home in that time.
“It’s really nice, a nice change for sure,” he said. “It’s been awhile since I’ve been home and this will be the first time I’ve been home for Thanksgiving in probably five years. I was driving home for the first time the other day and was thinking how nice it was to drive up the road whenever want really. It’s also nice for family to come down whenever they want instead waiting for me to come to Halifax or Moncton to see me play.”
St. FX opens the AUS regular season at home on Oct. 14. Turnbull said he will not be in the lineup as he serves a one-game suspension for a hit from behind during exhibition play.
On Twitter: @NGNewsChris
Stellarton’s Brent Turnbull and New Glasgow’s Garrett Holmes are members of the X-Men roster. Turnbull said he is slated as their no. 12 or 13 forward, while Holmes expects to be no. 14 or 15 up front, possibly no. 8 or 9 on the blue-line as that’s where he’s practising right now.
Turnbull joins the X-Men in his final year of junior eligibility after spending time in the QMJHL with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, Sherbrooke Phoenix, Quebec Remparts and Rimouski Océanic. In 241 QMJHL regular season games he had 26 goals and 30 assists.
“I’ll be in and out of the lineup, but that’s what I expected,” said Turnbull. “There will be lots of ups and downs, but I’m learning each day from the older guys every day. My expectation was to make the team, but being a junior age player with older guys it would’ve been an easy decision for the coach (Brad Peddle) to tell me to go back to junior and come back next year.
“I did everything I could to earn a spot with these guys and didn’t give the coach an option to send me back because of the way I worked in tryouts and exhibition games.”
A more familiar face to Pictou County is former Weeks Crushers forward Garrett Holmes. He finished his junior career last season with the Crushers, notching 16 goals and 38 assists in 52 regular season games.
In his time with Pictou County he had 54 goals and 98 assists in 212 MHL regular season games and five goals and 23 assists in 43 playoff appearances.
“I just took the summer and worked as hard as I could to get in great shape,” said Holmes. “I emailed Brad to ask if I could try out, which he said yes to. I wasn’t looking at other places, this is the one option I wanted, so I’m glad I got the result I went for.”
Although it would take an injury or two to get into the lineup, Holmes is just excited to be skating with the team on a regular basis and improving his game. His goal is to improve this season and turn that into a consistent role in their game day lineup next year.
“I understand I’m an extra player and I’m actually practising on defence right now,” he said. “Wherever they need me I’ll go. Right now I’m just practising with the team and even that is good. There’s no messing around. Everyone is working hard to get better every day.”
Both players have also experienced the flip from being the oldest to being the youngest.
“It’s different for sure,” said Holmes. “In junior I was one of the go-to guys in the dressing room and had an ‘A’ on my jersey. Guys looked up to me to make decisions or talk to guys when they needed to discuss things. Now I’m on the flip side asking all the questions.”
“It’s different for the first couple of weeks not being an older guy that young guys look up to,” said Turnbull. “I’ll be one of those older guys soon enough, so I need to make the most of it. All of these guys played major junior and some of them played pro hockey, so I want to learn from them and make the most of being one of the younger guys.”
Having lived in Quebec or New Brunswick for the past four years this is the first time Turnbull has lived in his home province of Nova Scotia since 2009-10. This weekend will be the first Thanksgiving weekend home in that time.
“It’s really nice, a nice change for sure,” he said. “It’s been awhile since I’ve been home and this will be the first time I’ve been home for Thanksgiving in probably five years. I was driving home for the first time the other day and was thinking how nice it was to drive up the road whenever want really. It’s also nice for family to come down whenever they want instead waiting for me to come to Halifax or Moncton to see me play.”
St. FX opens the AUS regular season at home on Oct. 14. Turnbull said he will not be in the lineup as he serves a one-game suspension for a hit from behind during exhibition play.
On Twitter: @NGNewsChris
