The Pembina Valley Hawks begin the 2017-2018 Manitoba AAA Midget Hockey League season Saturday (5:15 p.m.) in Morden against the Yellowhead Chiefs.

"We're really excited," said Hawks head coach Rylan Price. "We like what we put together. We've got 12 forwards that we think can compete for ice time at any slot whether it be in the top tier lines or the bottom tier lines. We've got a defensive corps that can move the puck, they are quite mobile and they should be able to provide some offense. And we have Martin Gagnon coming back as a solid goaltender from last year who won a lot of games for us. We also have a young goalie Brock Moroz who is going to push Martin to be the best goalie he can be because the guy behind him wants to get in the net pretty badly. There's lots of competition on the team this year. It's just a matter of getting them to gel together."

Price and the rest of the Pembina Valley coaching staff spent the month of September watching and evaluating before finally signing off on their season opening roster after their home-and-home preseason games with the Central Plains Capitals last weekend.

"It's never easy," Price said. "There are so many kids that are really close and kids that have come to tryouts before and we've seen the improvements. Those last few cuts that you have to make are tough because they are players that can play in the league. I had to tell one kid I wasn't even sure why I was cutting him. It was a numbers thing. He was a younger player and he did everything we asked of him. That's what we want out of a training camp, is to be that competitive and that close."

The Hawks dropped a 3-1 decision to the Chiefs on the opening weekend last year.

"I can remember that game pretty closely," said Price. "I thought we played two good periods and we let the third slip on us. I'm pretty excited to get another crack at them to open the season. Yellowhead is a very well coached team so they're going to be prepared and ready to go. We'll continue our preperation and I'm hoping that we're fully prepared and ready to go for game one on Saturday."