What to know as Rivermen bring back four defensemen and open training camp
Dave Eminian
PEORIA — The Peoria Rivermen will take the ice for the first time in 582 days when they open training camp Saturday at Owens Center.
"It's been a long, tough wait," Rivermen coach Jean-Guy Trudel said. "But it's time to go to work. We have goals to build for, and the top one — winning a championship — has never changed."
With that, the Rivermen left dormancy and launched the 2021-22 Southern Professional Hockey League season.
Four defensemen join Rivermen
The Rivermen celebrated Thursday by signing a group of returning players to bolster their defense unit.
That included Jake Hamilton, Brandon McMartin, Brandon Rumble and Skyler Smutek, a nice mix of toughness and puck-moving skill.
McMartin, 28, is a 6-foot-2, 220-pound skilled blueliner who scored one goal and added 15 assists in 27 games with Peoria in 2019-20. He's had stints in the Double-A ECHL as well.
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Smutek, 31, is a 6-foot, 190-pound scrapper who had six fights and 120 penalty minutes for the Rivermen in 35 games during the 2019-20 season.
Hamilton, 25, is a 6-foot-1, 205-pounder who came to the Rivermen as an enforcer and has blossomed into an all-around defender. He played 73 games with seven goals and 24 assists over parts of two seasons with the Rivermen, and in 2019-20 earned call-ups to ECHL Jacksonville and Kansas City. He has 11 fights in those 73 games with Peoria.
Rumble, 28, is a very skilled defenseman who has played 91 games — including playoffs — in parts of three seasons with the Rivermen, with 29 assists.
Rumble, the son of former St. Louis Blues defenseman Darren Rumble, has played 56 games with ECHL Norfolk and Indy.
Rivermen roster formation will take time
The Rivermen will have a reduced camp roster because several of their players are in ECHL camps, looking to win jobs at the Double-A level.
Any of them could stick in the ECHL or come down to Peoria later.
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Among those on the watch list are winger Jordan Ernst, in camp with Tulsa. Another top winger, Darren McCormick — who is a projected challenger for an SPHL scoring title — is in camp at ECHL Rapid City.
Brandon McMartin is with ECHL Jacksonville, Jake Hamilton is in ECHL Atlanta, center Carter Johnson is with ECHL Kansas City and defenseman Zach Wilkie is at ECHL Florida.
The ECHL opens its season a week later than the SPHL for the first time, so the annual trickle-down of players could take some time. Trudel is still shopping for players, and has commitments from two more who are in ECHL camps right now.
River Readings
• The Rivermen will go through physicals and a team meeting Friday. The first camp skate is 12:45-3 p.m. Saturday at Owens Center. They'll skate at Owens from 9:15-11:30 a.m. on Sunday and again from 9:30 a.m. to 11:45 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday.
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• The Rivermen will not play any preseason games. They open the regular-season with a pair of games on Oct. 15-16 at expansion Vermillion County (Danville).
• The Rivermen home opening weekend is Oct. 22-23 against Macon at Carver Arena.
• The Rivermen have installed Shane Hudson as the team's new athletic trainer for the 2021-22 season. He's a native of Springfield, and previously worked as an athletic trainer for the Springfield Clinic and has experience with multiple high schools in the Springfield area. A graduate of Northern Illinois University in 2019, Hudson's most recent hockey experience came with the Springfield Jr. Blues of the North American Hockey League.
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. Reach him at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.