"Very, very bleak."
Because the season’s started about 10 weeks earlier than usual, to accommodate this month’s men’s and women’s world championships, in Dunedin, a few players are still in North America, while others are involved in the Wakatipu High School musical, Mamma Mia!, which opened last night.
And about seven other players are missing from the 2024 roster, for various reasons.
In fact, the Wild’s without a goalie this weekend, so they’re borrowing Auckland Steel’s Zadia Paulse, who’ll be playing against her own team in Queenstown.
They’re also getting some help from experienced forward Abbey Heale — after 10 seasons in the New Zealand Women’s Ice Hockey League, most recently playing for Dunedin Thunder, she was signed to Australia’s Melbourne Ice for this year’s season across the ditch.
McIntosh says it also opens the door for some development squad players to have their first shot in the big league.
And while he’s acutely aware "the first round will be hard", he reckons it’ll be a different story for the rest of the season.
"From May on, I like our chances."
Included in this year’s Wild squad is former Dunedin Thunder forward Caitlin Heale — Abbey’s sister — who’s also played for Canterbury Inferno and the NZ Ice Fernz and is "one of the best Kiwi-born players" in the country, he says.
Additionally, they’ve got a host of under-18 players already on their third or fourth season, many of whom also have international experience, such as Gracie Hellmrich and Aoife Orr, and are further bolstered by players such as Caitlin Hollyer, whom he rates as the best defencewoman in NZ, and captain Kellye Nelson, "who I’ve always said is the best player in the country".
They’ll also look to import a couple of players for the latter stages of the season, extended from six regular games to 12.
"We think it’s going to be a good, fun one," McIntosh says.
"Competitive roster, competitive team, competitive league, same objective as always ... win a gold medal.
"We’ll do whatever we can to get to that spot."
- Wakatipu Wild v Auckland Steel, Queenstown Ice Arena, Friday and Saturday — puck drop’s 7pm both nights
