Junior A hockey teams across Canada had some decisions to make on Thursday as December 1st marked the annual roster cut-down day.

Teams must be down to 25 'carded' players on their roster for the rest of the season. For the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins, they entered the deadline already in compliance with 25 players on their squad. 

However, to gain some flexibility before the January 10th trade deadline, the Bruins' released a pair of rookies from their team and now sit with 23 players on the team.

The Bruins' formally released two 18-year-old players: forward Kyle Dosanjh and goaltender Nic Tallarico.

Dosanjh (Richmond, BC) played in 23 games at center for the Bruins, recording two goals and two assists in addition to six penalty minutes. Both of Dosanjh's goals came against the Humboldt Broncos in a 6-2 win on November 12th.

Dosanjh will join the Mission City Outlaws of the Pacific Junior Hockey League (PJHL) in the lower mainland of BC.

(#19) Dosanjh Was Strong In The Faceoff Dot In A Checking Role With The Bruins.

"Kyle was a good player for us," expressed Bruins' Head Coach and General Manager Chris Lewgood. "He worked hard, did everything we asked of him. A physical player with decent puck skills."

"But the center ice position we feel is where we have some depth, and at the end of the day we just had to get down in numbers."

Tallarico (Vancouver, BC) played in 10 games in net for the Bruins, posting a 6-3 record with a 4.30 GAA and a .878 SV%. One of Tallarico's highlights of the season was a sparkling performance in Flin Flon against the Bombers on October 29th. Tallarico made 45 saves in a 5-4 shootout win agaqinst the high-flying Bombers.

"Nic was solid in goal for us and at the time we decided to add him to the team, we were not expecting Curtis Meger to be available for us," added Lewgood, as Meger was re-assigned by the Prince Albert Raiders of the WHL in mid-October.

"At this time, we believe the duo of Nathan Alalouf and Meger can shoulder the load for us this year and going down the road. While Tallarico has been a great teammate and did everything we asked of him, this was the decision we had to make."

The Bruins' are down to 14 forwards, 7 defenceman and 2 goaltenders. Heading into Christmas, Lewgood doesn't believe that any more changes are imminent.

"We are going to continue to evaluate our roster, I still believe we're a little young on the back end," added Lewgood. "We'll shore up our roster where we can moving forward, but we aren't in any discussions to blow up our roster and make wholesale changes anytime soon."

The holiday roster freeze before Christmas is December 10th. After that date, no moves can be made until after teams return from Christmas.