There's a high opinion among the Estevan Bruins' staff of the crop of talent they have coming in for this season. The problem is, they don't have any way to test their opinion in an actual game setting. 

Extended training camp for the Bruins began on September 8, and a trickle of players arrived over the next week to round out the roster for the season to come. Although they've looked strong in practice scenarios against each other, there's no substitute for a game situation. 

"It makes it a little bit tougher," said head coach and GM Jason Tatarnic. "The guys have the mindset that these are their teammates, so sometimes they don't go as hard as they would normally go in games, so it makes it tough that way. You've got some players respecting each other, and that's fine, but it does make it hard for evaluation."

That doesn't mean, of course, that the Bruins aren't doing their best to get their roster nailed down for a season that still has no determined start date. Rolling through different line combinations and putting players in different scenarios, Tatarnic and his staff are getting a good sense of what their team looks like.

"We're pretty happy with the group," he said. "I think we're very impressed with the younger guys. For example, (Caelan Fitzpatrick), he's just getting better and better every day. He's probably a little further ahead than we expected." 

Still, some decisions won't be finalized until the team can play actual games, and the date for that remains up in the air. The team won't have a full understanding of line combos and power play scenarios until they see them in-game, and the leadership group for the year is also to be determined. 

"We have some older guys that have been on the team for a while so we talk to them right now," Tatarnic said. "But we're still watching and monitoring how guys are doing things. Just because you were here last year doesn't mean you're going to be the captain or the assistant captain. We like what we see from our older guys, but we'll see some exhibition games, we'll see how guys perform in those games in terms of their leadership styles, and we'll go from there."