To nobody's surprise, Keagon Little will be the captain of the Estevan Bruins for the 2023-2024 hockey season.

The team made the announcement on Friday.

The fearless forward is heading into his fourth and final Junior A season this fall, and he admits he's always dreamt of wearing the "C".

"Yeah it's a great honour," Little said Friday. "I've dreamt of being a captain of a junior team, and being a captain of such a great organization...I'm really excited to get to work with the guys and looking forward to trying to help them win a championship this year, so I'm really excited." 

On the topic of championships, Little won the SJHL title in 2022 and says that championship pedigree will only help him as he moves into a leadership role.

"For sure, winning a championship, they can ask questions for sure and just see how it was," Little said. "I think the guys from last year, they know how hard it is in the playoffs. It was a grind of a first round and we camp up short, so I think there's a lot of hunger for a championship this year."

The Wymark, Saskatchewan native says he leads mostly by his play on the ice rather than his words.

"I think I'm more of lead by example," he said. "I'll say what I want but I'm kind of a little quiet and I just kind of lead on the ice by my work ethic and how I play. I just enjoy being a leader that way and that's how I'll lead this year."

Little is also very familiar with the community, having first arrived in Estevan back in 2020.

"I'm looking forward to getting into the community and getting to know people, and I think I've just learned from all the captains in years past of how they've dealt with it and how they've gone in the community and been such great leaders," he said.

With several returning players from last year expected back for training camp, the newly-named captain expects a strong supporting cast around him.

"I think we're going to be really good this year. We're all hungry for a championship," Little said. "A lot of guys are really disappointed with how last year's season went. We took them (the Flin Flon Bombers) to seven (games), but I think we want more than that. So I think we're all hungry to get back and get at it."

"We're bringing in some more new guys who will be wanting to win as well, so I think we're going to have a really good team and it's going to be a really good year."