The 2015/16 regular season starts TONIGHT for the North Bay Battalion

The North Bay Battalion open the 2015/16 season tonight when the host the Peterborough Petes at Memorial Gardens.

Battalion Head Coach Stan Butler was asked about the makeup of his team in the very early portion of this season.

He says, “I think we’re like down the road here (Ferguson Street at Chippewa) we’re under construction. We really don’t know what it’s like yet, we got a lot of young players that have potential but potential can be a scary thing because sometimes you reach it and sometimes you don’t.”

The Battalion are coming off another deep playoff run, but fell short losing in the OHL Eastern Conference Finals to the Oshawa Generals.

Butler says there is a lot of youth that have a chance to fill some spots early on.

He says he’s committed to having a competitive team despite the youth that will start this season.  Butler says “I don’t buy this buyer, seller, rebuilder mode. We’re going to try to find ways every year to make our team as good as possible as we can to give ourselves a chance to win and give our fans some entertainment in North Bay.”

Meantime, as reported on Thursday, the Battalion have named a northern captain this season. The Soo’s Mike Amadio was appointed to the position.

The team also named Matthew Santos, Miles Liberati and Kyle Wood alternates. Three of the four players, Amadio, Wood and Santos have played their entire OHL careers with the Troops while Liberati was acquired in a trade with London in November of 2013.

Broadcast time for tonight’s game on Country 600 CKAT is 6:35pm.