The offspring of the youngsters who filled out Duke’s togs way back in the day when the club played in the frozen bathtub on Niles street were at the new Dukedome May 3-5 trying to impress the club brass and earn an invitation back to main camp this August.

Sebastien Kaminisky had all the slick skating and puck-moving abilities of his older brother, Jan, part of the Wellington Dukes 2011 Dudley Hewitt Cup winning team.

Quinte AAA Red Devil product Theo Lavender is the son of Tod Lavender. He was joined by fellow QRD skater Liam Campbell, who calls Dukes’ alumnus Dave his Dad.

Meanwhile, Nolan Rosebush most definitely inherited his mother’s height. The 6’1” 17-year-old left winger is the son of Paul Rosebush, a Wellington native who starred for the Dukes in the mid 90’s. Paul went on to the professional ranks and played over 400 games for the Bakersfield Condors of the East Coast Hockey League. The junior Rosebush has an inch or two on senior and doesn’t look like he’s bound to stop sprouting anytime soon.

“Rosey” was happy to be back in Wellington, watching his lad compete for an invite. “It gets harder to leave every time I come home,” he said with a smile.

More lead time

Also smiling on the action on the ice was Coach Kent Lewis. A little less than a year out from his introduction as the next Wellington Dukes bench boss, Mr. Lewis intends to enjoy the process of carefully building the 2024-25 club. Given his success with a depleted roster and a very short ramp up period in the summer of 2023, there’s great optimism that with more time, he and General Manager Todd Diminie can improve on the team’s third-place finish.

“It was a unique challenge coming into the year, but with the support of ownership and the community, we were able to go out and find the right kids to represent the County and the organization well,” the coach told the Gazette. “The buy-in of the players was tremendous and I can’t say enough about the staff and the volunteers from top to bottom. Everyone did a wonderful job.”

Post season setback

Unfortunately for the locals, their third place meant facing the sixth-seeded Toronto Jr. Canadiens, a team Wellington struggled with in the regular season.

After winning the opening game of the best-of-seven 5-2, Wellington was unable to replicate that success. Just when it looked like the Dukes came up with a winning solution, Toronto netminder Sergei Litvinov changed the question with a timely save that kept Wellington from gaining traction.

“Our mistakes might not have been costly had we faced another team. Toronto was a very talented group up front. I felt we got better as the series went — but we had some hiccups due to inexperience,” Coach Lewis said.

The back breaker for the Dukes came in Game Four when the Jr. Canadiens scored with three seconds left in regulation to take the contest 4-3.

Coach Lewis likes the score he has returning to the lineup and he has months, not weeks, to tinker and recruit to build the strongest 23-player roster possible. Forward Connor Hunt played at better than a point-per-game pace in 2023-24. In net, rookie goaltender Jack Lisson had an award winning season in the crease. Colin Smith was a standout on the blue line and was a strong performer for Coach Lewis down the stretch.

“There’s still some work to do to find the pieces that will take us all the way home,” the Coach said.

“I’ve really enjoyed it here so far, it’s been great to be here in this great facility and there’s a lot of care in the community for the Wellington Dukes brand. It’s been a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see what’s next for us.”