Cole new coach for Senior Rangers for 2025-26: Coach Jeff Cole has high hopes for the Rangers
September 29, 2025, 9:22 am
Donnie Matichuk
The Moosomin Senior Rangers season is right around the corner. We spoke with first-year head coach Jeff Cole for his thoughts on the upcoming year.
Cole has been involved in coaching with Moosomin Minor Hockey for over 20 years, including AA and AAA programs in the spring and summer. As a player with the Senior Rangers, Cole played from 1996-2004, winning the Big 6 Hockey League Championship in 2003-2004.
Since retiring from playing, Cole has been staying in the game through player development.
“I’ve been doing some clinics since about 2005, so about 20 years now. Some shooting and scoring, a bit of body-checking and angling. I’ve had a bit of background running tournaments as well, so I’ve been active in Moosomin Minor Hockey for a long time.”
He says that the decision to step up and become the new Rangers coach has been in his mind for some time.
“I had a lot of people over the last year and a half asking me to do it, and I’ve got a little bit more time now. I am around the rink quite a bit, sitting on the alumni for the Rangers and the minor hockey board for quite a few years. It’s also not like we’re playing an 82 game NHL season, it’s probably 16 or 18 games regular season games a year. I wanted to give a little bit back on some of the things I’ve envisioned and things I think we can improve on. There’s also some things we’ve done very well at, and I think we can go further there as well.”
The Rangers have been holding skates in Whitewood to get some conditioning in before the ice is in at Mike Schwean Arena.
“The skates are open, whoever wants to come out can come for a skate. We’ve always been blamed a little bit that we don’t invite everybody, so we’ve left it open to anyone who wants to. We don’t want 40 guys on the ice, but it’s more or less for some conditioning before we get the ice in town. Our more “official” practices will resume starting pretty soon. Ice times are always late in Moosomin, so it’s kind of tough for our core group. Some work at the mine, some have three or four kids and it’s tough, but we’ve been able to run these pre-season skates at 7:30. We’re trying to get the guys in a little better condition before the season begins and get on the ice a little. We’ve had some younger guys come out that the Junior B team has seen and offered them a spot as well.”
Cole says that the Moosomin Steelhawks Junior B team are a welcome addition to the town’s hockey scene.
“At first I thought maybe it would be a negative, but I got thinking about what an older hockey fan or a younger kid might see. With our regular season with the Big 6, there will be periods on our calendar where we don’t have a home game for two or three weeks. If I’m a senior in the villas, if I can’t watch a Senior game I’m going to watch some Midget hockey, but they are also away lots. I think with three higher level teams in town, it’ll keep people coming to the rink. It’s like anything; If you stop grabbing Timmies for a few weeks, sooner or later you might not go back,” he said.
“The downside is that our ice times are always going to be a little bit later. But I honestly think that the Junior B program can put a competitive team on the ice and have some locals, and the town should support it. Nothing’s easy in the first year, but hopefully the Rangers can help support a bit at the start. Even just attending games and bringing their kids if they have kids, get the interest up a little. Overall I think it’s a good thing.”
He says that he could see some expansion in Moosomin’s hockey scene.
“I’m not sure what the vision is for the Junior B team, maybe to one day have a Junior A team in town. Another one is what’s the snapshot of our arena and infrastructure. If you look at our rink, it’s one of the older ones, and it’d sure be nice if we had a facility with something like an integrated track or a new pool. I think we’re in a good area for expansion, but you need your prime time ice around late August/early September. If you look at a Humboldt, Estevan, Melfort, they’ve had their ice in for a month. It also affects more places in the community than you’d think. It affects sports stores, buying behavior, what you can get, stuff like that.”
Getting back to the Seniors, Cole says the Rangers are looking forward to seeing some new and returning players in action.
“Right now I’d say it’s a little too early to make a decision on where we’ll be at, but based on what I’ve seen coming and going it could depend. Elkhorn just recently folded, so I don’t know who might all be coming here, but I believe we’ll be quicker and better than we were last year. We do have the two Elmes brothers from Brandon coming out. I’d argue that Josh Elmes is the best defenceman in the league. Also, any time you have Bud Holloway on your team, there’s not many guys who can out-play him on a nightly basis. If you’ve got one of the best on the back-end and one of the best up front, it’s a pretty good start.”
He noted that the team is looking to improve on lessons from the last few seasons.
“What we need to address is building a little deeper team that can take some load off Bud, play a better game off the puck, and if we’re going to win we have to get a bit meaner as well. We’ve kind of been pushed around by Redvers for the last few seasons, and when we matched up against Davidson in Provincials, their speed skated us into the ground. This year we’re trying to adapt and find a bit more momentum during the season to get ready for that kind of series. We had some real good games with Redvers last year, but they really come at you and they kind of skated us out of the rink. Our goaltending held us in as the series went on, but depth is our main thing we want to look at.”
The Rangers are looking to have lots of local talent on the roster this season.
Cole said “Kaden Skulmoski is one guy we’d like to have, as well as Blake Martyniuk, the Junior B coach is another one. We’re not sure how much time and commitment he’d be able to put in but we’d love to have him get his six or eight games in for playoffs. Devin McGonigal is returning from Rocanville in the SEHL, Cooper Chisholm is a guy looking to play, Travis Statz is a Wapella boy that grew up with Bud, so they’re looking to play at least one more year together. Phil Doucet I believe is coming back. One of the young gunners I thought looked real good at one of our skates was Burke Lewis, so we’d want to have him and maybe a few other young guys get a taste of senior hockey.”
He says that he is looking to make an impact on the style of play for the Rangers.
“The physicality part is one area, and another will be our special teams, and our overall puck movement. If we can get the boys on the ice a bit earlier to practice, I’ll use Redvers as an example, a lot of their Ag guys get out on the ice a lot and it shows in their passing and playmaking. We’ve got some great talent on the roster, but it’s about execution in-game at the top speed and consistency. Another thing is our puck management. If you look at the NHL right now the game’s all about managing the puck. Having the top two players in the league doesn’t mean the Oilers win the cup every year, so we’re trying to find some guys that play different roles. Just because you might not be a 40- or 50-point player doesn’t mean that you’re not a good depth guy. I think with those things implemented, playoffs and provincials is where it will show.
The goal for the regular season is to be consistent and ready for playoffs and provincials as a team.
“I’m not too worried for the start of regular season, but I think if we can get our powerplay and special-teams rolling and get our depth working, our level of play will be where it needs to be by around Christmas time.” said Cole.
The Rangers’ schedule is available on the Big 6 Hockey League website, and the team will make their season debut on November 14 at 8 pm, when they take on the Carlyle Cougars.
