In a sense, Laurentian Voyageurs' men's hockey head coach Craig Duncanson could not have picked a better year to be something of an early bird on the recruiting trail.

True, the fact that he had most of his ducks in a row, with regards to the 2020-2021 edition of his team, does not help clarify the more league-wide general questions that abound regarding whether OUA squads will hit the ice at all come the new year.

But with any potential to view recruits in action, first-hand, pretty much flushed right down the drain by the middle of March, the early efforts of Duncanson and company were paying dividends.

"We were quite aggressive, in terms of recruiting, in December," said the man who has guided the L.U. crew since their re-entry to the league in the fall of 2013. "I did a lot of travelling and scouting and watching games - and with some of the players, we had started the year before."

Part of the reason behind the extremely pro-active approach this winter lie in a need to shake things up for the local entry that finished with a record of 5-21-1-1 in 2019-2020, sitting dead last in the ten team East Division of the OUA, a full seven points back of both the RMC Paladins and Nipissing Lakers.

"We were looking at a much bigger overhaul than we've taken on in quite some time," said Duncanson. "We were looking to recruit really aggressively, and to build around a couple of guys that we really like that we've bought in the past year or two."

Haydn Hopkins (11 GPs) and Gabriel Paquin (10) appeared in less than half of the Voyageur games last year, with both expected to play a much larger role when the team eventually hits the ice, once again. While it was not offered as an excuse, the glut of injuries that Laurentian encountered last year, easily among the highest in the league, did provide a silver lining, of sorts.

"It did allow us to see that our depth isn't really where we need it to be, and some of the guys that were in the wings, waiting for opportunities, well, their opportunity came and they didn't seize it," said Duncanson. "I think our focus this year, in recruiting, was certainly scorers who can skate, and I feel we did a good job in accomplishing that."

Combined with new recruits Alex Plamondon, David Perrault and Charles Farmer, Duncanson is hopeful that his lineup will feature a much greater offensive punch, moving forward, all of which means little if university sports remain sidelined, indefinitely.

"We're making contingency plan upon contingency plan, preparing for what we don't know will happen," said Duncanson. "I've tried to explain to my guys that we can only worry about things that we can control."

"We're preparing to run as a program, as complete as we possibly can, from the middle of September, whether that involves only workouts or certain team building events, or on-ice activities, trying to be as complete and aggressive as we can, while keeping in mind that anyone ranging from local public health officials, to the premier, to the university president, might change those plans at any time."

For now, this much is known: neither the Laurentian Voyageurs, nor any of the remaining 19 other men's hockey entries, will play a league game until January 1st (2021), at the earliest.

"I really think there is some opportunity here for the guys," noted Duncanson. "Usually, our first weekend of regular season play coincides with mid-term exams. Sometimes, that's really frustrating. This year, you can come in, get set up at school, and we'll still train and prepare."

"I'm planning for the fact that we will hopefully be able to wade our way back in, come January - but like everything else, we really have no idea."

It remains to be seen exactly what the impact of the current restrictions will be when it comes to U Sport student-athletes. While the overwhelming majority acknowledge that academics must trump athletics when it comes to the post-secondary priorities, they would also admit that the opportunity to play varsity sports is a large part of the lure of attending their ultimate university of choice.

"We have targetted guys that know what they want in the long-term, to go to school and be a varsity athlete," stated Duncanson, addressing his belief that pretty much his entire crew of projected veterans and newcomers are expected to still be on hand, with the team, in Sudbury, come October 1st or so. "A lot of them aren't going to change their plans on a whim, so in that sense, we're in pretty good shape."

For now, Craig Duncanson and his players wait patiently for a chance to prove it.