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| Max Hildebrand in action for the Raiders earlier this season. |
The 20-year-old netminder has been the steady hand for a Raiders team that is working towards finding a new identity in the 2024-25 campaign. In the off-season and at the start of this season, the Raiders made changes with their roster electing to go with a number of younger players and made tweaks through trades looking to create more offence.
The deals the Raiders made on the trade front along with a key graduate departure saw them go without five players who played the bulk of the past two seasons with the team making up a key part of the club’s core. The key graduate was star left-winger Sloan Stanick, who led the Raiders last season in scoring with 84 points coming off 30 goals and 54 assists.
The biggest returnee for the Raiders was Hildebrand. At the moment, his statistics don’t look as flashy as they did last season.
So far this season in 15 appearances, Hildebrand has recorded a 6-6-2 record, a 3.79 goals against average and a .893 save percentage. Last season, Hildebrand posted a 25-20-4 record, a 2.88 goals against average, a .907 save percentage and two shutouts.
What the statistics don’t show is Hildebrand has been as sharp as ever. With the Raiders going through growing pains in trying to find a new identity, Hildebrand has faced more quality scoring chances than he has likely at any point during his time in Prince Albert since joining the Raiders full time part way through the 2021-22 campaign.
This column of mine appeared in the Prince Albert Daily Herald. To read the full article, feel free to click right here.
