The Kimberley Dynamiters are expecting a sizable crop of would-be Nitros at their training camp, which gets underway Saturday at the Civic Centre.

General manager and head coach Garry Jacklin is still fielding calls from interested players. With about 40 signed up already, he is expecting as many as 60 athletes at camp, depending how junior A tryouts settle out.

It’s the result of lots of hard work over the summer.

“I’ve probably talked to a couple of hundred kids,” said Jacklin, who noted that volume presents a challenge.

“It’s an art for sure. Sometimes you call the wrong guy and you’ve got the wrong name. They understand it’s a busy time of the year, and once you’ve talked to them two or three times, you tend to get better at knowing who you’re talking to.”

The camp will feature several scrimmages: on Saturday, the puck will drop at 7 p.m.

The next day, games will start at noon and 5 p.m.

On Monday, there are a couple of intra-squad games at 10 a.m. and 11:45 a.m.

After releasing some players, there will be an all-star match at 5 p.m.

Anticipating a larger crop of athletes than usual, Jacklin said 60 athletes wouldn’t be too onerous to grade with five or six evaluators on the lookout.

Among forwards, Jacklin will be looking for speed and skill, along with the odd power forward.

He’s bringing in at least one skilled forward from the Trail Smoke Eaters’ camp that wrapped up Wednesday night.

After a good camp at Trail — including participation in their all-star game — forward Kristian Pettit will be joining the Nitros this weekend.

The Airdrie product is a smaller athlete with good speed who plays the game well at both ends of the ice, according to Jacklin.

“He’s good with the forecheck, and put up pretty good numbers in the South Central Alberta league,” said the coach.

Pettit had 22 goals and 26 assists in 32 games with the Airdrie Lightning.

Between Clayton Tilleman and Pettit, the Nitros have the midget AA league’ No. 2 and No. 4 scorers from last season.

On defence, Jacklin will be looking for either puck-moving stay-at-home types or rushing defencemen. Ideally, Jacklin will find four of the former, two of the latter.

In net, Tory Caldwell is back for his third year with the Nitros, and will have a handful of brethren to compete against.

In Trail, Jacklin said there was close to a dozen goalies, while at Langley camp he heard the junior A Chiefs brought in 40.

With the Nitros, that picture will be much less muddled.

“If you’re in Kimberley now, I’ve got five confirmed (goalies) so they’re going to get a lot of pucks in that time frame. We’ll be able to distinguish who’s the best goaltender. Whoever stops the most pucks will be the guy,” said Jacklin.

“If he can push Tory, that’s great. If not, he’ll be a backup type guy.”

If fans like what they see this weekend, they can purchase season tickets at Blackbear Books & Video on the Platzl.