LEWISTON — Twenty-six players — the most to ever begin a season — will wear the Lewiston Maineiacs’ sweater as the 2010-11 season begins.

Six of them will skate in either a rookie camp or rookie tournament for a National Hockey League franchise and two are drafted by an NHL team. Several more are on a watch list, and the team’s general manager believes there are nine or 10 legitimate professional prospects already on the roster.

That, by anyone’s account, is depth.

And the Maineiacs are going to need that depth this weekend as they open a new campaign against the Rimouski Oceanic at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee.

Three of the six potential NHLers on the roster have already left for their camps, while two others will leave Saturday morning. With a five-game suspension to rookie Christophe Lalonde, the team of 26 has been whittled to the bare minimum of 20 — 19 skaters — for Saturday’s contest.

“We have a lot more depth than last year,” Maineiacs’ coach J.F. Houle said. “Someone is going to have to pick up the slack with these guys out of the lineup. I think we are much better equipped to handle something like this now than last year, though.”

Despite poor records in each of the past couple of seasons, the Lewiston Maineiacs have always had at least a line’s worth of high-end players. But even with five elite players gone from the lineup, Houle has at his disposal a full complement of major-junior-ready skaters.

“I’m happy that we kept a lot of players around for a long time during the preseason and right to the end,” Houle said. “Now it might pay off. They know what our systems are, I’ve had the chance to see them so I know where they fit on the team.”

On the other side of the ice, a familiar face will lead a similarly-short-handed group of players into Lewiston for the season opener. Clem Jodoin, the coach who guided the Maineiacs to the 2006-07 President’s Cup title, begins his fourth season behind the bench of the Rimouski Oceanic. In a similar position in the building process as Lewiston, Rimouski will also be without several key players.

Four Rimouski skaters — including the club’s two European players — have been drafted to the NHL.

With shorter-than-normal benches, the challenge for both teams will be to minimize mistakes at both ends of the ice.

“The first couple of games of the year, the younger players will try to do a little bit too much sometimes, so the key is to get pucks deep and keep it simple,” Houle said.

The coaches are familiar with one another, too, which makes this weekend’s chess match that much more difficult for the two of them.

“He’s the kind of coach that gets his players to work hard for him,” Houle said of Jodoin. “I’ve known him for a while, he used to work with my dad in Montreal. He’s a good person and I’m sure he’ll get his team ready to play.”

The teams will play a twin-bill this weekend, with games Friday and Saturday each beginning at 7 p.m. The team has also planned a fan tailgate for Saturday afternoon prior to the second game, hoping to create a festive atmosphere for opening weekend.

“The team we have here, it’s going to be a fast and competitive team,” Houle said. “We’re hoping we can give the fans two wins, and two exciting wins.”