LEWISTON — Young and full of energy.

Those are the words L/A Fighting Spirit coach Rod Simmons used to describe the 2016-17 team that’s ready to open its second full season at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee this weekend with a pair of games against the Skyland Kings. Games are set for Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

The team has six players who will become legal adults during the season.

“We have a lot of 18-year-olds; we are young this season,” Simmons said. “We have a lot of 1998 (birth years). We have a lot of good energy, decent speed and a different feel from last year’s team. We have a bunch of guys that work very well with team chemistry, so it’s a pretty good feel. We are going to add a couple of bodies here in the next few weeks. We have our core and nucleus here of 17 guys and we will probably add three more and be good for a while.”

Last season, L/A only had three players on its roster who were in their 18-year-old season. They had 12 players playing in their 19-year-old season and another 11 playing their overage years as 20-year-olds.

Simmons is a coach who doesn’t like to bring 20-plus players into a training camp setting. He’d rather bring the core in and see which positions could use another body.

He said the younger players have been pushing the older players the first few weeks of practice.

“This is actually the youngest team, probably, we’ve ever had,” Simmons said. “What we are lacking maybe in experience, we have in excitement and in energy. So when you have excitement and energy that accepts coaching, good things can happen. It may take a little bit longer, take a month or so to gel the right way. Ultimately, they have, they want to accept the coaching because they are eager and they are younger.”

In 2015-16, the Fighting Spirit opened the season 10-1.

While the team is short on veterans from last season’s squad, they have two key pieces returning in forward Dylan Vrees and defenseman Walker Hamilton. Vrees as a rookie last season was 12th in league scoring with 33 goals and 30 assists in 38 games played. Hamilton racked up points from the blue line with 12 goals and 14 assists.

Simmons said Vrees won’t have the pressure to have to put up the points this season.

“The difference is (this year) we have guys that can finish differently.” Simmons said. “Dylan already had a college offer so he knows he’s going to play college hockey next year. I don’t think the pressure is on him as much. Hamilton is back to settle things down on the blue line for us. He’s going to do a good job to be a leader for us. We have put people around them. Like I said, the dynamics of the team is different. We have better supporting players around those players.”

The Fighting Spirit are also technically in a new league this season as the North American 3 Eastern Hockey League merged with its sister league in the Midwest, the North American 3 Hockey League. The 13 teams from NA3EHL expanded the NA3HL to 47 teams.

While it’s a new league, the bulk of the schedule will still mostly feature teams that were in the NA3EHL. The one caveat this season is they will be seeing more teams from last season’s Western Conference.

After joining the NA3HL, the league held a draft in June. The Fighting Spirit chose two local players: Lewiston’s Alex Rivet and Bangor’s Derek Fournier. Both decided to stay in high school.

“We wanted the two local kids,” Simmons said. “For whatever reason, they stayed in high school and chose not to come. Those are their decisions, but our big goal is to try to get two local kids out of the draft. As you can see, our team is from everywhere.”

Rivet helped Lewiston High School to its first Class A state championship since 2002 this past March. The forward had three goals and three assists in 18 regular-season games as a sophomore.

Fournier, a senior goalie for Bangor High School and a catcher on the baseball team, was also selected by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in the 13th round by the Saint John Sea Dogs. He attended the Sea Dogs’ training camp in August, but was cut so he can preserve his NCAA eligibility.

The only player on the Fighting Spirit’s roster to be drafted is 19-year-old forward Matt Siegel, who was a second-round pick. He split last season with Cicero-North Syracuse High School in Cicero, New York, and the Syracuse Stars organization of the United States Premier Hockey League.

nfournier@sunjournal.com