LEWISTON – They want three things, the Lewiston Maineiacs do: Size, skill and character.

That appears to be the basis of the blueprint the newest incarnation of the Maineiacs’ hockey brain trust plan to use in helping to rebuild the product from the ground up.

“We don’t have nearly enough skill in our lineup,” Lewiston coach Don MacAdam said. “We need to upgrade our skill level significantly. We have too many small players. We need to get bigger and stronger, and the players we have need to return to training camp in exceptional shape, not good shape. We need character. We need character. We need character.”

At the team’s late-night news conference in the Shipyard Lounge at the Androscoggin Bank Colisee following Game 3 of the playoffs on Tuesday, Lewiston’s head scout, Roger Shannon, reiterated the team’s need for character.

“One of the things you can mark down right now that’s going to define this team is character,” Shannon said. “We’re going to have quality people, fine young men. One of the things I’ve always said in the past is that you are a person a lot longer than you are a hockey player. That is something we are going to do with this hockey club … It’s going to be a priority.”

The Maineiacs’ roster is currently dotted with players, MacAdam said, who are smaller-than-average. But one thing MacAdam and Shannon aren’t worried about is team speed.

“We have plenty of that,” MacAdam said. “Speed isn’t the problem here, but it doesn’t help to be fast if you get bumped off the puck all the time.”

Even on the hockey operations side of things, the team isn’t ready yet to define roles among staffers. MacAdam said Thursday he’d be the head coach and general manager, “at least.”

“Technically, I’ve been given the go-ahead to help restructure this organization here, and I don’t have a contract at this point,” MacAdam said with a laugh. “I know Mr. Just has faith in me to do the job, but we haven’t even discussed anything in the way of contracts, yet. That will come, though, I’m sure.”

As for actually constructing next year’s team, MacAdam has deferred most of that attention to Shannon.

“I’ll be listening to this guy at the draft,” MacAdam said Tuesday, pointing to Shannon. “He and his staff know the players and the league far better than I do at this point.”

MacAdam was also quick to point out that the task of building the team’s on-ice product will begin quickly following the season.

“Look at Drummondville, the best team in the league if not in the country,” MacAdam said. “They didn’t build this team entirely from the draft. The built this team from this time last year through August, and added a key component at Christmas time. So that means we’ll do the same. We’ll start building next year’s team – and that means all of us, from the top down to the players.”