The start of the WHL is finally upon the Swift Current Broncos as they'll open the campaign on the road this evening.

It will be the first of eight meetings this season between the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Swift Current with game one at the ENMAX Centre.

The Broncos finalized their roster earlier this week making some final cuts allowing their regular season squad to prepare for the 68-game regular season grind ahead.

"There's a lot of excitement," Swift Current Broncos Assistant Coach Taras McEwen said. "The battle and compete in practice has been really good the last couple of weeks. I know they're really excited, you can walk by the room and hear them talking about it here the last couple of days. I know that they will be ready for this weekend."

While the roster has been finalized, Swift Current will be without the services of defenseman Owen Pickering (Pittsburgh Penguins), Connor Hvidston (Anaheim Ducks), Ryan McCleary (New York Rangers), and Josh Filmon (New Jersey Devils) as all four are at NHL training camps. The Broncos will have to rely on some of their other players to fill those big shoes temporarily left unfilled.

"We have some real good young players that are looking forward to some opportunity and getting going this weekend," he said.

Swift Current Broncos Broadcast and Community Relations Manager Mat Barrett will also kickstart his WHL career in the booth tonight.

"It will be a lot of fun," he said. "Looking forward to calling the game in Lethbridge and getting the first regular season game going and it's going to be so much fun to put the headset on in the WHL."

Catch all the action on the Eagle 94.1 with the pregame show starting at 6:45 p.m.

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