If all goes according to plan, Missoula’s new junior hockey club will take the ice for the 2007-2008 season.

Organizers will unveil plans for the formation of the Missoula Maulers during a press conference at the Glacier Ice Rink on Monday morning. The club - which still needs players and an official decision on which league it will play in - will introduce its management, head coach Brad Swearingen and debut its black and blue, snarling wolf logo at the event.

The team plans to play its home games at the ice rink, which will need some upgrades, including the addition of 1,500 grand stand seats, organizers said.

"This is an opportunity to enrich our current programs and increase the interest of other uses," said Tim Bechtold, president of the Missoula Area Youth Hockey Association, which runs the rink.

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It was a nice day for hockey in Missoula.

With the mercury outside barely cresting 20 degrees, the organizers of Missoula's new junior hockey franchise held an introductory press conference at Glacier Ice Rink's enclosed facility on Monday morning, where even indoors the temperature wasn't much higher.

The Missoula Maulers hope to drop the puck on their inaugural season by mid-September 2007 and will play anywhere from 44 to 66 games their first year, according to owner and president Michael Burks and General Manager Cory Miller.

"Missoula wants hockey, they support hockey," Miller said. "We have 600 adults playing in our (local) night leagues, 600 kids playing in our youth divisions. We see this as an opportunity to bring in a team and give them something to get behind."

The new team will draw 15-to-20 year-old amateur players from all over the United States who are hoping to earn college scholarships or score a spot on a minor-pro or professional hockey roster.

While the Maulers are still in the final stages of negotiating a league to play in - and haven't yet decided if they'll compete at USA Hockey's Junior A, B or C level - they'll likely find competition from established area teams like the Bozeman Ice Dogs, Billings Bulls and Coeur d'Alene Lakers, Burks and Miller said.

"The league that we're looking to join has some very strong teams and strong players and they're doing a good job of moving their kids to the next level," Miller said. "We think that we can develop a program here that follows that same spirit and gives these kids an opportunity to make it to the big time."

Also at the presser was head coach Brad Swearingen, a Michigan native who currently coaches the Junior B Butte Roughriders and is a former coach of the A-level Helena Bighorns.

Swearingen said he's excited about the opportunity to coach Missoula's team from the ground up and said that the Maulers will recruit aggressively near his home base in the Midwest, where he still owns a hockey school.

"This is a great opportunity for myself and my assistant coach to bring in our own style of play, our players and start from scratch," Swearingen said. "I don't think anybody could ask for a better opportunity."

Swearingen will attend the Maulers' first tryout camp in Detroit in May. The Missoula team is still looking for a location for its west coast tryouts in July, but hopes to have a team roster finalized in time to put on some exhibition matches for the Missoula community during the Western Montana Fair in August.

"We'll have a nice venue here for the 100,000 people who visit the fair to not only come in and get cooler," Burks said, "but also see real hockey for the first time."

There is still some work to be done at the Glacier Ice Rink to get it ready for the upcoming season.

Burks and Miller said they'd be adding around 1,800 seats around the indoor ice at the rink and would also upgrade the heating systems. Parking will be improved around the facility in order to accommodate crowds expected for the 22-33 home games the Maulers will play during the 2007 season.

Organizers said ticket prices would likely be between $8 and $10.

"At that price range we'll be comparable to a movie," Miller said. "We hope we can provide some better entertainment (than a movie). We're quite confident that we can provide some better entertainment."

Maulers merchandise featuring the team's new snarling wolf logo will be ready for sale before Christmas, Burks said, and can be purchased through the organization's Web site, www.missoulamaulers.com.

The team is looking for corporate sponsors and needs host families to provide room and board for players who could be arriving in Missoula in the next six to eight months. Host families receive season tickets to Maulers games and also a stipend, organizers said.

"We're going to have 20-25 kids from all over the United States, possibly a couple from from all over the world," Miller said. "So we're looking for families that will bring these young men into their house, help develop them into individuals, make sure they do well in school and support these kids in pursuit of their hockey dreams."

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