It may be the dog days of summer, but hockey was at the forefront for the nearly 120 players who arrived in Minot last week to participate in the Minotauros’ main prospects camp at Pepsi Arena.

Whether it was returners, tendered players, draft picks or recruited free agents, everyone was vying for the same thing: a coveted invitation to training camp in late August. And at the conclusion of the four-day tryout, 33 players received their golden ticket.

“The main goal is to pick the most competitive group we can to bring back to training camp starting at the end of August and then work our way down to our regular season roster from there,” Tauros coach Cody Campbell said. “The secondary goal is to make sure the players that are maybe a year or two away from playing junior hockey got to experience Minot, see the facility, meet the staff and get a feel for what it could be like playing here in the future and gives us a chance to compare some of those players who are a little bit younger to one another and figure out which guys we want to follow up on and track the future season.”

The prospects camp featured six rosters all playing four games each over the course of three days. There were three games on June 26, six games on June 27 and three more games on June 28. A prospects game capped off the third night and the fourth day featured an all-star game. Along with on-ice games, there was an off-ice component to camp that included facility tours and sit downs with the entire Tauros staff. For players whom the coaching staff had further interest in, they participated in more in-depth conversations with the front office.

While the roster has been trimmed significantly following the conclusion of camp, there are still more cuts to be made. The Tauros have to be down to 24 players shortly after the start of the regular season, near the beginning of October. That means more difficult decisions and conversations, something that isn’t necessarily Campbell’s favorite part of the job.

“I don’t know if you ever get accustomed to telling somebody they’re not good enough to play for you because at the end of the day that’s what it is,” Campbell said. “The kids that aren’t invited back, that’s the decision that you made. That’s tough. Those are never fun decisions to make or fun conversations to have, but it’s part of the territory, part of my position to make those final decisions and have those conversations, but they’re never easy and they’re never fun, but at the end of the day we’re trying to put together a team that’s capable of winning a championship.”

Campbell did not disclose every player who received an invitation to training camp, but did say that they will be returning seven players from last year’s roster, including defenseman Ty James. This will be James’ third year with the Minotauros, making him one of the most experienced players in the lineup. James had 17 points and helped anchor a defense that allowed just 2.05 goals per game last season and pitched seven shutouts.

“We look to him to be a really big piece of our defensive core and a guy that’s going to bring a lot of experience and continue on with his development path because he’s gotten better basically every month that he’s been here over the past two years,” Campbell said. “If he continues to do that, he’s going to play a really important role for us.”

Also coming to training camp is Mario Fate, the Tauros’ first-round draft pick from this year’s NAHL Entry Draft. The 29th overall pick comes to Minot from the Omaha Lancers of the USHL, where he played in 32 games for his home state of Nebraska.

One of Minot’s tendered players on the roster is Lucca Ori. The Tauros tendered Ori from the now-defunct Colorado Grit after the city terminated their lease prematurely, leaving them without a home arena. Ori finished third in scoring for the Grit last season, amassing 35 points on 15 goals and 20 assists.

The Tauros have been busy in the offseason, making a pair of trades. Minot acquired Brady Zugec from the Minnesota Wilderness in late May. Zugec spent the previous year in the USHL with both the Green Bay Gamblers and the Des Moines Buccaneers. He racked up 21 points on 11 goals and 10 assists last season with Minnesota. Zugec will play one season with the Tauros before heading off to play Division I hockey at Western Michigan in 2026-27.

The most recent trade brought Michael Solominsky to the Tauros via the New Hampshire Mountain Kings. The trade, which occurred on Wednesday, sent Parker Newman to New Hampshire.

Campbell said the Tauros will be bringing three goaltenders to training camp, looking to fill the void left by Lukas Swedin, who will be playing at Division I Bentley University this upcoming season. Swedin appeared in 47 games last year, finishing with a 30-16-1 record. Swedin was second in the NAHL with a .939 save percentage and fifth in goals against average at 1.950.

Will Mizenko returns for his second season with the Tauros after 21 games between the pipes. He sported a 12-4-1 record with a 0.921 save percentage and 2.313 goals against average. He will be battling with Luke Quinn and Brian Cooke for the starting spot.

“Every year the way we look at it is coming into training camp we have 30-plus roster spots,” Campbell said. “There’s returners included in that, but those guys still have to earn their role on the team and earn their spot and their invite back to training camp. Outside of our seven returners, everybody is new. Some of them have played junior hockey before. We have seven Europeans coming over from different parts of Europe and we took free agents out of camp and then our draft picks and tenders. That weekend we just concluded is a big part of us starting to shape our roster and what our team is going to look like this upcoming season.”

Quinn joins the Tauros coming over from the Loomis Chafee School, a prep school in Windsor, Conn. He played in 25 games last season, recording a .911 save percentage. Cooke spent last season with the St. Louis Jr. Blues U16 team, playing in 27 games. He sported a 17-10-0 record and a .918 save percentage.

While deciding who makes the final roster and who doesn’t isn’t something Campbell finds easy to do, one aspect of the job that he does find easy is being able to pitch potential players the idea of coming to play in Minot.

“The first thing is the history of the program and the fact that if you look at going into 15 seasons, the team has only missed the playoffs twice, so there is a pretty consistent standard of having playoff-caliber teams and teams that can make runs in the postseason,” Campbell said. “And then I believe between our facility, our community and the support we have from our community here in Minot, we have one of the most unique and fun environments to play junior hockey in North America, doesn’t matter the league. These guys are treated really well here. They are supported extremely well by the billet families and the fans and the entire community in general. That’s something every player and every player’s family is looking for.”

The Minotauros missed the postseason in their inaugural season in 2011-12 and then made the playoffs the next eight seasons before missing out for only the second time in 2021-22 (the 2019-20 season was canceled due to COVID-19). The Tauros have won the Central Division regular season title two times and have twice advanced to the Robertson Cup and played for the league championship in 2017-18. When it comes to attendance, the Tauros finished seventh in the league with 2,074 average fans per game last season, the most in the Central Division.

The Tauros will return to Pepsi Arena at the end of August to begin training camp and prep for the upcoming season. Their season-opener is scheduled for Sept. 19 against North Iowa at Pepsi Arena.