There were just three of them, spaced comfortably in a dressing room that holds 20.

No coaches, no trainers, no fans lining up for autographs — no public attention at all, save for one sportswriter looking to do some scribbling on a cool, drizzly morning in the waning days of August.

Still a full three weeks from training camp, Winnipeg Jets Bryan Little, Chris Thorburn and Mark Stuart had just worked up a sweat with a handful of other pros at the Iceplex.

But this late-summer workout, they predict, will be a walk through Assiniboine Park compared to what’s coming in head coach Paul Maurice’s first camp.

“I know camp is going to be hard. He said it was going to be hard,” Little said before hitting the showers. “I haven’t seen everyone. I think and I hope everyone’s ready to go. The guys I have seen are looking pretty good.”

Little has seen more of his teammates than usual this summer, thanks to three weddings.

Dustin Byfuglien, Matt Halischuk and Little himself all tied the knot, Little hitching his wagon to his high school sweetheart’s in downtown Toronto.

“She was throwing out hints,” the 26-year-old said. “I knew we were going to get married eventually.”

There wasn’t much of a honeymoon, as Byfuglien’s (in Minnesota) and Halischuk’s (in London, Ont.) big days followed soon after.

If there was a players’ honeymoon with the new head coach after he took over midway through last season, it’ll be forgotten the moment the Jets hit the ice for Day 1 of Camp Maurice.

The new boss made it clear as plexiglass this team wasn’t in good enough shape.

“I expect there to be a lot of skating and on-ice conditioning,” Little said. “More than usual. I can’t imagine he’s going to take it over the top where guys might get hurt. But I imagine he’s going to make sure everyone’s in game shape when the season starts.”

Thorburn looks built to handle it.

“I assume it’s going to be a little tougher,” the rugged, 235-pound winger said. “So the nerves are there, the excitement is there... hoping all that summer training pays off.”

Just how tough and different is it going to be?

Nobody knows for sure.

“Probably for me, a guy that thinks a lot, it’s better not knowing,” Thorburn said. “They just catch me by surprise and hopefully by the time I realize how tough it is, it’s over.”

A guy that thinks a lot?

“I know I’m prepared, but at the same time, did I do enough?” Thorburn explained. “You train four hours a day, but there’s always that, ‘Should I have done four hours and five minutes?’

“You’re going to feel bad no matter what. It’s just trying to limit that terrible feeling.”

There are Jets fans who aren’t feeling great about the team’s off-season, as GM Kevin Cheveldayoff wasn’t exactly Monty Hall.

Hell, he wasn’t Stan Bowman, Jim Nill, Chuck Fletcher, David Poile, Doug Armstrong or Greg Sherman, either.

The other GMs in the Central Division appeared to bolster their teams, while Cheveldayoff simply replaced free agents Olli Jokinen and Devin Setoguchi with Mathieu Perrault and T.J. Galiardi.

“Nothing too dramatic,” Little acknowledged. “We’re going to really rely on some of our young guys coming up to have big roles. They have to.”

He was referring to the Mark Scheifeles and Jacob Troubas of the world.

“They had good seasons last year... and they’re going to be feeling pressure to have big seasons,” Little continued. “They need to have big seasons for us to have a chance this year. Even the younger guys, like (Josh) Morrisey and the guy we drafted, (Nikolaj) Ehlers... we need guys to develop fast and we need big seasons from everyone.”

Little likes the addition of Perrault — he’s played against him often and says he’s skilled, good in the faceoff circle and underrated.

“He gets in the corners and has a bit of grit in him,” Little said. “It’s a good pickup.”

Thorburn, acknowledging it’s a bigger, stronger Central, predicts the biggest difference in his team won’t be on the bench, but behind it.

“The big thing for us is Paul, coach Maurice and the coaching staff,” he said. “The locker-room believes in what Paul is going to bring.

“We’re just excited to start fresh from Day 1 of training camp and see where that takes us. If we play the system he puts in place for us, we’ve got the guys that can be successful.”

With that, one of Winnipeg’s toughest players turned and left, to get ready for another day of getting ready.

Knowing the hard part is still to come.

But trying not to think about it.

paul.friesen@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @friesensunmedia