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The Saginaw Spirit are hoping to field a bigger roster in 2013-14.

(Sammy Jo Hester | MLive.com)

SAGINAW, MI — The Saginaw Spirit are inching closer towards putting together their roster for the 2013-14 season, though it may be difficult to recognize.

Saginaw completed it’s two day, three scrimmage camp on Wednesday, Aug. 28 with the white team claiming a 4-3 victory on a Dylan Sadowy goal with a minute remaining to give the white team its second win.

“It was a good camp,” Spirit General Manager Jim Paliafito said. “We’re not really disappointed with anybody.”

But they’re excited about almost everybody.

Returning goalie Jake Paterson proved to be a stalwart in goal, but it was some of the new faces in front of him that stole the show.

Cody Payne, who was traded to Saginaw from Plymouth, scored his third goal of the camp in the final scrimmage, while fellow trades Kris Kontos and Sean Callaghan kept up their strong play.

Add in rookies Michael Holmes, Mitchell Stephens and Ryan Orban and Saginaw should be a much different team that last year.

“A lot of guys are actually from the Toronto area, so a lot of guys are pretty familiar with each other and I think it’ll be a good group,” Paterson said. “It’s definitely going to be nice having some of the bigger boys in front of us.”

Payne skated on a line with Justin Kea and Nick Moutrey to form a trio that averaged 6-foot-2 and close to 210 pounds, and the defensive pairing of Sean Callaghan and Michael Holmes at 6-foot-3, 220 pounds and 6-foot-2, 166 pounds definitely made the theme of the new Spirit team clear — size.

“You’ve got to have size,” Spirit coach Greg Gilbert said. “You need beef out there to wear down the opposition, and we’re starting to put that together.”

Payne, who won the West Division last year with the Whalers, certainly likes the group so far.

“We have a lot of speed, skill and size,” he said. “Everything you need to get the job done, we just need to put it together.”

Over the three scrimmages, Payne, Stephens and Kontos all scored to show how quickly the group is coming together, but now they need to keep it together as they head into the exhibition season and into the regular season.

The two goalie positions are already secured with Paterson and Nikita Serebryakov, and Paliafito said he’s very happy with a very deep and skilled group of forwards.

The issue — as it was last year — comes on the back end.

By trading for Callaghan and drafting Holmes and Orban, Saginaw has addressed size among its defensemen, but the loss of Steven Strong, Grant Webermin and Dalton Young leaves them short on experience.

“We just have to get into exhibition games and see how they do, because that’s a whole nother level,” Paliafito said. “And that’s when we start evaluating.”

Cory Butzin covers sports for MLive/Saginaw News. Email him at cbutzin1@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter.