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The go-to song when teams return to their home cities to start a new season is often Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys are Back in Town.”

But for the St. John’s Edge, who open their third training camp today, it might be better to use an Eagles standard, with one edit to pluralize a word.

“New Kids in Town.”

The Edge’s training-camp roster shows 15 names, but only two of the players were with the St. John’s team that finished as runner-up in the National Basketball League of Canada last season.

Those two are Canadians Junior Cadougan and Murphy Burnatowski, and only Cadougan, who was named the league's comeback player of the year, was with the Edge as they started the 2018-19 NBL Canada season; Burnatowski was key mid-season addition for St. John’s.

It’s a massive make-over, even in a league noted for the transience of its players.

Among those not back are former NBA centre Glen “Big Baby” Davis, whose return was not pursued by the Edge; de facto MVP Dez Lee, who signed to play with a team in the Middle East; and star guard Carl English, the Newfoundlander who was the face of the franchise for the first two seasons.

English, the NBLC most valuable player in the Edge’s inaugural campaign, will turn 39 in February and is coming off an injury-riddled 2018-19 season, when he was sidelined for half of St. John’s games.

However, when interviewed on the recent launch of his biography “Chasing a Dream,” the Patrick’s Cove native said he is in playing shape, that the issue is his relationship with the team. English said there is no chance of him having anything to do with the Edge unless the team addresses what he calls its failure “to meet contractual obligations,” to him.

English did not detail those contract issues and Edge majority owner Irwin Simon has not yet responded to a message looking for his take on the matter.

Steve Marcus who took over as interim head coach when Doug Plumb left the Edge just a couple of games before the playoffs last spring, is back, with the “interim” removed from his title. Marcus has expressed enthusiasm for all the new additions to the team, even if there is a marked lack of experience in the NBLC.

“I am thrilled with the 15 men we are bringing into camp,” Marcus said in a recent team release. “We worked tirelessly this offseason to find a blend of individuals who fit what we are building here in St. John’s, both on and off the court.

Besides Cadougan and Burnatowski, only Canadians Tyrone Watson, who played for the Halifax Hurricanes last season, and St. John’s native Noel Moffatt, who appeared in 16 games with the Windsor Express in 2016-17, have played in the league.

Except for Moffatt, who played at Memorial University, all the players on the training-camp roster are products of American NCAA programs. That includes Cassidy Ryan, the fifth Canadian on the team, who finished his collegiate career with the U Sports Brock Badgers after starting in the States with Cansius College in New York.

Training-camp sessions will be held at the PowerPlex and Holy Heart High School. An intersquad scrimmage is slated for Wednesday at Holy Heart.

Tickets are already on sale for Edge’s lone pre-season game, on the afternoon of Sunday, Dec. 15 at Mile One Centre against the Moncton Magic, the team that swept them in last season’s league final.

St. John’s will get down to a 12-man active roster before its first regular-season game, also against the Magic, but this time in Moncton, N.B., on Dec. 27. After two seasons of November start-ups, the league has returned to a schedule beginning after Christmas, as had been the case before St. John’s joined the league in 2017.

After a six-game road trip to start the season, the Edge plays its first home game of 2019-20 on Jan. 7 against the K-W Titans.

Its part of a 36-game schedule, scaled back from 40 games after two teams — the Cape Breton Highlanders and Saint John Riptide — announced they were taking one-year hiatuses to deal with financial issues.

Last month, Tyrone Levingston, who had been in charge of the Highlanders, was announced as the new president of the Edge.

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Roster

The training-camp roster of the NBL Canada’s St. John’s Edge, with position, height and weight and school attended (* — Canadian):

• Montay Brandon, G/F, 6'8/225, Florida State,

• Cane Broome, G, 6'0/165, Cincinnati,

• *Murphy Burnatowksi, F, 6'8/225, Colgate

• *Junior Cadougan, G, 6'2/205, Marquette

• Mike Edwards, F, 6'8/235, Georgia,

• Jesse Jones, G, 6'0/185, Bridgeport,

• *Noel Moffatt, G, 6'5/180, Memorial

• Elijah Macon, F, 6'9/240, West Virginia,

• Ryan Richardson, G, 6'4/195, Weber State

• *Cassidy Ryan, G, 6’7/230, , Brock

• Maverick Rowan, G, 6'7/185, North Carolina State

• Ahmad Thomas, G/F, 6'3/215, UNC Asheville

• Karrington Ward, G/F, 6'7/190, Eastern Michigan

• *Tyrone Watson, F, 6'5/225, New Mexico State

• Desmond Williams, G/F, 6'7/185, Southern Connecticut



brendan.mccarthy@thetelegram.com

Twitter: @telybrendan