Prince George, B.C. – Eric Brewer may not live in Prince George, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have his pulse on what’s going on with the Prince George Cougars.

The minority owner and former Cougar great who went on to an illustrious NHL career shared his thoughts on the New Ice Age this weekend while in town for the team’s annual alumni charity golf tournament.

“I believe it’s always a work in progress,” when asked whether or not he’s pleased with where the Cats are at two years into the new ownership regime.

“I think as a team we feel we’ve done a lot of things to quietly improve this team, a lot of it is not seen by the season ticket holder or the casual fan but we feel we’re aligning a lot of things up for this team to be stable for a long time and be competitive for a long time.”

He says some of that work behind the scenes includes providing what he calls “foundation items.”

“We are trying to make sure that travel, rest, structure of our game, flow of lines and flow of game is the way that we want it.”

Just how much influence does he have on the club living in the Lower Mainland though?

“I’m obviously not here, I don’t live here. But I am aware and in constant dialogue with the people involved,” says Brewer, who notes the team’s day to day decisions rest with the management team.

“We’re trying to put the right people in place to make the best hockey decisions,” he says. “You don’t need too many people in the kitchen so to speak. We want to hire the right people doing the best job they can and let them do their job.”

One hire he’s pleased about is the acquisition of new head coach Richard Matvichuk.

“Having played against Rich a long time ago and having a chance to play with him at a World Championship, I’m pretty excited about it.”

He’s hopeful it will lead to more success on the ice.

“We’re excited about our team and I think we’ve addressed some areas of need and we’re trying to improve.”