Karry Biette will be where he belongs in the 2010-11 SJHL season: working with the Estevan Bruins.

The Bruins confirmed what most people expected when they announced a new, one-year contract for Biette to be their head coach and GM.

Bruin fans should have known Biette would be back, since the Bruins hadn’t said anything to the contrary. If Biette wasn’t coming back, something would have been announced back in late February or early March, in the weeks after the Bruins missed the playoffs.

Spring camp came and went at the end of March, and Biette was still with the club. The executive wasn’t going to fire the coach/GM after spring camp, especially after Biette and the team’s scouting staff did such a fine job of recruiting some highly-skilled forwards.

Some fans were hoping that the team’s latest disappointing season would spell the end of Biette’s tenure with the club. If those fans were on the club’s executive, then maybe Biette wouldn’t be back. (Then again, if those fans were on the executive, they might count themselves among Biette’s supporters).

Biette’s well-connected and he has a great eye for talent. He’s tough and demanding, and he’s as competitive as any coach in the SJHL, but he’s also fair. And he has done a good job of managing the team’s finances.

Above all else, Biette has brought stability. The Bruins shuffled through five coaches from 1999 until Biette arrived in the fall of 2005.

Look at the top teams in the SJHL. They have stability in management and coaching. It’s not just Dwight McMillan in Weyburn. Bob Beatty has been with the SJHL champion La Ronge Ice Wolves since 2004. Dean Brockman has been with the 2008 Royal Bank Cup champion Humboldt Broncos since 2004.

Yes, McMillan, Beatty and Brockman have all had off seasons. And occasionally a new coach has a great season. But success in junior A hockey starts with stability.

Has Biette made mistakes? Of course. Every coach has a blunder now and then. But the important thing is to learn from those mistakes.

If the Bruins are able to bring in more recruits, it could go a long ways in solving the depth problems that we saw in 2009-10. And hopefully that will lead to fewer trades, which will, in turn, result in roster stability, and a better hockey team.

The 2010-11 season is one that has a lot of promise for the Bruins. They will move into the new arena, and they have a deep, talented roster that could yield this franchise’s best results since they reached the conference final in 2005. And they made the smart move by giving Biette a chance with the talented team that he has assembled.