Luke Mistelbacher set the bar high for himself in 2024-25. He’s going to have to put a lot of work in to clear that bar in 2025-26 his final season of junior hockey, and he knows it. Luckily, he’s not afraid of the work.
“This summer, I’m going to be in the gym five days a week and hopefully on the ice three times a week,” Mistelbacher said.
Mistelbacher is no stranger to the gym. When he made the Swift Current Broncos in 2022-23, he was six feet tall and 167 pounds. This season, NHL Central Scouting listed him at 196 pounds. And that added bulk translated to strength, which has yielded better results every single season.
Each season he’s been in the WHL, Mistelbacher has pumped his goal totals up like crazy. He jumped from six goals as a rookie to 20 in his sophomore year to 42 last season. And not only is he not afraid to keep putting work in, he knows the kind of work he needs to put in this summer because he intends to boost that total again.
“More and more opportunity is what did it,” he said. “Every year I got more opportunity, and last year I got a lot of opportunity and I just took it. My goal is to be even better than last year”
Wheat Kings fans won’t mind hearing that, no doubt. Mistelbacher was one of the most dangerous offensive threats in the league last season, one of the top goal scorers and point getters in the WHL, and led the East Division in both categories with 42 goals and 93 points. His acquisition was a telltale sign the Wheat Kings intend to push for a long playoff run this season.
“There are good players there (in Brandon),” Mistelbacher said. “They’ve got Roger McQueen, he could be a top-ten pick this year. The team should be a really good team this year. They’ve been hard to play against in the past and I’m sure we’ll be even harder to play against this year.”
Mistelbacher and McQueen may have something in common for this offseason. Mistelbacher is a top-100 rated player on NHL Central Scouting’s final ranking (93rd among North American skaters) and seems a good bet to be selected at the NHL draft, like McQueen. Pro teams are certainly already taking notice of him; he made his AHL debut with the Iowa Wild this season and scored his first professional goal.
“It (the AHL) was a lot faster and the players were a lot bigger,” Mistelbacher said. “But it was good to see what it takes to play at the next level.”
Mistelbacher’s goal in the AHL was a perfect encapsulation of what makes him dangerous as a shooter. He had the puck on his stick in the slot for barely an instant before it was off his tape and into the net, cleanly beating the goaltender. Wheat Kings fans can expect to see that shot a lot more during the coming season.
“I’m an offensive player, for sure,” Mistelbacher said. “I would say I’m a shooter.”
He’s a shooter who, for the first time since 2021-22, will be playing in his home province as well. Mistelbacher is a Steinbach native who spends a lot of time in Winnipeg, some of it with his buddy and, to his relief, still-teammate Grayson Burzynski. Burzynski came to the Wheat Kings in the same trade that brought Mistelbacher over.
“It’s awesome,” Mistelbacher said. “It’s great knowing he’ll be coming with me. I’ve known him for a while now, I mean, I grew up playing against him too. So it’s awesome being traded with someone I know.”
With the milestones ahead of him, both in and out of junior hockey, Mistelbacher is poised for a big offseason. The draft and possibly an NHL camp await, and then it will be back to Brandon for what could be the biggest season of his career. All his work has brought him to this point, and with one last crack at a WHL title ahead (in his home province, no less) he, like Burzynski, can’t wait to get started.
“I’m super pumped,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s my last year in the league and I’m coming closer to home. It’s sad leaving Swift Current, I’d been there my whole career, so it’s a little bittersweet. But I’m excited.”
