The goal of a prospects game at the end of training camp is to give young players a chance to show their skills against and alongside their peers, and in that sense it was mission accomplished for the youngest players at Brandon Wheat Kings’ camp, some of whom responded with their best showing of camp to date.
Rylan Edwards, the Wheat Kings’ first-round pick in 2026 led the way with two goals and two assists, helping Team Grey to an impressive 8-4 victory over Team Green. Mark Munday matched his goal output for Team Green with two tallies of his own.
“This is why we do this,” said Wheat Kings Director of Hockey Operations Chris Moulton. “Sometimes when players are out with the older guys, they’ll have a tendency to give the puck to the older guys because they want it. When we have this prospects game, it gives the younger guys the opportunity to show their own worth, to be the guy instead of giving it to the guy in the visor. In this game, the kids showed why we drafted them or why we invited them.”
As might be expected of a game with the youngest players at camp, offense flowed freely. Edwards and Munday had their first of the game before the contest was four minutes old, and by the end of the first, Edwards had tacked on two more points.
Edwards added his final point of the morning with a goal early in the second, but the scoring was nowhere near finished. Nash Coquet found the scoresheet for Team Green, and Maclain Ethier and Taren Anderson responded quickly for Team Grey, with Anderson’s shot shattering a water bottle for good measure. By the time Wyatt Lowther buried the seventh goal of the game for Team Grey, they were in full control.
Munday picked up a goal early in the third period to give Green some life, but the final goal of the game came on a last minute shot from Ben Stattleman to salt away the win for Grey.
The finale of Wheat Kings’ training camp is ahead with the Black and Gold Game at 6:30 and, in a change of pace from previous years, no 15-year-olds will be involved. Every player in the Black and Gold Game for this season is eligible to be a full-time Wheat King when the season begins.
“Someone like (Edwards) probably could’ve played and we have some other 2011s that could’ve played,” said Moulton. “We just thought let’s get after it here, let’s make it competitive, let’s not worry about matching lines. Let’s have four lines and six D that can play against anybody and let’s bring up the physicality with the older, more mature players.”
