At times, this summer felt longer than normal. But then, when you’re waiting for hockey to start, they always feel that way.
The wait, however, is almost over as in just over 72 hours the Brandon Wheat Kings start the process of answering all the questions that inevitably come up during an offseason and through training camp. Which players will take the biggest step forward? Which rookies will have the biggest impact? Who fills the roles left by departing veterans? And just how good will the team actually be?
Some of these questions we got our first nugget of an answer to during the preseason. Others will take the entire season to truly answer. But the process of finding those answers soon begins, and for the fourth season in a row it’s my pleasure to have you along for the ride as we search for some of those answers together.
Before opening night lands and the boys in Black and Gold have to hit the ground running, let’s see what lessons the preseason taught us and make a prediction or two that will be either prescient or laughable in six months time (I went through some of my blogs of early last season for some of those predictions; they ran the gambit).
Whether you’re playing hockey or fortunate enough to be covering it, it’s good to be back.
- The goal in any preseason is to get better as the exhibition games wear on, and by and large Marty Murray’s group accomplished that over four games. They had a rough third period in their opener against the Regina Pats, gradually got their feet under them as the next two periods went on (bearing in mind that the Pats had already played two preseason games by then), showed strongly against a veteran-heavy Pats squad in Ochapowace, then rattled off back-to-back 6-2 victories over the Moose Jaw Warriors. The opening period in Moose Jaw looked like a bit of a step back at first as the Wheat Kings neither generated nor surrendered much in the way of offense, but it was followed by a slingshot back the other direction with 17 shots on goal in the second period, and six goals on 19 shots in the third while surrendering just five shots against. Incidentally, the final game of the preseason was the only game in which all three veteran defensemen, Nigel Boehm, Cam Allard, and Josh McGregor, all played, and it was the game in which the Wheat Kings surrendered by far the fewest shots on goal (19 in total). Between that and an offensive explosion in the third period, the Wheat Kings got some of the positive signs they were looking for in Moose Jaw.
- Speaking of Moose, Kris Muissu has earned that nickname already from the team, and given his 6-foot-3, 215-pound frame it would seem a good fit. He got into all four preseason games for Brandon as the Wheat Kings try to acclimate him to the North American game and, well, consider him acclimated. Muissu co-led the entire WHL with six preseason goals in four games and finished second with nine points. And at the end of the game in Moose Jaw, after he’d already scored two crucial third-period goals, the Moose showed his antlers, scrumming it up with defenseman Benson Hirst (not a frequent fighter but a tough customer when he does scrap) and eventually throwing him to the ground and firing some punches at him. The goals, naturally, are impressive, and five of the six of them were him beating goaltenders cleanly with a shot that’s not only heavy but seemingly hard to predict as Muissu changes the angle of his shot with subtle turns of his blade about as well as anyone. But his quick tussle with Hirst serves a purpose as well. Talking with Marty Murray after the game, he mentioned the big Russian is likely to get some extra attention as more and more teams realize how well he shoots, so having a physical edge to his game might mean he gets a little more space out there. And once he gets that space, look out. Muissu has the makings of a top line goal scorer for the Wheat Kings.
- It’s hard to say how exactly the lines will shake out once the team is fully established (the Wheat Kings were missing their top two right wingers for the entire preseason with Joby Baumuller at camp with Columbus and Brady Turko away with the Anaheim Ducks) but there appears to be chemistry forming between Muissu and Colin Grubb. And what a show Grubb put on in his lone preseason showing in Brandon before picking up two more assists in Moose Jaw the following night. The North Dakotan has speed and vision which makes him an ideal set-up man either off the rush or on the cycle, but as he showed in Brandon he’s got a wicked release and a willingness to drive the net as well. He finished the preseason with six points in three games and gives the many-headed Hydra that promises to be the Wheat Kings’ offense another set of sharp teeth. Now, preseason production doesn’t always carry over to the regular season, but it certainly can and has. Last season, after putting up two points per game in the preseason, Chase Surkan rocketed out of the gate as a 16-year-old with 12 goals and 19 points in his first 11 games. On that note, Surkan put up two points per game (six points in three games) this preseason as well. The Wheat Kings aren’t likely to lack for offense.
- Off the top, we talked about questions. One looming question is, with the departure of Grayson Burzynski as an overager and the trade of Gio Pantelas, who steps into the role of top offensive defenseman for Brandon? There will be options, no doubt, but an early frontrunner appears to be Cam Allard. He scored the game-winning goal in Moose Jaw by picking the right time to jump up into the rush, and finished with four points in four preseason games. The battle for the top spot on the number one power play is by no means won or lost yet, but Allard gave himself a good opportunity to stay in that battle over the long-term.
- So we’ve established the Wheat Kings will be able to score, but not many would’ve doubted that. How will they defend? As mentioned, the 6-2 win over the Warriors in Moose Jaw was the first time we saw all three veteran defensemen play together against a Moose Jaw squad with most of their team available to them, and they held the Warriors to just 19 shots, so while that’s a small sample size, it’s a definite step in the right direction. All three of McGregor, Allard, and Boehm were blocking shots and breaking up zone entries, the latter of which Boehm was especially impressive at. The Corman Park native also flattened Gage Nagel with a heavy open ice hit. Though the blueline will be young, featuring five rookies as of the latest round of cuts, it will have some veteran stalwarts to man the fort while the rookies (who feature some potentially remarkable puck movers) settle in.
- When I first joined the WHL as a broadcaster in 2021-22, the East Division was entering a period of time where it was turning into an absolute gauntlet, a period that would last for at least the next three years. I’m going to make one of those predictions here that might end up being eye-roll worthy at the end of the season but I firmly believe at the time of writing: the East Division is going to be the toughest division in the league this season. It’s not like the East was a walk in the park last season of course; at a time with so much parity no division really will be. But last season, three of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference were from the Central Division and two of the three teams to miss the playoffs resided out east. This season, when I look at the teams who are returning the highest number of players at key positions, I look up and down the list of East Division teams and see groups loaded with talented, long-serving 19-year-olds, a relative rarity in other places. When you look for established scoring threats in the top-six forward group, experienced blueliners, or returning goaltending tandems, you find many of them in the East Division. The Wheat Kings have a returning 85-point number one centre in Jaxon Jacobson, a 40-goal scoring winger in Joby Baumuller, and a 6-foot-7 NHL-drafted number one goaltender in Filip Ruzicka. The Prince Albert Raiders have their own elite number one netminder with an NHL camp under his belt, four returning 20-goal scorers, and a possible top-ten pick in the coming draft in Brock Cripps. Saskatoon has four 19-year-olds (one of them drafted by the Montreal Canadiens) and a 20-year-old on their blueline, and their top-three scorers from last season all back. Moose Jaw returns pretty much everyone except their graduating players, including multiple high-scoring defensemen and a returning 30-goal guy in Landen McFadden. Regina brings up two immediate rookie of the year contenders and surrounds them with established 20-year-olds like Keets Fawcett, who scored 30 goals last season, and features Reese Hamilton (a former fourth-overall pick and 40-point defenseman) as well. And while Swift Current struggled to score last season, they can return two of their three leading goal scorers and have three 19-year-olds and a 20-year-old defense. How the eventual race for the division title will play out I couldn’t say but one thing seems certain: teams coming through Saskatchewan and Manitoba from out west are in for a slog.
As long as this return to the blog has been, it feels like there’s still much more to cover. But there’s just as much that we still can’t answer yet. How healthy the Wheat Kings will be for Friday night, how many players for both them and the Saskatoon Blades will still be in the NHL, and whether any additional cuts are still to come this week, all remain up in the air. We start finding more answers on Friday night and believe me when I say that night has been circled on my calendar for what feels like a long, long time.
It’s good to be back. And it’s about to be even better.
