Verhelst makes his best save: Himself

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This article was published 31/12/2016 (3179 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tyson Verhelst’s life changed one evening in Wayway-seecappo, although it would take years for him to understand how.

Three nights after the 16-year-old Neepawa Natives goaltender had shut out the Wolverines and was named the game’s first star, Verhelst was in net again on the back half of the home-and-home series in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League on Feb. 8, 2013.

He would make 35 saves that night in a 5-3 win. But he was also struck on the head twice.

In the first incident, a player in the front of the net did a circle and slashed him in the back of the neck with his stick. The second incident occurred early in the third when he covered a puck and a Wolverines player drove the net, kneeing his head into the ice.

“From that point on I couldn’t remember anything,” he said. “I remember that we won the game 5-3 but I couldn’t stand up, and since I was the only goalie who could play, I was told to stand up and play and we’ll deal with it later.”

Two days later he was unable to practise, and a day later he was diagnosed with a concussion.

“My eyes were sore, I had a lot of sensitivity to light and sound, headaches, balance problems,” Verhelst said. “I could sleep 20 hours a day and still feel tired and the next day I wouldn’t be able to sleep at all. My mood was just all over the place. It really changes from one little thing. In normal life something that wouldn’t make you mad sends you over the rails and makes you so mad.

“You don’t know why.”

• • •

Verhelst started skating when he was three or four. By novice, he was playing goal halftime, and in atom he took up the position full time.

He said he recognized in his second year of peewee that he was actually pretty good in net, and thought that if he put in the effort that he might be able to go far. His parents Bruce and Leslee agreed, and he began to receive private goaltending tutoring and attend goaltending schools.

Like many goalies, Verhelst struggles to convey the satisfaction that comes from playing the position.

“It’s definitely a great feeling knowing that nobody can score on you,” he said. “You’re a brick wall and nothing can get by you. It’s great. There are a lot of emotions, a lot of energy running through you.”

In bantam AAA, Verhelst joined a Brandon Wheat Kings team for the 2011-12 season that also had future western leaguers James Shearer, Tanner Kaspick, Jordy Stallard and Ty Lewis and future MJHLers Bradley Schoonbaert, Colton Bates, Ty Dornn and Keaton Jameson.

“That was the best season of my life, I think,” Verhelst said. “It was the most fun for sure. That was the last year that group of teammates was going to play together. It was a great group of guys.”

They dominated the Winnipeg league, and were an overtime goal away from making it to westerns.

Verhelst was drafted by the Spokane Chiefs in the third round of the 2012 WHL bantam draft after the season.

Since he lived in Kemnay — he didn’t move to Brandon until this year — he got a release from the Southwest Cougars to play bantam but headed to Souris for midget to join the AAA Cougars.

During the 2012-13 season, Verhelst posted a 2.85 goals-against average for the Cougars while appearing in 29 games.

After one season in midget, Verhelst made what proved to be the fateful decision to jump to Neepawa and the MJHL. On a team that won just 14 games that season, he posted a 4.30 goals-against average and a .890 save percentage in 25 games.

He was one of seven goalies on the roster that year.

“That was my first taste of junior hockey, playing with guys that were four years older than me and an overall different team,” Verhelst said. “I think that really prepared me for the WHL, living away from home and playing with older guys and having to get to the rink on time.”

• • •

Verhelst was symptomatic for a couple of months after that first concussion. He called Spokane and the team advised him to shut down all physical activity until he was feeling better.

He spent much of his time lying in the dark. He couldn’t watch much television or do much at all, a period he calls a long, tough three months.

After he finally passed concussion tests, he was able to get back to work.

Then 17, Verhelst earned a spot on the Chiefs roster for the 2014-15 season. He would go on to make 35 appearances, with a goals-against average of 3.65 and a save percentage of .883.

“I was the backup goalie but there were times where I did kind of take over the number one role for three or four games here or there,” Verhelst said. “Overall I had a good year and a good learning experience, which helped me to prepare for my second year in the league as a starter.”

Verhelst said it was different when he came back for the 2015-16 season and won the top role. He got off to a hot start, with a 2.86 goals-against average that had him 14th in the league and a .909 save percentage with a pair of shutouts.

A promising season had begun. In Red Deer, he stopped 45 of 46 shots in a 3-1 win over the Rebels on Oct. 30. A night later, he made 35 saves in a 3-1 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings.

He was in a zone and playing as well as he ever had.

• • •

Everything changed again on Nov. 3, 2015, in Kamloops.

On a play 3:51 into the second period, with the Chiefs leading the Blazers 2-0, Verhelst left his net to intercept a puck that had been rimmed around the boards. His teammate Kailer Yamamoto and Blazers forward Jermaine Loewen were battling, and Yamamoto, the much smaller player, clipped Verhelst’s chin as he went around the net.

Verhelst’s knees buckled and he woke up in the dressing room. The Chiefs would score twice more in the next two minutes to make it 4-0, but with Verhelst back in the room, he began to hear the home crowd cheering.

They would lose 5-4 in overtime.

“I heard four goal horns go off and then the fifth one and I knew we lost the game,” Verhelst said. “That really hurt deep down, knowing that you’re up 4-0.”

Verhelst said the symptoms were very similar to his first concussion but he was back in net 11 days later against the Kelowna Rockets.

“I passed the WHL concussion test but I feel like I wasn’t normal from that point on for the rest of the year,” he said. “I had lots of problems with my eyes and seeing things, and visual problems, which as a goalie, really hurts. If you can’t see the puck, you’re not going to stop it.”

So why come back so quickly?

It’s got a lot to do with the nature of a concussion. Verhelst wasn’t wearing a cast that others could see, for instance if he had broken his arm.

“There was a little bit of pressure from the team,” he said. “Guys were always asking ‘When can you play, when can you play?’ We went on a little streak where we lost a few games and I really wanted to get back because I knew I was playing well before that. Lots of people were asking ‘When are you going back? When are you playing? We need you back.’

“I felt that I had to get back as soon as I can and I think I let that get to me and not worry about my health first.”

• • •

In the very simplest terms, a concussion is a form of traumatic brain injury usually caused by a blow to the head that moves the brain inside the skull.

The symptoms vary wildly, based partly on the severity of the damage but also from person to person.

The long list of potential symptoms initially include headaches, confusion, amnesia, dizziness, ringing in the ears, nausea or vomiting, slurred speech and fatigue.

As the concussion sets in, sensitivity to noise or light, concentration and memory complaints, irritability, changes in sleep patterns, depression and issues with taste and smell can all result.

There is no treatment other than rest.

Repeated concussions have recently been linked to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a progressive disease that can lead to dementia in its final stages.

• • •

The scary thing about Verhelst’s third concussion is how easily he suffered it.

Verhelst was down in the butterfly to make a save on a shot from the point on

March 12, 2016 and a Kelowna Rockets forward, who was providing a screen, turned around and his knee caught the goaltender on the head.

“I finished the game and all that,” Verhelst said. “The next day was a day off so I went into see our team doctor because something didn’t feel right. He looked me over and diagnosed another concussion, just from that little hit.”

Verhelst’s season was over. It was crushing for the 18-year-old goalie, because he was set to play in his first WHL playoff series.

Thirteen days later, the team’s season was over after a six-game loss in the quarter-finals to the Victoria Royals. A tumultuous off-season began.

• • •

Verhelst was once again suffering from concussion symptoms, this time until June.

He was referred to Dr. Michael Ellis, a concussion consultant for the Winnipeg Jets, who works out of the Pan Am Clinic. Every two weeks, Verhelst went to Winnipeg for testing, also seeing an eye doctor, a neurologist and doing treadmill tests to see how much exercise he could stand.

He couldn’t walk for five minutes without headaches at the start, so he was given homework of gentle walks that kept his heart rate under 90 beats per minute. Gradually he saw improvement and passed the tests, but was cautioned to keep his workouts light.

Spokane, meanwhile, had acquired overage goalie Jayden Sittler, and seemed to be moving on. Verhelst asked for a trade, but was wondering about his future.

“I was thinking ‘Do I really want to do this with all these concussions?’” he said. “It was kind of fifty-fifty. Do I want to go back to Spokane or try somewhere else or do I want to just be done with it and put it behind me?”

The situation took a long time to work itself out.

On Sept. 28, the Red Deer Rebels sent goalie Dawson Weatherill and a fifth-round WHL bantam draft pick in 2018 for Verhelst and a third-round pick in 2017.

Verhelst was driving home from helping to coach a bantam AAA practice — his old team — when he learned the news.

“That night I don’t think I slept much,” Verhelst said. “I knew I was going to be leaving in a couple of days. I was very happy.”

• • •

In their first conversation, Rebels general manager and head coach Brent Sutter promised Verhelst that he would do everything he could to take care of him.

It was exactly what Verhelst needed to hear, and he began his Red Deer adventure completely invested in his new team and filled with hope.

“It was a lot of fun,” he said. “The guys were really welcoming, the coaching staff was really welcoming, my billets were really welcoming. It was an overall great experience.”

The team had headed out for a weekend road trip that would see them play three games in three nights, but on their return they greeted Verhelst and immediately made him feel at home.

He was set to dress for the first time on Oct. 8 against the Rockets, the team involved in his third concussion.

• • •

Life just simply has other plans sometimes.

In Red Deer, it came in the form of a snowstorm that also delivered freezing rain.

As he was leaving his billets’ home, Verhelst slipped on some black ice on the stairs and fell straight back, knocking his head on the ground.

“Having three previous concussions I knew exactly what it felt like,” he said. “I wasn’t taking any chances. I wasn’t going to go through the motions and not tell the coaching staff. I told them, and two days later I had all the symptoms.”

Coincidentally, Rebels athletic therapist Josh Guenther had helped Verhelst with his first concussion as a favour to a friend when he was on staff with the Brandon Wheat Kings. He was on hand again as Verhelst was diagnosed with his fourth concussion.

“It’s definitely hard being in Red Deer for two weeks and having a lot of fun and then driving home again and being back here,” he said. “I love Brandon but out in Red Deer it was a lot of fun playing the sport you love. There was no pressure on you, you’re out with 25 guys who are also living away from home. You’re with your best friends playing hockey.

“That was going really well and then all of a sudden I’m back to my life again just living at home sitting on the couch, can’t even go for a walk, can’t go to a movie, can’t go hang out with my friends just because it hurts your head too much. That really took a toll.”

• • •

Verhelst was cleared again in early December, although it took his eyes much longer to recover this time.

He continues to do exercises with them.

Dr. Ellis advised him to retire from hockey.

“They said maybe I should move on, especially because I’m 19 years old and I still have a long life ahead of me,” Verhelst said. “They said if I go back, you’re going to get another one. It’s not if, it’s just going to happen.”

At the end of November he decided they were right. After talking with his family and making lists of pros and cons, Verhelst knew it was time.

“When I made that decision it was a sense of relief that it was over with,” he said. “It was something that I had a lot of success with over the years but now I’m 19 and still have a long life ahead of me and still have a long life to start a new career in something that I really like.”

He has his scholarship money from the WHL, and will enrol in the two-year police studies program at Lethbridge Community College next September.

• • •

Verhelst doesn’t think rules need to be tightened up around contact with goalies, suggesting it was more bad luck than any intent to injure.

On a Spokane team where only a couple of players had ever suffered concussions, Verhelst said his teammates simply didn’t know what to think.

“When they kept seeing me not coming to the rink, not being able to play, not joining them because everything’s in my head, they were all wondering when am I coming back, if I’m coming back,” he said. “It’s that way for a lot of them. There’s a lot of stress on you knowing you’re isolated away from your friends until you get better. It puts a lot of pressure on you to heal quicker but there was nothing I could do to heal a brain injury.”

He thinks there’s more understanding in the game now, but adds the league could do a better job of educating players. Currently they show films, but do little to explain the emotional and mental toll of a brain injury.

It’s information he would like to share in a conversation that he hopes becomes more common in hockey.

“It’s like a switch turns on and you’re just a totally different person,” he said. “Just your attitude towards things is different, towards life. Lots of times you can feel really depressed about yourself because you’re not able to do anything. You don’t feel capable enough.”

He said understanding the symptoms helped, adding that even his parents had to learn that he was less able to do things and a very different person when he was recovering.

• • •

Verhelst is helping with the bantam team again and has a job. He feels better and is coming to terms with the end of his junior hockey dream.

He said the lessons of looking after himself and working hard won’t be forgotten. He has no regrets, saying he would change some things but would do it all over again.

“Junior hockey is one of the best things in life; I was told that growing up. It can be the funnest four years of your life and it definitely was the funnest four years of my life.

“It changed me as a person.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson