WHERE ARE THEY NOW — Team trumped everything else for Thurston

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This article was published 15/12/2018 (2733 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brett Thurston remembers the simple philosophy that made the Brandon Wheat Kings tick.

Now 36, the married father of two who farms in Alberta said it was all about making everybody feel welcome all the time.

“You’re young kids away from home,” Thurston said. “You have 16-year-olds who might be nervous about leaving home or guys who might be homesick. It’s a young group of guys who have one thing in mind, and that’s to play hockey. Most guys are chasing the NHL dream. Of course you have to take care of your school, but everybody is there for a reason, to play hockey.

“You’re close in age, so you’re among your peers, and in my situation, I always thought you treat everyone like you want to be treated, and in our leadership group that’s how we always approached things. We tried to make our environment very welcoming and fun. It didn’t matter if you were 16, 17, 18 or whatever, everyone was treated the same. We never had any cliques or little groups. We did everything as a team, and I think that helped us along the way.”

Thurston started skating at age three on a rink his father Doug built on the farm located northeast of Calgary. Thurston’s younger sister Jackie, who played hockey and ringette, would join him for skates.

“It was our pride and joy,” Thurston said. “It was a really big rink and it had a heated shack for us to put our skates on and get ready in. It was a pretty big deal back then.”

He started playing the game at age five or six, with his father and mother Lynn serving as chauffeurs.

“They were both hockey fans,” Thurston said. “Dad played hockey growing up and was just a fan of the game. Of course he drove us all over the place, mom included.”

Strathmore, where he played his minor hockey, was a 15-minute haul, and when he began playing bantam AAA in Airdrie, the trip became 45 minutes each way. Jackie also had her own sports schedule.

Thurston said he knew about the WHL as young player even though the Calgary Hitmen didn’t join the league until the 1995-96 season.

“It was on my radar a little bit,” Thurston said. “I can’t say that I followed it religiously. We had a family friend who played in Spokane, Ryan Duthie. That was before Calgary was even in the league so we travelled to Red Deer to watch him a couple of times. Other than that, I couldn’t have probably named every team in the league but I definitely knew about local kids playing in the Western Hockey League at the time.”

After a fine bantam season in Airdrie in 1996-97, Thurston knew there was a chance he would be picked. Someone told him he was sure to go to the Medicine Hat Tigers, so that’s what he expected.

But on draft day, he was taken 22nd overall on a pick that belonged to the Tri-City Americans.

Or at least it had. Brandon had acquired the pick, but in the pre-cellphone early days of the Internet, that wasn’t information that could be easily obtained.

“For the rest of the day I thought I was drafted by Tri-City,” Thurston said. “Then I got a call from Kelly McCrimmon telling me I went to Brandon. It was kind of a surprise.”

He returned to Airdrie for the 1997-98 season, but made his WHL debut on Nov. 30, 1997.

“I remember that game like yesterday,” Thurston said. “I had actually played a game earlier that day in Airdrie with my bantam AAA team and then got the call asking if I could make it up to Red Deer on time for the game. Of course I was happy to do so and excited about.”

While the short-staffed Wheat King greeted him with a Bronx cheer in the dressing room when he pulled in just before the game started, he ended up on a pairing with Johnathan Aitken and played a lot.

Thurston remembers using the old pond hockey trick of passing the puck to himself off the back of the net to get it by a defender, and chuckles that McCrimmon explained to him in no uncertain terms why he would never do that again.

He said it was a good learning experience, and that he was well treated by his temporary teammates.

They became his teammates for good to start the 1998-99 season. He made the club as a 16-year-old, and played 46 games. He made the team with fellow rookie Cory Unser, and one of the two was often a healthy scratch.

Thurston, who by that point had done more research on the league and the team, admitted he was both intimidated and excited at the same time to join the Wheat Kings. There was also the move to Manitoba and the new school.

“I thought the transition was easier than expected,” Thurston said. “The organization looks after you. There are some many different facets of the Wheat King organization, whether it be to help with school or great billets or tutors or whatever need. Whenever you needed help, there was always somebody there to provide that support for you.”

Thurston said he was lucky to stay in the McPhail home, living with Ray, Josh and Joel. He also spent time with his teammates in the Hamm and Corrigan homes, adding they all helped ease his transition.

His second season — 1999-2000 — proved to be one of the most star-crossed in team history as the club missed the playoffs two years after making the league final.

Injuries were a major cause of the struggles, and Thurston was one of the players affected. He missed 29 games, due mostly to a separated shoulder.

Thurston, who would serve as an alternate captain for his final three seasons, said the dressing room never lost its way.

“I kind of prided myself on keeping the guys together and making sure no one is left out if guys are hurt or not playing well,” Thurston said. “The list goes on. It could be any situation. You make sure you have their backs and support them. It’s a family in there so you can’t have any outsiders or guys don’t feel like they’re part of the team.”

It all came together for Thurston in his third season.

He played in all 72 regular season games. Along with providing leadership, he knew what he had to do to succeed.

“I tried to be a better puck possession guy but I was never going to be very offensive,” Thurston said. “I was trying to find more of an offensive game. In your third year in the league, you’re trying to establish yourself, but I first off took pride in being a defensive defenceman and taking care of our own zone.”

He earned what proved to be offensive career highs, scoring four goals and adding 21 assists that season.

In 2001-02, the franchise’s future arrived in the guise of Eric Fehr and Ryan Stone, a pair of 16-year-olds who eventually led the Wheat Kings to another league final in 2005. Thurston said it didn’t take long to see their promise.

“Almost immediately,” Thurston said. “First off, they were both great guys who wanted to be part of the team and learn and listen to the older guys and the coaches … The skill they both possessed was hard to overlook.”

In his final two seasons, 2001-02 and 2002-03, the team would win 43 regular season games each time and make the Eastern Conference final, only to fall to the Red Deer Rebels.

The 2001-02 season was tough for Thurston personally because he had his hand skated over in Saskatoon — he needed surgery to fix a knuckle that had been cut in half, which cost him five weeks — and he also hurt his shoulder.

But success certainly helped.

“It was fun to be there because we had some great players and we certainly did well,” Thurston said. “Winning games is always fun, and being an older guy and certainly established as one of the leaders, it was certainly fun to see the younger guys looking up to you.

“You lead by example with hard work and pay attention to detail and that helps breed success. I had a lot of great friends on those teams, and it was fun to play alongside them.”

Thurston would play 292 regular season games in his Wheat Kings career, 11th best in team history. He played 42 more in the playoffs.

“I’m very proud of that,” Thurston said. “Obviously there are lots of trades up and down throughout an organization and I was there for five years. That showed I was worth something to the organization and they saw something in me that they wanted to keep me around for five years.”

After graduating from the Wheat Kings, Thurston attended a prospects camp with the National Hockey League’s Calgary Flames. His future lay in Cowtown, but instead it would be at the University of Calgary, where he would spend the next four years.

Following his final season with the Dinos, he joined the Colorado Eagles, helping them to win a Central Hockey League title in 2007. He spent three of his four professional seasons with the Eagles, with the other in the ECHL.

“It was important,” Thurston said. “Hockey was my passion. I lived and breathed hockey still and I still wanted to play. Fortunately my family gave me the opportunity, because I was farming in summers. They said if you have the opportunity to go play some pro hockey, then certainly go and do it.”

After the 2010-11 season, he decided it was time to return to the farm for good.

“I struggled with it a bit,” Thurston admitted. “We have a family farm, and in the summers I was working on the farm and would go away and play hockey. Since I went to Brandon, that’s what I had always done. I knew I couldn’t keep playing forever and I guess I maybe felt a little guilty the last couple of years leaving the farm.”

While his parents urged him to continue if he still had his passion for the game, he was nearing the age of 30 and wanted to help them out.

The Thurstons run a cow-calf operation with a current herd of 340. Naturally they also cut a lot of hay and have crop on rotation as well.

“We’re bigger than we ever have been,” Thurston said.

So is his family. Thurston and his wife Krista have two daughters, Kate, 3, and Jessie, 1.

“It definitely takes up some time but that’s good,” Thurston said. “That’s what we’ve always wanted. They’re pretty funny. At this age they’re a lot of work, but they’re funny little girls and it’s good to be around them.”

Hockey didn’t end completely for Thurston when he went back to the farm. He joined the Bentley Generals senior AAA team, calling it the funnest hockey he’s played as the team won Allan Cups in 2009, 2013 and 2016.

Thurston has since moved behind the bench as an assistant coach, although he’s doing less this year with the team, which is now based out of Lacombe. He plays some beer league hockey with his friends in the Strathmore area instead.

“I don’t know what my life would be without hockey,” Thurston said. “Certainly the friendships made and the things it teaches you along the line with hard work and discipline, and fun. That’s the main thing with hockey, you have to have fun doing it and I did everywhere I went. I always wanted to win at all costs and it didn’t always happen but I guess it’s the journey along the way and the guys you go to war with and those lasting memories and friendships that you’ll make.

“I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Hockey brought a lot to my life and I’m very grateful for it.”

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