Harnett helps lead Wolverines resurgence

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This article was published 30/03/2020 (2023 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Waywayseecappo Wolverines have forced their way into the conversation of being one of the top teams in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League in recent years.

Their resurgence can be largely credited to head coach and general manager Taylor Harnett, an Edmonton product who has been with the club since November 2017. But just like it takes a team of players to win hockey games, it takes a team of off-ice people to make an organization successful. Harnett is quick to recognize the work of the people around him that has helped build a winning team in Wayway.

When Harnett arrived midway through the 2017-18 season, he took notice of what the good teams were doing around him.

“I think the recipe was right there in front of me,” he said in a phone interview last week. “I think that was the easy part. The tough part was finding the right people and the right players. That’s probably the biggest key to any team’s success is finding the right people.”

The Wolverines finished bottom of the league that year with an 8-43-3-1 record. Harnett put a lot of miles on the road recruiting that off-season and with the advice of an old friend sitting with him, he began to execute his game plan. Harnett’s friend told him many years ago that if you wanted to accomplish something, you had to come up with a solid plan.

The next season, Wayway won 20 more games and squeaked into the eighth and final playoff spot. The Wolverines were then promptly swept by the Portage Terriers in the opening round.

“I think it was really important that we built off that and our goal (this season) was to build off that from last year,” Harnett said. “Our goal from an organization was to be more competitive and finish higher in the standings if we could.”

The Wolverines did just that. With a veteran blue-line and a speedy group of forwards, Wayway finished in fifth place with a 32-21-5-2 record, the second-best season in the franchise’s 21-year history. Wayway’s best season came in 2007-08, when they again finished in fifth place, but posted a 37-23-2 record.

Harnett said he doesn’t think about a lot of the work he’s done in the past, but it helped set the bar for the team’s current success.

“I felt it was important to set the standard and build,” he said. “Then you can move forward.”

This year’s campaign also marked Wayway’s first playoff win since 2013 with a 4-3 win over the Swan Valley Stampeders on March 9 in the quarterfinals. The Wolverines have never gotten past the quarterfinals in franchise history.

Wayway’s season, like seemingly every sports team in North America, was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An outsider might assume all the work Harnett and the Wolverines put in was for nothing, but the bench boss is quick to point to the bigger picture.

“This could’ve been a pretty interesting season for us,” he said. “I think we had a group that really felt that we could push to make it to the finals.” 

Harnett pointed to graduating players being able to play hockey at the college level or university level. The bond those players built with the community is something they can hang their hat on.

“In my eyes it wasn’t nothing,” Harnett said. “There was a lot we accomplished this year as a group.”

Despite the season being cut short, Harnett’s focus is now turning to next year’s campaign. In this time of uncertainty and instructions from health officials to stay home, Harnett has been busy making phone calls and watching game film.

As far as the on-ice product is concerned, Harnett will have to deal with key players aging out and replacing them with younger draft picks, which he is excited about.

“I think we’re going to have a better mix as far as age goes next year,” he said. “That was part of the plan.”

Another thing Harnett said he wants is size in his lineup. With an average height of five-foot-11, the Wolverines had one of the smallest teams in the MJHL last season, according to data from Elite Prospects.

“I think every organization strives to be a bigger team,” he said. “But I think the struggle that some coaches and GMs have is if you come across a player that’s maybe not as big but he’s got a lot of skill, you definitely want to keep that guy around. Sometimes, you have quite a few of them.”

Another thing Harnett wants his team to get better at may raise a few eyebrows, and that’s to have more enthusiasm.

“Enthusiasm really energizes the fans and it energizes the rest of the group,” he said.

Hockey has long been a place where terms like “business-like” and “act like you’ve been there before” have flown out of the mouths of TV pundits. Harnett said there is a time and place for big, sweeping celebrations after goals, but when used correctly, can infuriate opposing teams. 

“We’re not trying to impress our opposition, we’re trying to beat them,” Harnett said. “If we do something within the boundaries of good taste to get under their skin, well then we’re going to take advantage of it.”

Fans love to see emotion and passion on the ice. If they can see their team’s captain energize a bench during a TV timeout, they might be more inclined to cheer the boys on louder. 

“That’s one thing we do is let a lot of our players do the talking when it comes to the timeouts,’ Harnett said. “Unless we have to draw something up, there’s not really much we can say halfway through a period. Every once in a while I might say something, but it’s not our time. The game is the players’ time, that’s their time.”

Harnett said enthusiasm is something a lot of coaches can overlook, but he also said he wouldn’t release a guy just because he’s quiet and more reserved.

In the end, players play not only for each other, but for the fans. To do that is to be humble, Harnett said.

“It’s not an easy thing to ask a hockey player to do,” he said.

Harnett said humility is a big key in icing a successful team. Humility is something hanging in the team’s dressing room and is something Harnett emphasizes to his team as a group and as individuals.

“You do have to work on it sometimes, everybody’s got a bit of an inner ego and everybody’s got different personal goals,” he said. 

“At the end of the day, you have to see the bigger picture. You have to work towards the team goal and if you work towards the team goal with humility then your personal goals should follow.”

Wayway’s seemingly quick turnaround from basement dwelling in 2018 to fighting for a home ice advantage in the playoffs in 2020 did come with its own growing pains.

Harnett knows all about the impatience fans can feel during losing seasons, speaking as an Edmonton Oilers fan. He grew up in the glory days of the Oilers in the 1980s, when the team won five Stanley Cups in the span of seven years. The Oilers have not been able to come close to even replicating that success, enduring a 10-year playoff drought in recent years and being awarded numerous first overall picks.

Harnett said the rebuild in Wayway has been a bit painful, but he is appreciative of the support from the community and board.

“As a fan you’re impatient but I understand that,” Harnett said. “I think the one thing is that I’m really fortunate. Our fanbase has been pretty patient … and the people I answer to here in our directors, they’re patient with the process.”

Attendance has gone up every year Harnett has been with the club and he said a lot of it comes just simply from good old fashioned word of mouth.

“I think it still took a little bit of time for them to see it before they believed it,” he said. “A lot of those season ticket-holders were maybe passing on the excitement to maybe some of the people who stopped supporting us.”

Harnett said to have the support of not only his vision but the vision of associate coach and general manager Josh Lee and marketing director Erik Swar has been “huge for us to be able to do our jobs properly.”

Wayway’s front office is full of good people, Harnett said. That also goes for the arena staff, trainers and everyone else involved in the club.

“That’s so important, that you surround yourself with good people,” he said. “You don’t always make the right decisions but we’re pretty fortunate here that we feel that we have for the most part. That, in a nutshell is what’s gone on here for the past few seasons.”

» rstelter@brandonsun.com

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