Wheat Kings land Roberts

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This article was published 31/10/2021 (1460 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Landon Roberts is coming home, but it certainly isn’t easy.

The Brandon Wheat Kings acquired the six-foot-three, 210-pound Souris product from the Tri-City Americans on Sunday for a seventh-round pick in the 2024 WHL bantam draft. He found out about the deal on Sunday morning when he received a call from Americans general manager Bob Tory just after he woke up.

That brought on an avalanche of emotion for Roberts, who was in his third season with the club.

“I had family pictures with my billets this morning,” Roberts said with a chuckle on Sunday afternoon. “It was about 30 to 40 minutes before we were leaving. I was crying and everything, all emotional, and my billets were too.

“We pushed through the family pictures and after I got done with that, I carved a pumpkin for my billets because that’s what the plan was for today, to do some Halloween activities. I carved a little broken heart, so they thought that was funny.”

Roberts spoke from the rink, where he packed up his stuff and said more goodbyes before heading for a COVID-19 test. He plans to drop by the Toyota Center one more time in the morning and then make the 1,800-km drive back to Manitoba from Kennewick, Wash., provided his test results are negative.

His hope is to be in Brandon for practice on Wednesday afternoon.

“I haven’t processed it 100 per cent,” Roberts said. “It’s been a whirlwind. I’m happy, I’m sad, I’m driving around knowing this might be the last time I’m here but then I get to think about all my friends and my grandparents at home. They’re going to get to see me play in the WHL in person for the first time.

“It’s hitting me from both ends.”

The 19-year-old forward has a goal and an assist in eight games this season and five points and 46 penalty minutes in 62 career WHL games.

General manager Doug Gasper likes what the big winger will bring to his injury-riddled forward group.

“Landon is a very competitive young man,” Gasper said. “He’s going to give us some depth up front, which we’ve sorely needed based on injuries and other factors. We like the player that we’re getting. We think he’s really going to help our group and complement the group we have.”

Tri-City made the move due to an overabundance of forwards, according to a quote by Tory on the team’s website.

With the deal, Brandon has 16 forwards on its roster, although that includes two overagers, Marcus Kallionkieli and Eric Pearce, with one almost certain to be released or traded by next weekend as the Wheat Kings meet the league maximum of three 20-year-old players.

Brandon is also without Jake Chiasson, who is expected to miss much of the season with an upper-body injury suffered at Edmonton Oilers camp.

The other forwards currently out due to injury include Ridly Greig, Zakhar Polshakov, Nate Danielson and Jaxon Dube, a list that grew shorter when Kallionkieli and Riley Ginnell returned to action this week.

Incredibly, Brandon has only been able to dress 12 healthy forwards in a game once this season, on Oct. 24 against the Calgary Hitmen, and that’s because it called up affiliate player Teydon Trembecky.

However, there may be some good news soon on the injury front. With six days off between games — Brandon returns to action when they host the Red Deer Rebels on Friday at Westoba Place at 7 p.m. after a 3-1 loss to the Prince Albert Raiders on Saturday — Gasper expects to see some members of his lengthy list of walked wounded to return to action.

“It’s kind of day by day right now but things are looking positive,” Gasper said. “We anticipate having some guys back this week. Again, that’s a little bit out of our control but all indications are that we’ll have a much healthier lineup for next weekend.”

Roberts, who was selected in the sixth round, 129th overall by Tri-City in 2017 and taken 11th overall in that year’s Manitoba Junior Hockey League draft by the Steinbach Pistons, will be the third graduate of the Southwest Cougars under-18 AAA program on the team.

He joins 17-year-old defencemen Owen Harris and Zach Turner.

“He’s pretty excited to get playing back closer to home,” Gasper said. “It also shows you what a loyal player he is. He was a little sad he is leaving Tri-City. It’s the only hockey club he’s known. You really like that loyalty in a young man.

“All the reports I have is that this is a very nice young man who is going to be a great teammate and Brandon Wheat King.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson