WHL NOTEBOOK: McGregor gains confidence with experience

A little experience can go a long way in the Western Hockey League.

Josh McGregor, an 18-year-old Brandonite patrolling the blue-line for the Swift Current Broncos, is finding his second WHL season much simpler than his rookie campaign a year ago.

“It helps a lot,” McGregor said. “Everything just feels easier. You feel more comfortable with players and coaching staff, and being able to make more plays.”

McGregor is among a group of players who made the jump to the WHL from the great under-18 AAA Wheat Kings squad that made it all the way to the Telus Cup final in 2023-24. It includes Brandon Wheat Kings Jaxon Jacobson, Easton Odut, Brady Turko and Vancouver Giants goaltender Burke Hood.

Carberry’s Nolan Saunderson of the Spokane Chiefs has subsequently joined them, while Colten Worthington and Kaeson Fisher are back playing in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League this season.

The lanky six-foot-two, 191-pound McGregor appeared in 63 games with the Broncos in his 17-year-old season as a WHL rookie, contributing four goals, 12 assists and 30 penalty minutes. With that increased confidence in his second year, his role is changing.

“I feel like I’m playing a lot more,” McGregor said. “They trust me to do a lot more this year, I would say.”

He is getting a lot of power-play time and some penalty kill as well.

Broncos head coach Dean DeSilva certainly appreciates what the big defenceman brings to his club.

“Josh is a phenomenal young man, on and off the ice,” DeSilva said. “He takes feedback, he wants to learn, he’s great in the room with the guys, he works extremely hard. There’s a huge ceiling for him. I’ve had a number of people who have asked him for years down the road, and I think he’s developing.

“He needs a couple more years in the league, but the development is going to certainly help him. There is all kinds of opportunity for Josh McGregor down the road.”

McGregor played with Czech defender Marek Ročák early on, but since he was injured, has instead partnered with Jace McFaul and rookie Nathan Gray.

Regardless, his numbers have taken a big jump. In nine games this season, he already has two goals and seven assists.

“It’s pretty nice,” McGregor said. “I’m not too worried about points, but it’s nice to see that.”

“I like to play in the O-zone a lot when I get the chance,” he added.

His one trip to Brandon this season was a 5-4 victory on Oct. 16. He had his parents and a handful of other family members there to take it in, and admitted it’s still special.

“It’s awesome,” McGregor said. “Just playing in that rink, you watch all their games when you’re a kid and you want to play in the league. Once you play in there, it’s just nice.”

It didn’t hurt that he had a big role in the game and was named third star.

He assisted on the opening goal and then put his team up 3-0 early in the second period when he gained possession at the top of the zone, skated to the faceoff dot on the opposite side and wired a shot that Wheat Kings goalie Jayden Kraus got a piece of, but the puck fluttered in over his shoulder into the net.

“I didn’t even really know it went in,” McGregor said. “I shot it and it hit his arm and bounced in over him. I didn’t know if it was going in. I missed my spot too. I was trying to shoot low glove and it ended up high glove.”

He actually earned his first career point in the WHL in Brandon in his rookie season on Oct. 5, 2024, when he assisted a goal by Rylan Gould in a 4-3 shootout victory.

Swift Current is a younger team this season after trading overage stars Grayson Burzynski and Luke Mistelbacher to Brandon, graduating a handful of top players and losing Brandonite Clarke Caswell, Gould and Carlin Dezainde to the college ranks.

Even so, they’re 6-3-0-0 after nine games and sitting in fifth place in the Eastern Conference.

“I think our work ethic is something we do really well,” McGregor said. “I didn’t think we were going to start off this hot. We’ve been pretty good. Our work ethic helps us a lot.”

“Hopefully we make the playoffs and then do some damage,” McGregor added.

His path to Swift Current has had some bumps along the way.

After posting 27 points in 31 games with the under-15 AAA Wheat Kings during the 2021-22 season, he wasn’t selected in the 2022 WHL draft. McGregor opted to spend the next season at the Rink Hockey Academy in Winnipeg, where he had 20 points and 38 penalty minutes in 28 regular season prep games.

He then came back to Brandon for the 2023-24 campaign.

McGregor’s original aim was to play Division 1 college hockey in the United States and he was set to join the Niverville Nighthawks. But Broncos general manager Chad Leslie of Brandon had other plans for the right-shooting defenceman and signed him to a WHL contract.

Last November, when the college ranks opened up to major junior players, McGregor suddenly had the best of both worlds.

“I kind of wanted to go to college last year, so I wasn’t really sure on the Dub route,” McGregor said. “I don’t know why I made my decision. I was going to play in the MJ but last minute I switched up. When that opened up, it was really nice.”

He graduated last spring but isn’t taking any university courses yet, something he may begin next semester.

McGregor received some affirmation he made the right decision on Monday when he was named to Central Scouting’s preliminary players to watch list. He received a ‘W’ rating as a player projected to be a sixth- or seventh-round candidate, along with 17-year-old Spokane Chiefs defenceman Kaden Allan of Hamiota and 17-year-old Wheat Kings forward Jimmy Egan of Stillwater, Minn.

Prince George Cougars defenceman Carson Carels of Cypress River received an A grade, suggesting he is a candidate for the first round, along with four other current WHL players, defencemen Ryan Lin of the Vancouver Giants and Daxon Rudolph of the Prince Albert Raiders, plus forwards JP Hurlbert of the Kamloops Blazers and Mathis Preston of the Spokane Chiefs.

Former WHLers Gavin McKenna (Medicine Hat Tigers) and Keaton Verhoeff (Victoria Royals) also received the nod.

In addition, 17-year-old Wheat Kings defenceman Giorgos Pantelas received a B grade, which indicates players projected to be second- or third-round candidates. In total, 89 players developed in the league earned a ranking.

“That’s nice to see, but I have to keep going,” McGregor said. “I don’t really know how much that list means, but it’s nice to see I’m on there.”

But it is just one more reason he wants to make an impact for Swift Current this season.

“I want to keep playing well and maybe even get drafted to the NHL, hopefully,” McGregor said.

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — There have been 36 drafts since the WHL moved away from simply listing players in 1990. What’s your best guess at how many forwards, how many defencemen and how many goalies have been selected first overall?

There are bonus points if you can name the only Wheat King taken first overall, and also the only Westman player taken with the top pick.

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is 20-year-old Prince George Cougars forward Kooper Gizowski, who had four goals and four assists in a pair of victories, including his first WHL hat trick in a 5-0 win over the Seattle Thunderbirds on Friday and a career-high five-point game against the Tri-City Americans in a 9-3 win on Saturday. The goaltender of the week is Brandon’s Burke Hood of the Vancouver Giants, who won both his starts while making 35 saves against the Wenatchee Wild and 29 against the Medicine Hat Tigers.

The rookie of the week is 17-year-old Russian forward Andrei Molgachev, who had a hat trick and an assist in a 5-0 victory over the Spokane Chiefs on Sunday and also had a goal earlier in the week.

• TRADE FRONT — There were a handful of deals last week involving players for a pick.

On Monday, the Portland Winterhawks sent a conditional fifth-round pick in 2027 and 18-year-old defenceman Kayd Ruedig of Humboldt, Sask., to the Kamloops Blazers for a second-round pick in 2026.

On Thursday, the Seattle Thunderbirds traded overage defenceman Carter Kowalyk of St. Albert, Alta., to the Regina Pats for a seventh-round pick in 2027, and Regina sent overage goalie Kelton Pyne of White City, Sask., to the Vancouver Giants for a sixth-round pick in 2028.

On Friday, the Lethbridge Hurricanes sent 19-year-old defenceman Carson Olsen of Warman, Sask., to the Kamloops Blazers for an eighth-round pick in 2026, and Regina sent 18-year-old defenceman Brayden Smith of Saskatoon to Lethbridge for an eighth-round pick in 2027 and a fifth-round pick in 2028.

• SIN BIN — There have been no suspensions since Oct. 11.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — Cole Reinhardt, 25, made his Vegas Golden Knights debut against the Calgary Flames last Tuesday and then scored against the Boston Bruins on Thursday. He spent five seasons in the Ottawa Senators organization, suiting up for five NHL games. He signed a free agent deal with Vegas on July 1. Reinhardt was Brandon’s ninth-round pick, 198th overall, in 2015. He was one of those players who showed real growth in every one of his four seasons with the club, piling up 141 points in 252 regular season WHL games. He graduated after the 2019-20 season, which was shortened due to the pandemic.

• THE WEEK AHEAD — The Wheat Kings are home again next week, hosting the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Saturday at 6 p.m., and the Moose Jaw Warriors on Sunday at 4 p.m.

• ANSWER — The breakdown by position for the top pick in the WHL draft is 23 forwards, 13 defencemen and no goalies.

The Wheat Kings have had the top choice once, taking Stelio Mattheos in 2014 due to a pick swap in an earlier deal. The only Westman player taken first overall was forward Chris Nielsen of Goodlands, who was grabbed by the Calgary Hitmen.

Nielsen played 320 regular season and playoff games in the WHL and went on to skate in 52 NHL games after being drafted 36th overall by the New York Islanders in 1998. The 45-year-old, who was originally born in Tanzania, is now a surgeon in Toronto.