MJHL season preview: Virden Oil Capitals

After narrowly missing out on a Manitoba Junior Hockey League championship and a trip to the 2026 Centennial Cup last year, the Virden Oil Capitals step into the 2026-27 season hoping to take another step forward.

The Oil Capitals ended the 2025-26 season with a 39-14-3-2 record to sit atop the West Division. Their 83 points put the team third in the league behind Steinbach and Niverville.

They swept the Neepawa Titans in the opening round of the playoffs and moved on to play the Steinbach Pistons in the second round. Six games later, the Oil Capitals were set to play the Niverville Nighthawks in the final.

Niverville swept Virden in the final and went on to win the 2026 Centennial Cup. The loss was disappointing but the season was an unqualified success given that the year before, Virden missed the playoffs entirely.

“You have to be structured, you have to be fast and you have to be willing to be hard. I thought we matched up really well with (Niverville) in that regard in last year’s final,” said Oil Capitals head coach Tyson Ramsey. “We feel like there was a similar type game there, they were just maybe a little better at it than we were, and so, we want to take those things into the season again and we feel like that gives us the best chance to win.”

At the Junior A level, roster turnover is a reality of the game. Every year, players move to different leagues and a new crop of rookies step up to fill their place. Virden, like the rest of the MJHL, will be a different team this season.

FORWARDS

Last year, 2006-born forward Bryce Bryant, 2007-born forward Colten Worthington and 2005-born forward London Hoilett were the top-three scorers on the team, each averaging more than a point-per-game.

Hoilett aged out at the end of the season and Bryant signed with Cowichan in the British Columbia Hockey League. Worthington was released by the Brandon Wheat Kings on Monday afternoon and may be back.

If Worthington returns to Verdin, he would be a huge gain for the team. In him, they’d gain a player who put up just shy of 20 goals while tallying 61 points in 48 games.

They also lost Noel Englot and Marshall Light, who aged out alongside Hoilett.

The gaps left behind by the top-three scorers make room for players like Liam Goertzen, Carson Wright and Brooks Siemens to step up. The three 2006-born players all scored more than 30 points last year and have looked good in preseason.

“Those guys are going to carry the mail for us,” said Ramsey. “We expect them to, and they expect that of themselves.”

Ramsey also noted that he’s been impressed with returner Tyson Draper during preseason action, and hopes his play will carry over into the regular season. In three preseason games, Draper leads the team with six goals and three assists.

While preseason play isn’t prescriptive, it bodes well that going into his third full season in the MJHL Draper is scoring at this level.

In general, while there are holes to fill up front, Virden’s returning forward group is deep enough to show newcomers the ropes. One area Ramsey wants to see improved is the physicality.

“Over the course of the exhibition, we’ve seen that we can get a little bit soft at times,” said Ramsey.

DEFENCE

Nathan Schaefer, who was born in 2006, led all defencemen on the team in points with 46. This year, he returns to captain the team from the back end. With three points in three games during the preseason, all signs point to Schaefer having another productive season.

He’s likely to anchor the team as a leader and point producer. Receiving the “C” shows just how much faith Ramsey and his staff have in the 20-year-old defenceman.

“Nathan Schaefer being our captain is going to be a guy we look to,” said Ramsey.

At the end of last season, Ty Plaisier, Austin Osiowy and mid-season trade acquisition Oliver Schroeder all aged out as 2005-born players.

Lincoln Black-Greaves and Miguel Bonin will return alongside Schaefer with the possibility of receiving elevated roles.

At six-foot-three, Bonin brings the kind of size coaches love on the back end. He only played 26 games for the Oil Capitals last year, scoring one goal and adding seven assists.

Black-Greaves played almost the entire season as a 2008-born player. He also saw action in all 14 of Virden’s playoff games. With a year under his belt, the right-shot defenceman could take a big step forward this year.

There will be a lot of change on defence this year for Virden. With three returnees, more than half of the starting lineup will be new faces.

GOALTENDERS

Last year, the Oil Capitals relied on a tandem of 2005-born Braxton Burdeny and 2007-born Micky Gross between the pipes. While Burdeny got the lions share of the work, Gross got into 22 games and finished the season with a 16-3-1 record as well as a .909 save percentage and a 2.44 goals-against average.

With Burdeny aging out, Gross — who is a Brandon native — will lead whatever tandem Virden puts into action this season.

“Mickey Gross is our returning guy and he’s had a great preseason,” said Ramsey. “(He) went to Wheat Kings’ camp and had a really good camp there and has come back here and done the same.”

Unlike the other positions, one returning goalie is enough for Virden fans to sleep well at night. Gross’ numbers were good last season, and he has two years of eligibility left in the MJHL.

Through five preseason games, Virden has a 3-1-1 record. The team went through an absolute sprint playing five games in six days.

“Exhibition is never easy for anybody,” said Ramsey. “It’s not very structured and then the younger guys are thinking about having to play a little faster, a little heavier, so it’s not an easy thing to do.”

They started the pre-season with a run of three games against Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League teams. They went 1-1 against the Yorkton Terriers and beat the Weyburn Red Wings.

Next, they beat the Portage Terriers 2-1 before losing 4-3 in overtime to them the following night. By that point, the team was pretty much solidified, and Ramsey is satisfied that they will be ready for the regular season.

“We will have some decisions to make, but we’re pretty close to our group now,” said Ramsey at the final exhibition game on Sept. 9. “We’ve got maybe a couple decisions to make, but we like what we see so far.”

The Oil Capitals have the returnees to be a contending team again this season. A lot will depend on the quality of the new players they bring in, but they should be expected to be a fast team that plays a gritty style.

“We found in this league you can have success if your team is able to play fast, and so I think we have that ability,” said Ramsey. “We want to make sure that we’re hard on pucks and not just skating fast, but possessing the puck, and really become a good forechecking team and be able to finish checks.

“I think that’s the way you need to play in this league to win, and I think we certainly have a group to do that.”

»rmccarthy@brandonsun.com