Bhathal makes incredible progress

If you’ve seen the Brandon Wheat Kings in action this season, you would be forgiven if you thought they acquired a new No. 8 a month ago.

Prabh Bhathal, a 16-year-old rookie forward from Winnipeg, has made a stunning transformation as he got comfortable in the Western Hockey League, and was named the league’s top rookie of the week on Monday.

“The more games you get in this league, the more comfortable you get and the better you get,” Bhathal said. “I’ve been getting a lot more opportunity to prove myself, and that’s also helped me to craft my game a little bit here.”

Bhathal and the Wheat Kings were in action last night in a game that ended after deadline against the Everett Silvertips in the first outing of their trip through the U.S. Division.

The six-foot-two, 202-pound youngster has a goal and 10 assists in 38 games, with four of those points coming in the last four games. But his value extends well beyond his numbers, as his stout forechecking and hockey smarts have allowed him to force repeated turnovers.

Wheat Kings head coach and general manager Marty Murray has certainly noticed. More than 30 years ago, the light also turned on for him around Christmas of his 16-year-old year in Brandon.

“The funnest part of junior hockey is seeing players evolve, especially in the second half,” Murray said. “As a 16-year-old coming into the league, he’s played a position he probably didn’t play — we’ve bounced him back and forth — but he primarily played the wing and he hasn’t played a lot of that.

“It was getting used to that and the speed. He’s always been one of those guys who is bigger and stronger than his peers playing youth hockey and now there’s a little less time, and guys are stronger and he can’t just rely on being strong. He’s figured it out and is playing with a lot of confidence.

“He’s been real good here the last few weeks.”

Prabh and his younger brother Manav were the first-ever hockey players in a family that includes father Vali and mother Harpreet. He quickly took to the sport, and in his minor U15 AAA season in 2022-23, he had 46 goals and 27 assists in 34 games.

As it turned out, the best was about to come in a massive, massive way.

In his 2023-24 draft year with the under-15 AAA Winnipeg Thrashers White, Bhathal exploded for 83 goals, 36 assists, 119 points, and 14 penalty minutes in 32 games. He added two more goals in the playoffs, giving him 85, second all-time behind only fellow Winnipegger and current Jet Jonathan Toews, who had 98 goals in 48 games during the 2002-03 season.

When you add call-ups to the U15 and U18 programs in the regular season plus playoffs, Bhathal had 96 goals and 43 assists in just 51 games.

In his 15-year-old season, Brandon called him up for eight games, and after earning his first assist in his first game, he scored his first goal on Jan. 4, 2025, in a victory over the Prince Albert Raiders. But he also got hurt, and played just 18 games with the U18 Thrashers, scoring 13 goals and adding 10 assists.

Even with all that previous success, the WHL was a completely different beast.

“It’s a pretty big grind,” Bhathal said. “It’s a long season and obviously you play so many games throughout the season and you’re going to be battling through injuries, being sore or whatnot. It’s a lot different from my years in the past.”

He points to things such as speed, skill, strength, size, and smarts as big changes but noted the coaching is also at a different level.

“All of those things are at a much higher level, but something I’ve noticed in particular is how much more video instruction there is in this league compared to leagues I’ve played in the past,” he said. “That’s a big difference from U18 to the junior level.”

His lone goal this season came on a beautiful feed by Jimmy Egan and proved to be the winner in a 3-1 victory over the Saskatoon Blades on Jan. 14.

“When I finally put one in, it was a lot of relief off my shoulders,” Bhathal said. “It just feels like things are coming more naturally now in terms of scoring.”

Murray is hoping it’s a preview of coming attractions as the Winnipegger’s game continues to evolve and progress.

“I think he can be a real dominant power forward,” Murray said. “He’s really shown that he can be strong on the puck and can take pucks to the net and fend off opposing players. He has a good skillset too.

“He’s one of those guys who had a lot of shots early on in the year that were getting sticks on them and going up in the netting or getting deflected out of play, but again, that’s the speed of youth hockey coming into now in the Western Hockey League. Getting pucks off his stick is something we’ll have to continue to work on.

“A real good example of that is Joby Baumuller. He went through that as a 16 year old where they want to drag it a little longer, and it takes that fraction of a second longer to get the puck off their stick.”

Baumuller now leads the team with 31 goals in his 18-year-old season.

Bhathal said the chance to work on his game every afternoon with his teammates and then to play against better players in games has accelerated his progress.

“It’s working in practice on myself stick-handling and protecting the puck longer,” Bhathal said. “Playing as many games as I have in the league, you get into a groove and feel your way into being able to do those kinds of things.”

Off the ice, he said it just took a few weeks to settle into his new life with his billets. And since his family is just down Highway 1, the homesickness some players experience isn’t a problem.

“I get to see them quite a bit, a lot more than maybe some of the guys who live further away,” Bhathal said. “I guess that’s one of the perks of being born in Winnipeg and Manitoba and being drafted to a team that is in Manitoba.”

The team rookies are always in charge of things like cleaning the dressing room, picking up pucks after practice and loading the bus, but Bhathal doesn’t mind. And he doesn’t expect he’ll ever stop helping out with pucks, although the bus is a different matter.

“It’s just one of the things about being one of the younger guys,” Bhathal said. “Everyone has gone through it. In terms of picking the pucks up, that’s just going to remain throughout the rest of my hockey career. If you’re going to stay out longer, you might as well pick up the pucks.

“In terms of loading the bus, you don’t have to do as much and that’s something I’m more thankful of.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com